N° 19 INFORMATION BULLETIN (2010) by RevolSocia

“The international capitalist crisis, the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement”

20-22 NOVEMBER 2009, NEW DELHI, INDIA

for providing the English edition.

In this issue contributions by 5 13 17 22 30 33 37 41 46 51 54 59 62 66 69 77 80 86 89 95 100 103 107 112 115 118 122 125 128 132 135 139 142 148 152 156

http://11imcwp.in/

■ Many thanks to Workers’ Party of Ireland

Welcome address Communist Party of Australia Communist Party of Bangladesh Workers’ Party of Belgium Communist Party of Brazil Brazilian Communist Party Communist Party of Britain Communist Party of Canada Communist Party of China AKEL, Cyprus Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Communist Party in Denmark Communist Party of Denmark Communist Party of Finland German Communist Party Communist Party of Greece Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party Communist Party of India Communist Party of India [Marxist] Communist Party of Ireland Communist Party of Israel Party of the Italian Communists Workers’ Party of Korea Lebanese Communist Party Communist Party of Luxembourg Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) New Communist Party of Netherlands Communist Party of Norway Communist Party of Pakistan Portuguese Communist Party Communist Party of Russian Federation South African Communist Party Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain Communist Party of Sweden Communist Party of Turkey Communist Party of USA Communist Party of Vietnam

Documents 159 162

Delhi Declaration Press release

Solidarity statements 163 165

166 167

On Commemorating 25th Anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy On The Cyprus Problem

Parties that participated Redlinks

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

DEAR COMRADES, It gives me immense

Welcome address BY PALLAB SENGUPTA, CP OF INDIA

pleasure to extend warm greetings and hearty welcome on behalf of the leadership of the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) as well as over two million members of the two Indian Communist parties and millions of their supporters to all of you, the representatives of the Communist and Workers Parties from the five continents of the world who are delegates to this eleventh Conference. The Conference assumes special significance as it is being held for the first time in Asia and that too in the historic National Capital of India, Delhi. The venue of this Conference, is one of the ancient cities of India, and has a long and rich history going back nearly three thousand years. In the medieval period, Delhi off and on remained the capital of the ruling dynasties: from Anangpal and Chauhans to the Mughals, the last Indian dynasty. Seven cities of Delhi are famous in Medieval Indian history. Various dynasties kept on changing the site of the capital in Delhi, each Delhi bearing a different name, from Indraprastha of the Mahabharata epic to the Shajahanabad of the Mughal period. No other city in India has so many archeological monuments as Delhi has. As Delhi has remained the seat of power for centuries, it had always been the centre of our political activities. It was here that the people rose in revolt against the British colonizers in 1857, which Karl Marx himself has termed as the First war of Independence. During our freedom struggle Delhi played a significant role and continues to be hub of our political activities.

LIKE BILLIONS OF WORKING PEOPLE the world over suffering from the miseries heaped on by the capitalist system, the Indian people too will be watching the deliberations of this august gathering of the Communist and Workers parties that share a common ideology, the ideology of socialism, of MarxismĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Leninism. Indian people very well realize and appreciate the persistent endeavor, the relentless struggles which they pursue through immense sacrifices and lead militant mass struggles to end the rule of exploitation and to establish a just economic and social order. It was in India that the people elected the Communists to power through the ballot box as long back as 1957, exercising the adult franchise. Still, in three of the Indian states, Communists have been elected to rule. In one of them they have been continuously elected for the past three decades.

THIS IMPORTANT EVENT is taking place against the background of a volatile international situation where people at large are the victims of imperialist aggression, occupation, subjugation as well as a crisis-ridden capitalist economy which is jeopardising the life of common people the world over. We are meeting at a time when world is under the grip of an unprecedented economic crisis, an inevitable outcome of the policies imposed on countries under the garb of imperialist globalization. Capitalism breeds crisis and the current global recession is a systemic crisis of capitalism demonstrating its historic limits. It is acute and all encompassing as the policies imposed in the name of economic neo-liberalism are basically the most naked and barbarous expression of capitalist exploitation. It has demonstrated the sharpening of the main contradiction of capitalism between the social nature of production and individual capitalist appropriation. Now hundreds of thousands of factories are closed. Agrarian and rural economies are under distress. About half a million Indian farmers have been forced to commit suicide since the bourgeois dispensation in our coun-

try swallowed the bait of economic neo-liberalism. Millions of the people have been thrown out of job. Unemployment is growing to unprecedented levels. Inequalities are increasing across the world - the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. One sixth of the world’s population is suffering from hunger pangs. The democratic rights of the people are under severe attack. Despite the propaganda barrage of the bourgeoisie that there is no alternative to economic neo-liberalism and imperialist globalization, people do realize that everything is not lost. Today, the most powerful people’s movement in the world is the one aimed against the capitalist system and for a better world, a world of social and economic justice and socialism. More and more people and forces are coming together to fight the capitalist onslaught. New ways and means are being devised to intensify the struggle for change, for a better world order. “There is an alternative to capitalism” is the battle cry the world over.

OUR GATHERING, the gathering of the parties committed to Socialism provides a ray of hope. People will definitely watch the outcome of this conference with interest and hopes for more intensified struggle by the Communist and Workers parties. The present situation demands the best co-ordination and unity in actions of the communist and workers parties of the world. The joint initiative of hosting this conference by our two communist parties signifies the urge of our toiling masses for much more cohesion, more fraternal closeness, for the intensified struggle for a Change. Once again I extend fraternal greetings and heartiest welcome to all. πB - 1/2010 communist party of India

The Political Resolution adopted at our Par-

Communist Party of Australia BOB BRITON

ty’s recent Congress concludes that the crisis afflicting capitalism is multi-facetted. “The people of the world are not just facing global financial and economic crises and the resultant social consequences, but a food crisis threatening the lives and health of hundreds of millions of people, an environmental crisis threatening the future of life on our planet and the possibility of new wars (including nuclear) and fascism.” This is a sobering assessment. We believe that our conclusions are no exaggeration because capitalism and imperialism ultimately have no solutions to the various crises this system have generated. Throughout its turbulent history, capitalism has resorted to violence and oppression to restore profitability to the capitalist ruling class. The current global situation presents another of these impasses for imperialism and its responses over the past decades display a growing desperation to secure its own future. At the same time, all over the world people are resisting the impacts of neo-liberalism. Capitalism itself is being questioned. People have struggled for change and voted for it in unprecedented numbers. In our country of Australia in 2007, people resoundingly defeated the openly neo-liberal government of Prime Minister John Howard and voted for the social democrat Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd. The trade unions were key to this victory through their leadership of what was called the “Your Rights at Work” campaign. In the US we have witnessed the historic election of a black man to the office of President. In both cases, a change from the neo-liberal past was promised. Prime Minister Rudd has been quick to demonstrate through his actions that the neo-liberal agenda has not been rejected or fundamentally revised. It πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

is also apparent that little has changed as far as the global military and economic ambitions of US imperialism are concerned. People have been encouraged by the thorough-going change being consolidated in Latin America. Progressive governments in the region are having success after success in rebuilding their countries after decades of neo-liberal economic and social devastation. Challenges remain, but progress has been impressive. Movements have been brought together and a powerful alternative to neo-liberalism has been forged. Gains in the battle of ideas, the ideological struggle against capitalism, have also been impressive. The achievements of the socialist countries continue to inspire. Communists are unifiers. We must learn from these experiences and, where we have lagged behind, resume our role of bringing together the many anti-capitalist struggles, pointing out the real enemy of humanity and leading the way to the socialist alternative.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS FROM AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE. Supporters of capitalism are striving to portray the current economic crisis as the result of a series of blunders within the financial system and excessive greed on the part of some individuals. They say it occurred due to a simple lapse in judgement on the part of governments. Stability in future can be assured by restoring some of the regulation over the financial sector that had been abandoned during the era of neo-liberalism. They insist on calling it the Global Financial Crisis – GFC for short. Some of these apologists go as far

as to say that the era of unquestioned and unrestrained market forces is at an end or, at least, should be brought to an end. Australia’s Prime Minister Rudd is typical of this type of reaction. He has said that the practices that led to the crisis have brought us to the edge of an abyss. “Capitalism must be saved from itself,” he said. A Rudd’s statements could lead one to believe that the parliamentary Labor Party is keen to bring about the sort of progressive reforms many people expect from a social democrat government. This is not correct. The complete dismantling of public enterprise and the complete privatisation of public services remain the ultimate objectives of this government and others like it across the globe. A debate is being encouraged to generate support for a voucher system for schools. Public schools have been starved of funds and growing numbers of parents have responded by removing their children from local public schools and placing them in private schools that charge high fees and receive substantial funding from federal and state governments. Parents do not this out of choice but out of fear that their children will be disadvantaged in an increasingly competitive job market or when seeking to enter higher education. A voucher system would involve granting parents an amount of money to spend at the school of their choosing. Any difference between the value of the voucher and the fees charged by the school would be met by the parents. A number of variants have been proposed but this is the essence of the scheme. The Rudd government is imposing tests for measuring outcomes in reading, πB - 1/2010 communist party of Australia

writing and other abilities across all schools. It has just launched a website that has enabled the compiling of lists of the achievement of every school in the country against their narrow benchmarks. Pressure will grow for parents to desert “failing” schools in poorer areas and pay more to attend a private one. Public education will wither and die if these plans are not defeated. There are similar ideas being advanced for health care. Australia has an internationally acclaimed universally accessible public health insurance system – Medicare. The rising cost of hospital care – due chiefly to price gouging monopolies and overpaid private specialists – was used as a pretext for the previous government to introduce a rebate to people taking out private health insurance. Fear, the tool of choice of neo-liberals everywhere, was heightened by the threat to reduce the rebate for people over the age of 30 not taking out one of the prohibitively expensive policies by a certain date. The current government is taking the next step. If their plans come to fruition, Australians will be given an amount (a “voucher”) to spend to get health cover from a private health insurer. The number of procedures considered “basic” would be reduced. Those wanting cover for a wider range of benefits would have to pay extra. At the same time, the federal government is threatening to take over control of hospitals from the states. There will be nowhere to hide from this next wave of privatisation. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which subsidises the cost to patients of a range of more commonly needed medicines, is also under a cloud.

During the decades of neo-liberalism in Australia, the wages share of national production has fallen to record lows. The share going to profits is at a record high. Unless they are defeated, the global economic crisis will be used by employers to prevent an improvement in the position of workers. The government will use it to defend cuts in social spending. The massive amounts of public money used to prop up the financial system and stimulate the corporate sector will be taken from public services. The Australian government used a corporations first approach intervention in the economic crisis, not a people first one. Trade unions will have to fight to restore pay and conditions sacrificed during the worst of the downturn, when inventories were full and order books were empty. This will be difficult. The repressive anti-union legislation passed by former ultra-conservative Howard Government largely remains intact but under a new name. It is true there is now more scope for collective rather than individual labour contracts but the essence of the so-called WorkChoices is still in place. There is still a secret police force – the Australian Building and Construction Commission – monitoring building sites, targeting trade unionists as they go about their work of organising properly paid, safe jobs. An Adelaide building working is currently facing a charge of refusing to attend an interrogation session about a workplace safety meeting. A conviction would mean six months in prison for this worker. Workers have suffered huge losses in the value of their individual compulsory superannuation (retirement savings) through exposure to πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

the share market and other financial dealings and the international property market. The federal government’s response to the latest economic crisis followed the pattern established world-wide. Banks and other financial institutions were given government guarantees. Short term programs involving public and private infrastructure were set in motion. Citizens were given cash payments and encouraged to spend them in order to stimulate the economy. State governments responded by cutting their budgets, increasing charges and fast-tracking the sell-off of public assets. Wages fell in many instances or were frozen. Many workers had their working hours reduced and jobs were lost, particularly in manufacturing. Officially, unemployment has risen to 5.8 per cent (although the actual figure is much higher). This figure has been kept relatively low by underemployment and casualisation of the labour force. Some trade unions negotiated shorter hours and wage reductions for workers and in other cases employers have imposed them as a means of reducing sackings. Most commentators agree that the net effect so far of the stimulus package was to shore up economic activity. The conservative opposition says less should have been spent and that stimulus spending should now stop. It is clear that the government will not be able to go further and further into debt without consequence. Interest rates are on the rise again. Most observers also acknowledge that the greatest advantage currently enjoyed by the Australian economy, the one that has shielded it from far

worse consequences is the strong demand for resources from developing countries, China in particular.

HOLDING FAST TO FAILED STRATEGIES. In fact, Australia’s foreign policy is now grounded in a bizarre contradiction. Now that our manufacturing base is shrinking and agricultural exports decline in relative importance, the survival of our economy is reliant on continued demand from socialist China. At the same time, through the enduring US alliance, the Australian government is locked into the global strategy of the US which includes the encircling of China and the undermining of the rising economic power. Australia is taking a more prominent role in imposing free trade agreements and in other ways interfering in the affairs of the island nations of the Pacific. These measures are designed to secure advantages for Australian and US transnational corporations and prevent the growth of relations between these countries and China. Australia has supported US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The government plans to massively increase its spending by $300 billion over the next ten years – $104 billion in the next four years – on so-called defence spending. At present it stands at less than $30 billion per year. Orders are in for submarines, warships, Aegis missiles, Joint Strike Fighters – weapons with capabilities far beyond any need to defend our country. They are being bought at great cost in services foregone by the community to assist the US confront a new reality – a multi-polar world with groupings like the πB - 1/2010 communist party of Australia

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BRIC (the growing economic ties between Brazil, Russia, India and China) and ALBA, for example, choosing to move forward without the involvement or dominance of US imperialism. The US is unable to prevent the spread of this movement for independence from US imperialism despite its most strenuous efforts but it remains an enormously powerful military force. The instability cause by frustrated ambitions, declining prestige and enormous firepower (including a nuclear arsenal) is clear and frightening.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEAD END. The Australian people are very concerned about the quickening pace of climate change. We are very vulnerable given the precarious nature of water resources in the southern part of our country and the fact that over 80 per cent of our people live in relatively low lying coastal areas susceptible to rises in sea levels. One of our major food-bowls – the Murray Darling river system and its irrigated farmlands – is under threat from low rainfall, overuse of water resources, diminshing flows and increased salinity. The Rudd Government signed the protocol but the role of the government since has been driven by the desire to protect powerful economic interests. It has worked with the US and Japan to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a political agreement and has failed to commit to serious reductions in carbon emissions. Australia’s Parliament is set to vote on an Emissions Trading Scheme shortly so that its representatives can take it to Copen-

hagen in December and claim our country to be a responsible global citizen. However, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme proposed pays for the worst polluters (like the mostly corporate-owned coal-fired electricity generators) to continue their current practices. Negotiations with the conservative forces in Federal Parliament, will most likely lead to a further weakening of the national response. Huge amounts of public money are being spent on research into “clean coal” even though most experts are pessimistic about its chances of success. Australians are concerned about the long term dangers and costs of nuclear power. They do not want a nuclear power industry and are not convinced that it provides part of the solution to the challenge of global warming. They favour increased use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power but at present there is pressure being built up in the media to consider nuclear power. The government has lifted restrictions on the number of uranium mines and a rapid expansion of mining – mostly on the traditional lands of the Aboriginal people – has begun. Off the northwest coast of Western Australia there has been a boom in oil and gas exploitation which has now shown itself to be a threat to the marine environment and the livelihoods of fishermen in the region. The leak from the West Atlas rig has only just been capped. It had been spewing out the equivalent of at least 400 barrels of crude oil every day since early August. The Australian government has done its best to minimise concern so that exploration and production will continue at the same frantic pace. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

DEVELOPING THE POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE. The government is determined to pursue neo-liberal policies and is resisting demands from the people for responsible, sustainable alternatives that preserve peace, provide jobs and a liveable environment. The CPA foresees real change will come with the advent of a government of a new type made up of an alliance of left and progressive forces including the CPA. The Party is seeking to lead the forces for change inside and, most crucially, outside the parliament. Necessary anti-monopoly policies include: Nationalisation of key industries privatised during recent decades â&#x20AC;&#x201C; electricity, the national airline, telecommunications and so on The establishment of a publicly owned peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bank and the creation of a national superannuation (retirement) fund. Funds invested should be used to advance socially needed projects An end to the massive state subsidies to wealthy private schools and private health insurance companies. Investment in public services An independent foreign policy Increased spending on public housing and public transport An immediate cut of 10 percent in military spending Tough limits on carbon emissions and much increased spending on alternative, renewable energy sources The restoration of democratic rights including trade union rights removed in recent times and real progress towards land rights for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Many of these demands are already popular but, it must be pointed out, expectation of their achievement is low. The Australian working class has been subjected to decades of an ideological onslaught that attacks collectivism, promotes hedonistic self-interest and instils fear of others. Left forces are now small and disunited. The left forces within the Australian Labor Party are weak. Under the present two party system, the conservative Coalition is the only likely alternative to take over government at present. The Greens have been enjoying growing support but increasingly are viewing themselves as a third parliamentary force with no need to form alliances with other left or progressive forces. They do work with other organisations at the grass roots on community and environmental issues and have given support to the trade union movement. The trade union movement has been beaten down ideologically following a decline in the influence of our Party in trade union affairs and has had its ability to resist employer pressures curtailed by successive layers of restrictive legislation. Racism towards our Aboriginal people and to refugees has been fanned. The elected national Aboriginal representative body was abolished. The government has intervened to limit critical voices in academia and on the national broadcaster. This is our current challenging reality. For all that, hope for change among workers and other exploited people persists. And in case it should ever be mobilised by more intolerable conditions and an effective leadership, the ruling class is Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Australia

ready. Even before the events of September 11, 2001 in the US, the Australian government was restricting the rights of people using pretexts such as security at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. The military was empowered to intervene in civilian matters and authorised to shoot to kill. In the wake of 9/11, the pace of this sort of change quickened. Our internal security organisation ASIO was transformed into a fully fledged secret police force with the power to detain people not even suspected of being involved in a terrorist act without charge and potentially for long periods. They can be interviewed without access to a lawyer of their choosing. Membership lists, diaries, mobile phones and other material can be demanded with non-compliance punishable by up to five years in prison. ASIO can legally hack into computers and tap phones. All this was justified by the “war on terror” and outrages like the September 11 and the Bali bombing of October 2002, which claimed 88 Australian lives. Criminality in motorcycle gangs is a new pretext for a further erosion of people’s civil rights. Organisations and not the specific criminal activity are targeted by these new laws being imposed by state after state throughout Australia. Members of named gangs are prevented from associating with one another or face lengthy jail terms. The potential for future abuse of this type of legislation is plain and adds to an already formidable assault on long-held democratic rights of our people.

THE ROLE OF COMMUNISTS and the workers’ movement in Australia I have men-

tioned previously the effects of the decades-long ideological struggle on attitudes in the labour movement. Some of this arisen from direct financial measures imposed by the government. Workers’ compulsory retirement savings are invested in shares. Australia now has the highest rate of share ownership in the world and workers now must worry about the state of the share market. This strengthens the influence of the employers’ thinking in the mind of the worker. Workers, particularly young workers, are less interested in joining unions or working class parties in order to protect their interests. This is the practical side of the ideological challenge facing our Party and it is on these sorts of questions that we can inject a working class perspective. I expect many participants will have similar accounts of conditions in their respective countries. I look forward to hearing of Parties’ experience and achievements in resisting the forces oppressing the people of our countries. I must be frank and explain that, while our Party is the object of increased public attention since the onset of the economic crisis and has enjoyed a modest increase in our membership, we are still a small Party. We have some influence in a narrow range of trade unions and in the peace movement. This influence is growing but remains small. We have a weekly newspaper which is respected and has a large number of online readers but its circulation in hard copy is still far too small. Our presence in local government is minimal and we have no parliamentary representatives. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Our most pressing task is to restore our Party to its former influence but in the course of doing that we must refine our ability to work with others, to unite around the many issues confronting workers and other exploited people in the community. Our most valuable contribution at this stage will be to bring our ideological perspective to these struggles â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a perspective flowing from our analysis and activity. Our recent 11th Party Congress stressed the need for greater professionalism in the campaigning we undertake and redouble our efforts in the area of political education.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Australia

COMRADE

Communist Party of Bangladesh MANZURUL AHSAN KHAN

PRESIDENT, Members of the Presidium, Leaders of the Communist and Workers Parties.I bring warm revolutionary greetings from the Communist Party of Bangladesh to all who have gathered here, representing the most powerful movement, fighting along with other progressive forces, for the emancipation of mankind, for a free society of free men and women. This traditional international meeting of Communists, against the backdrop of the dissolution of the Socialist Soviet Union and the setbacks in Eastern Europe, when the idea of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;end of historyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; was floated, has been able to unite communists around the world to evaluate the changing situation, reinvigorate their movement, unite and continue their fight for peace, freedom, progress and socialism. While attending this 11th International Meeting we are witnessing the most severe and deepest crisis of Capitalism in the United States, and meltdown of a global scale. Plunder and war, militarization, the arms trade (overt and covert), gambling, the machination of the multinationals, speculations in the currency markets, and overwhelming chaos is turning the world into a huge casino. The fundamental contradiction of capitalism is blowing up with catastrophic impact. It is capitalism that will cause the end of civilization unless it is overthrown. The capitalist system will not change automatically. It has to be overthrown by conscious struggle of the working class, toiling people, and the broad masses, led by the communists, left and progressive forces People in the USA and other countries want change, real change. Capitalism is responding to the crisis by mobilising public resources to bail out and strengthen private corporate power. Losses are being socialised while privatization of profit continues. Unemployment, hunger, disease,

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

homelessness and insecurity of people continue to increase. Imperialism not only exploits people in their own country, but continues to plunder developing countries, including their natural resources. And to achieve this imperialism is trying to impose its economic, political and military hegemony in different parts of the world. Pressure, intrigue, assassination, blockade, military intervention, occupation or genocide, nothing seems to be unethical for US imperialism and its allies. Bangladesh achieved its independence in 1971 after an armed liberation struggle. Just before our victory the US 7th fleet, armed with nuclear weapons, was rushed to the Bay of Bengal to crush our movement but failed. Ever since our independence US imperialism has done everything from food-diplomacy leading to famine, conspiracy, assassination and support for unconstitutional, autocratic and military governments. The socalled open market economy, privatization and structural reform dictated by the World Bank and IMF gang has resulted in de-industrialisation, huge unemployment, pauperization, hunger and poverty. Imperialism did not hesitate to support communal and religious fundamentalist forces including Jamate Islami, and many of its outfits operating in the open or underground, extreme right wing elements and autocratic forces to bring about the fall of governments and install governments of their choice who could fully serve US interest. It was the machination of the US and its allies which brought an army-backed caretaker Government to power in Bangladesh on 11 January 2007, who ruled the country for two years instead of three months in ut-

ter violation of the constitution. The failure of the bourgeoisies parties to ensure minimum good governance to ensure the stability of the capitalist system, compelled their masters to promote a policy of de-politicisation and to look for a third alternative from amongst the so-called civil-society and the civil and military bureaucrats trained in the West and with work experience in Breton-Woods institutions. However the project failed due to the struggle of the workers, peasants, students, democratic and left progressive forces. Elections to the Parliament were held in December 2008. The newly elected Government has to face the challenges caused by economic melt-down. Basic shifts are required in the policies dictated by the World Bank and the West which has led to unbridled price hikes, closure of factories, unemployment, hunger, poverty and lack of the basic amenities of life The religious fundamentalists and terrorist killers, defeated forces of the liberation war of 1971, extreme right wing elements, and the war criminals are now trying desperately to create chaos and anarchy in the country and opening the path for foreign intervention. Historically, the war criminals of 1971 are the natural allies of the most notorious war criminal of the present day world - the US Government. The USA is putting all kinds of pressure on Bangladesh so that the US and its allies, and the MNCs, can plunder our oil and gas in the land and the sea, our coal mines, ports and other resources. The geopolitical situation of Bangladesh, bordering China, Myanmar, Nepal and India, particularly its sensitive north-eastern zone, and the Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Bangladesh

Bay of Bengal has made it the focal point of US strategy in the region. Imperialism is also provoking tension and clashes between countries in the region. We express deep concern at the news of military mobilization between the borders of Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, China, Nepal and Pakistan. The US Navy has recently stepped up its military manoeuvres in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. The US is doing everything to contain China. Bangladesh has already been entangled with the USA and almost a dozen secret treaties were signed between the two countries which greatly undermines the sovereignty and interest of Bangladesh. The US is putting pressure on Bangladesh to sign agreements like TIFA, HANA etc. which will jeopardize our independence. Our party firmly believes that countries of this region must not fall into the trap of imperialists. We must resolve our disputes in a peaceful manner. We should unite and build up all-round cooperation for development, share our common rivers, combine our efforts to make a comprehensive plan for the development of our water basins, and ensure mutual trust and cooperation. We should unite to resist attempts to impose US hegemony in the region. The Communist Party of Bangladesh is fighting in the forefront against the imperialist conspiracy in the region and its effort to plunder our natural resources. Today, nuclear arms pose a grave danger to human existence. The number of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction continues to grow. Militarisation is leading to war and conflict. The security of states and people is being threatened. As a result we

can see the emergence of police states or hard states. Fundamental human and democratic rights and freedoms are being curtailed and a senseless and endless situation of confrontation and war is being precipitated. We have to mobilize broad forces of peace to step up the global struggle for complete disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament, and continue to fight against war and occupation. Mankind faces grave dangers of environmental degradation and climate change. The very existence of human beings and all life forms is being threatened. Capitalism’s unbridled lust for profit, its culture of consumerism, senseless extravagance and wastefulness etc. are responsible for this situation. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. We are approaching ecological catastrophe in Bangladesh and elsewhere. We must drastically reduce carbon emission. We must switch over to renewable energy, eco-friendly development. No energy war but an energy revolution. It is high time to stop destruction in the name of development. The bourgeoisie will never place people before profit. It is not because they are good or bad. It is because of the social and economic category they represent, the narrow interest they uphold. Communist Parties should be in the vanguard of the struggle against environmental degradation and climate change. More than a century back Marx said: “man lives on nature… Man is part of nature”. Engels warned against winning victories over nature and its degradation. He wrote: “Let us not however flatter ourselves over much on account of victories over nature. For each such victory it πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

(nature) takes revenge.” Nothing could be more important than to save life, nature and the earth, our common habitat. Nothing should stop the working class and toiling people from fighting imperialist and capitalist exploitation. New stratum and social forces are coming forward in the struggle for emancipation. Global mass movements are developing on various issues affecting wide sections of peoples’ struggle against imperialist hegemony and aggression. Huge mass movements against Capitalist exploitation, discrimination, inequality, the gap between poor and rich, the struggle against war, for peace, freedom, democracy, fundamental human rights and people’s wellbeing, and the struggle against environmental degradation and climate change are converging in great waves of popular movements which ultimately challenge the very foundations of capitalism. Communist and progressive forces have achieved victories in different parts of the world. Anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, left and popular governments are coming to power in Latin America and other places. A fierce struggle is going on. There are no straight roads to socialism. Varied social forces and unique elements are coming to the fore with ideas which may not always conform to some of the prevailing thoughts amongst us. Many such ideas are amended through practice. Communist Parties are armed with the theories of Marxism-Leninism and Proletarian Internationalism, a theory which has stood the test of time. Communists are not dogmatists. While adhering to its ideology, communists should act positively to unite all left progressive and popular democratic forces for a common cause

for social and economic justice, equality and the wellbeing of humanity. Communists all over the world have to forge effective unity and act globally while also fighting together at the regional and national level. Thank you, and thanks to the CPI and CPIM and other parties who have organized and hosted this great event.

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Bangladesh

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS is getting deeper.

Workers’ Party of Belgium BAUDOUIN DECKERS

When the financial crisis broke out at the end of 2008 it brought about a world-wide crisis of the economy. This was inevitable. Indeed, the financial crisis is rooted in a structural crisis of over-production which has been worsening in successive waves since the first years of the seventies. As Marxists, we know that it is tightly linked to the production mode of the capitalist system. Such a thesis has been developed time and again, at the International Communist Seminar of May 2009 among other platforms, as is attested by the Declaration which was endorsed there. Since then, a number of banks and companies have been registering gains again. The slightest signs of recovery are bringing about convulsive movements of euphoria on the stock exchange. Various organisations within the capitalist world are issuing rather optimistic health reports: the disease seems to be as good as warded off. Judging from what they say, the world will not be confronted with a repeat of the years ’29 and ’30 of the past century. Can it be surmised that capitalism is in a position to really surmount its crises? The capitalist States have used their entire financial arsenal of weapons in order to avoid a long-lasting depression. The relief provided by states to the major capitalists has reached unheard of limits. At world level, they have spent more than US $2,000 billion in order to rescue banks from bankruptcy. In Belgium alone, $20 billion was spent. States have provided guarantees in order to restore confidence, both between banks and at investors’ level. They have intervened massively in order to buy back obligations and toxic credits. These enormous efforts (which will have to be paid for by the population…) have

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

given a certain result, temporarily, contrary to what happened after â&#x20AC;&#x2122;29. We are coming out of a period of recession and re-entering one of slow growth, though at a much lower level than a year ago. A sharp rise in unemployment will nevertheless remain the outstanding feature of the coming months and years. There is an excess of capacity and the period of restructuring, liquidation of capital and rationalization is only starting. No investments are being made for the time being, except for take-overs and restructuring. The slight recovery is mostly due to the reconstitution of stocks. In Belgium, the Bureau du Plan foresees an increase of 175,000 in unemployment between 2008 and 2011. This is equivalent to over 200,000 if the growth of the active population is to be taken into account. In the US, the unemployment rate has overshot the 10% mark for the first time since 1983. As a result of the sharp increase in unemployment, pressure on salaries will be maintained (which in turn reinforces the weakening of purchasing power). Recovery will remain weak, very hesitant and unstable As a result of job losses, income decreases, and scarcity of loans, consumption has dropped and savings are on the increase. The financial risks (banks) are far from being eliminated, the possibility of new crashes cannot be excluded. Suffice it to refer to the bankruptcy of the DSB Netherlands bank and to that of the American CIT, which rates fourth in importance in the history of the US.

A large amount of toxic products are still present in the financial markets. Moreover, the economic crisis is now taking its toll on banks as well, since the latter have more and more to deal with debtor companies in default. This situation encourages the central banks to pursue their low interest-rate policies. Massive intervention by the central banks amounts to massive minting which, in turn, could result in a very significant inflation rate. States have run into debt more than ever before in order to save the banks and the big companies. The budgetary deficits are exceeding all norms. The dismantlement of services and public enterprises is speeding up, once again the health care and education budgets are affected. Plans for savings (cutbacks) or an increase in various taxes are going to burden the household income even further. In order to re-establish their benefits and counter the danger of inflation, the capitalists have resorted to perceptible cuts in salaries and an increase in productivity. In the US, the wage cost per unit produced has gone down by 3.4% in the third quarter of 2009. All this is not going to make it easy to get out of the crisis.

A RELAPSE CAN CERTAINLY NOT BE EXCLUDED. Consumption in the US is not pulling the world economy anymore, and there is no one to replace it for the time being. The Chinese economy still shows the highest growth rate (between 7% and 8%). However, it cannot replace American consumption as the driving power of the world Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; party of Belgium

economy. The Chinese GDP is only one-fifth of the American GDP. Furthermore, consumption in China reaches only 35% of the GDP, while in the US, it reaches 70%. We may say, by way of conclusion, that both the plans to boost the economy and the use of economic stimulation have got us out of the predicament, but it should be stated that all these measures are very temporary. The financial and economic crisis gives an impetus to a new world order After their victory over revolution in 1989, the great imperialist powers believed they could ensure global control by militarist policies. In fact, their attacks on Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have deepened the gap between them and the rest of the world. The financial crises in Asia in 1997, Latin America in 1998 and globally in 2008-2009 increasingly discredit the free market system itself. The antisocial measures dictated by the IMF or the WB further discredit the free market system. For it is precisely that system which is pushing much of the world’s economies to the brink. Meanwhile, Asia and Latin America, countries with socialist regimes like China or Cuba, nationalist-progressive regimes like Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and others, or emerging powers like India have managed to break the yoke of total dependence and underdevelopment in which imperialism had locked them up for over a century. China and Cuba and other emerging countries have become powerful levers of a new world order. There is indeed a long way still to go. But nobody can doubt the inevitable decline of imperialism.

Already the dollar is being widely questioned as an international currency. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and renowned professor of economics spoke recently of “a worldwide battle over ideas over what kind of economic system is likely to deliver the greatest benefit to the most people. Nowhere is that battle raging more hotly than in the Third World, among the 80% of the world’s population that lives in Asia, Latin America and Africa. In much of the world the battle between capitalism and socialism still rages. They are increasingly convinced that any economic ideals America may espouse are ideals to run from rather than embrace.” [1]

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS. Capitalism is not only discredited because of the economic disasters into which it plunges the world, but also by its complete failure to respond to that other major crisis: the one that threatens life itself on our planet. The “United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has recently submitted to the G20 a document entitled “Global Green New Deal”. The first sentence of that document says exactly what it is: “In response to the financial and economic crisis, UNEP has called for a ‘Global Green New Deal’ for reviving the global economy… while simultaneously accelerating the fight against climate change”. Environmental technologies, according to this report, must primarily serve to revive the global economy, the market economy. There are certainly im-

[1] Vanity Fair, Joseph E. Stiglitz, July 2009 πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

mense opportunities for capital seeking investment and this will contribute to some economic recovery. Since however the economic criterion is dominant, it automatically limits the scope for saving our planet. It was this unlimited pursuit of profit which led both to the financial and economic crisis and to the disastrous situation of our environment. It is not private capital seeking ever greater profits which will be able to resolve the immense environmental crisis in which our planet is plunging. History has shown that capitalism can only overcome its crises by, each time, destroying immense productive forces. “During the depression of the 1930s it was not the ‘New Deal’ that saved capitalism from languishing but the Second World War. We are facing a period of sharpened contradictions, with capital becoming more aggressive. This risks leading to new armed conflicts.”[2]

OUR TASKS AS COMMUNIST PARTIES. Everywhere workers are active and protesting. Some worry that class struggle is lagging behind in face of the scale of capitalist crises. We must remember that it was not in 1929 that the most important struggles of the working class took place, but some years later. It is only when workers feel the full weight imposed on them by governments and employers that they react. In addition, we must not underestimate the void left by the counter-revolution. In 1930, [2] Declaration on the Economic Crisis, 18th International Communist Seminar, Brussels, 1517 May 2009

workers saw that socialism in the USSR was the alternative. Today, workers are increasingly losing confidence in capitalism, but they do not see what to oppose to it. The European Left Party persist in defending a left reformist position, an updated version of social democracy. Obtaining partial improvements within the current system is already sufficiently ambitious. We will never collaborate with these attempts to bind workers to capitalism and imperialism. It’s up to us to help both blue-collar and white collar workers, as well as the unemployed, students and self-employed to realize that this is not our crisis, but that of capital. That the fundamental problem is the private ownership of the major means of production, combined with the continuous search for higher profits by the few holders of big capital. Only a truly socialist economy, planned by the workers’ state can ensure that production is determined by the needs of the masses and not by profits for a minority. This understanding does not pass so easily today in our imperialist countries. It is no good whining about this, for we know the reasons: the overthrow of socialism in the USSR and the increasing stranglehold of a few large monopolies in the media. We must start with reality and discover the ways in which workers can now move in an anti-capitalist direction. We have decided to walk on two legs. On the one hand, we want to get rid of rigidity and dogmatism in our mass work: we must start from what people understand today: correct demands for which they are πB - 1/2010 workers’ party of Belgium

prepared to act - whatever the level - and support and help develop the struggles they undertake. For example, we are currently engaged in a major campaign for a tax on millionaires, a tax that would hit the 72,000 Euro-millionnaire families in Belgium. Compared to the population, it is the largest number in the European Union. Taxing the very rich is a claim that has already met with some support in various trade union circles.... But bourgeois political circles claim it is absurd and “unrealistic”.... We are also advocating a reduction of VAT on energy, from 21% - the current rate – to 6%. We have already collected over 200,000 signatures and we will continue this campaign as long as the measure has not been applied. I could give you a much longer list of demands or actions that we undertake and which are at a level people can engage with. The danger of turning to the right of course exists. ... This would be a real risk, if we did not also walk on the other foot: the strengthening of Marxist-Leninist education in our party, through party schools and our theoretical journal and through open conferences. We must strengthen the revolutionary communist movement. This requires deepening our understanding and our Marxist critique of capitalism, in struggle with reformist and social-democratic ideas. This requires that we strengthen our cooperation at this level. We also share more experiences in organizing the masses, and organization of our own Communist parties, as well as our experience in tactics. All our work must be based on scientific socialism.

But it is clear that the specific response to typical problems of our time will not be found as such in these messages. It can arise only from the scientific assessments we make of our experiences.

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

THE DELEGATION of the Communist Party of

Communist Party of Brazil JOSE REINALDO CARVALHO

Brazil greets the host Parties – the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India and thank them for the magnificent conditions created for the organization of the meeting. We also greet all the fraternal delegations who are attending this meeting and express our conviction that this 11th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties will be successful.

1- Nowadays the world is living through the worsening of class and national contradictions. The historical limits of capitalism are made evident and the abyss that separates capitalism and imperialism from the aspirations of humanity is clearer now. The interests of the workers and those of the monopoly bourgeoisie, of the peoples and those of imperialism are irreconcilable, making the struggle for a new international order and a new economic and social system – socialism - indispensable and urgent. The capitalist system and the neo-liberal model which has existed over the last decades have reached an insurmountable stalemate, making a mockery of their advocates and followers. 2- The outbreak of the economic and financial crisis of capitalism confirmed the argument of the communists who had always pointed out the fragility of the underpinnings of the cycle of capitalist expansion, and the vanity of the illusions created and spread by the opportunists about the ability of the capitalist system to regenerate itself and usher in a new era of progress. 3- The current crisis, the most serious since the Great Depression of 1929, has a systemic and structural nature, manifests itself in the financial and productive spheres, and is driven by determinations associated πB - 1/2010 communist party of Brazil

with the very nature of capitalism. The opinion that this is a fleeting crisis, caused by incidental or unexpected factors, poor financial management, or the lack of regulatory mechanisms is false.

to ensure control over the region’s natural resources; it is directly related to the strategic objectives of the United States of perpetuating the primacy of its interests and imposing its hegemony.

4- Workers’ rights and the national interests of the peoples and nations that struggle for their independence and development have been hit hard. The so-called counter-cyclical policies further squander public finances, and are intended to save the system from bankruptcy. The current crisis is intertwined with the erosion of the United States economy and the deterioration of the dollar as the international monetary standard. It is also intertwined with the food, energy, and environmental crises. It reflects not only the demise of neo-liberalism and the failure of governmental policies by governments at the service of the big monopoly groups and the financial capital, but is the absolute manifestation of the failure of capitalism, the most crystal-clear evidence of its contradictions.

6- The international situation is strongly marked by the implementation of the restructuring plan for the Greater Middle East, through which the United States, under the pretext of democratizing the region, intends to shape docile and submissive regimes to facilitate the accomplishment of its strategic objectives of dominating this important region, rich in energy resources. A fullyfledged offensive, it extends over Northern Africa and Central Asia, where Pakistan appears as an important source of conflicts and a vulnerable area for North-American intervention. Much more serious was the criminal Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people living in the Gaza Strip, an aggression better described as genocide and a heinous crime against humanity, which was condemned by the peoples of the world, democratic nations, and the UN itself. Despite the conciliatory words of the United States President Barak Obama, the Middle East is still a tense and explosive situation, and no sign has been given that another policy will be applied in the region. Strictly, nothing has changed in Israel’s intent to shape docile and submissive regimes, under the pretext of democratizing the region, in order to facilitate the accomplishment of its domination-driven strategic objectives. The Israeli Zionist State, especially after the constitution of yet another rightwing government, increases its arro-

5- The world became more dangerous, unsafe and unstable. The militarization of the planet developed, with the multiplication of military bases, the expansion of NATO to the East, with the reassertion of a new strategic concept that consists in institutionalizing the presence of this aggressive pact in conflicts outside the original area of influence, and with the creation of the 4th Fleet, which was clearly intended as a form of intimidation against the progressive and revolutionary governments of Latin America and the Caribbean. The 4th Fleet was also intended

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

gance, intransigency and aggressiveness. It no longer disguises its expansionist purpose and the objective of transforming Israel into an ethnic, religious and Integralist (ethnically exclusive) state, which entails banning the Palestinian people from their own land. Israel denies, in principle, recognition of the free, sovereign and independent Palestinian State, with its capital in Jerusalem and its own army. It behaves intransigently with regard to the repatriation of refugees, on which there is a United Nations resolution. Israel systematically disrespects and violates international law and UN resolutions concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict, such as Resolution 242, which mandates a full Israeli retreat from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967. Israel’s aggressiveness targets other Arab countries as well. In 2006, its air force systematically bombed Lebanon, in another war in which Israel committed genocide. A most delicate problem in the Middle East crisis is the ongoing occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights territories.

7- Ever more evident are the signs of the gradual and progressive decline of United States imperialism, The United States has lost relative weight with regard to its share of the world’s GDP, though still ranking first as the world’s richest country. US hegemony is also challenged by the deterioration of the role of the US dollar, the reduction of the United States’ relative position in international trade, its dependence on foreign capital, and by the country no longer being a net exporter of capital. These facts were highlighted at our Party’s 11th Congress. Also indicative of this decline are the political and military defeats

suffered by the United States in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and of its ally, Israel, in Lebanon and in Palestine; the political and diplomatic defeat in relation to Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Syria; and the colossal loss of influence in a region that was once considered its backyard: Latin America. This decline, with its counterpart in China’s vertiginous rise, is part of a set of far-reaching, broad, and deep geopolitical, and international relations changes, which ushers in a new period of uncertainties, transitions, and conflicts. The immediate post-Second World War institutional framework, which also corresponded to the Cold War period, does not suit the contemporary world. The decline of the North-American superpower, the emergence of new forces whose weight has to be reckoned with in the international arena, inter-imperialist contradictions, all give rise to a new and complex picture and mark the appearance of new tasks for the progressive and revolutionary forces, the workers and the peoples, whose struggle can benefit from the development of such economic and geopolitical contradictions.

8- On the whole, by means of various and complementary mechanisms, the continental integration advances, whose strategic driver is the shaping of a Southand Latin-American pole of sovereign countries with shared national projects. The Brazilian people take great interest in the furtherance of this process, for a united and integrated Latin America allows Brazil and its neighbors, jointly, to position themselves to face the contradictions stemming from a world in transition. πB - 1/2010 communist party of Brazil

9- There are many factors acting counter to the exercise of world domination by the United States: the emergence of China, Russia, Brazil, and India; the appearance of non-aligned, and even opposing, regional blocs with regard to the positions of the United States; and inter-imperialist contradictions within the European Union, namely Germany and France. A new framework is being shaped, the fruit of social and geopolitical contradictions. The situation as it is unfolding, whose most dynamic features are the class and anti-imperialist struggles waged by the workers, the peoples, and the nations that are fighting for their sovereignty and independence, brings about changes toward multi-polarity. The present situation is promoting the rise of new countries to the condition of economic powers, which can claim autonomy from the US and are willing to fight for a new international order. Such objective development further incite interimperialist disputes and rivalries. That does not mean, however, that a democratic transformation of international relations is under way. The brutal force of the United States is still hegemonic, and there are no signs that the superpower is willing to cede power either to the peoples and nations that are fighting for sovereignty and social progress or to competing powers. It is an illusion to assume that the world is spontaneously transiting between uni-polar power and multi-polarity, and that simply because a presidential team has changed, it will shift from a bellicose, militarist, security-driven, and unilateral policy to a democratic and multilateral policy based on cooperation and peace.

Imperialism’s concrete initiatives have moved in another direction, despite the change in rhetoric and tactics. The scenario that is evolving is one of great conflicts for the re-division of areas of influence and power across the world. Just as Lenin said, in politics imperialism tends toward reaction and war. Imperialism has no inclination for Peace. The communists fight for a profound overhauling of the correlation of forces, not by mere arrangements in the balance of power between the world powers. The world of democracy and peace, of international law, and of cooperation between nations will only be possible if the social correlation of forces is also altered in each country and region. Changes in the factors of cooperation and rivalry between the imperialist powers will have regressive effects should we fail to stop the process of liquidation of the workers’ accomplishments, of threats to national sovereignty, of the ideological offensive against the progressive, democratic, and socialist values, of the conservative, anti-revolutionary, and anti-communist drift, and of setbacks to the achievements of civilization.

10- Upon the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, the United States announced the deployment of a new tactic in its international relations. The complexity of the contradictions and the potential for the outbreak of economic and social, class and national, political and diplomatic, and even military conflicts signal imperialism’s narrow margin for manoeuvre for an effective change of policy. The sector of the NorthAmerican establishment that was victorious with the election of the new president has πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

announced the so-called “soft and smart” foreign policy, the proposed combination of the political and diplomatic components with the military component, supposedly with a priority for the two first components. This is a new formula for the full exercise of North-American dominance of the world, taking account of its allies, its incapacity to deal with several conflicts simultaneously and the necessity to, through some institutional framework, reorder the system, always under its own leadership. In its essence, imperialism maintains its policy, despite making certain alteration, changing its rhetoric, making symbolic gestures that are amplified by political publicity, and adopting a different tactic with regard to the dialogue with the United States’ allies and the agreement of positions relative to the most divisive issues of the international agenda. As for Latin America, the new president of the United States made some gestures of this kind in relation to the main leaders of the new progressive governments, an effort to ease the relationship with Venezuela and, without touching the essence of the blockade against Cuba, lifted the prohibition of visits and remittances of U.S. dollars by Cubans and Cuban relatives residing in the United States. As for the war against Iraq, it ratified the long-term pullout plan as drafted by the previous administration. It announced that it would keep as main tasks of the present administration the “war on terror”, whose main arena is moving to Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the new president. New resources are being invested in the war of occupation of Afghanistan and

more troops will be deployed in that CentralAsian country. The head of the White House has also announced an increased military budget and stated that he will not relinquish the United States supremacy in this regard. In yet another faltering gesture, he announced he was revoking the plan to set up an antimissile shield in the Czech Republic and in Poland, while proclaiming that the United States is still committed to a defense system with anti-ballistic missiles. There should be no illusions about announcements and gestures pointing to the regeneration of the United States imperialism’s aggressive nature or the relinquishment of its objectives of world domination. What must be understood is that the anti-imperialist struggle will take place under new political conditions.

11- The world is going through a significant transition, a restart, a retaking of the democratic, progressive, popular, national and class struggles in every latitude, under many different forms and distinct levels of amplitude and radicalization, during which new actors, and new revolutionary and leftist forces are appearing that grow in interaction and alliance with the communist parties, which are also starting to engage in a fertile ground for their development, growth, consolidation, and credibility before the masses. 12- The working classes, the popular masses, and the trade union movement are occupying the center stage of the class struggle. Such struggle is interwoven with the youth revolts, anti-racist rebellions, and for the rights of immigrants in the developed πB - 1/2010 communist party of Brazil

capitalist countries. The working class, its representatives, and organizations do not satisfy themselves with watching these events with indifference. They react with more or less vigor in the different countries in defense of their interests. Generally under the leadership of the leftist trade unions and parties, millions of workers are engaged in strikes, street demonstrations, and factory sit-ins, during which they demand and fight for justice, for the burden of the crisis to be placed on the shoulders of the rich who, after all, are responsible for it, and for working families to be spared from new and greater hardship. Signs of escalation of social struggles are visible on every continent.

13- The development of the heroic Iraqi, Afghan, Lebanese, and Palestinian resistance movements, which, albeit not having attained the liberation of their countries yet, and in the case of Palestine, the creation of a free and independent national State, do not allow their aggressors to reach their colonialist objectives either. In this sense, these are victorious peoples because resisting is a victory in itself. This is also a period in which sovereign and independent national States put up a tenacious opposition against attempts to isolate, destabilize, and strike them. 14- The struggle for peace appears as one of the most important anti-imperialist combat fronts. A struggle that acquired gigantic proportions at the time of the U.S. aggression against Iraq and that, albeit at a different level, has been constant and diversified, against nuclear weapons, against military

bases, against wars of occupation, against the militarization of the European Union, against NATO and its new strategic concept and in solidarity with the liberating struggles of all peoples. All of which are reflected by the growth and strengthening of the World Peace Council.

15- The Communist Party of Brazil positively values the evolution of the political scene in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last decade, characterized by the rise of a, generally speaking, democratic and progressive tendency and, at the same time, by a sharp decline in neoliberalismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s influence and meddling by the United States imperialism â&#x20AC;&#x201C; despite the permanence of the enormous economic and huge ideological influence of the United States on the region. The new ongoing reality has transformed Latin America into a space of resistance and the search for alternatives, and is favorable to the revolutionary forces and to advanced ideas. The new Latin-American setting is objectively anti-imperialist, for it creates obstacles to imperialist domination in the region. The democratic breakthroughs in Latin America, the development of cooperation and in-solidarity integration require a political solution for the Colombian conflict, a fair and democratic peace, fighting against the local governments and the militarist policies of United States imperialism. Moreover, they call for a quick solution to the situation in Haiti, a country martyred by fratricidal conflicts, cruel dictatorships and the imperialist meddling of the United States and France. It is necessary to create the conditions, in the context of international cooperation and national Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

sovereignty, to reorganize the State with its specific attributions, including public safety, and to render dispensable as soon as possible the presence of UN troops under Brazilian command in that country.

16- In a more recent period, after leaving behind two reactionary and conservative cycles – that of the military dictatorships and of neo-liberalism – Latin America emerges to an unprecedented and singular progressive cycle, one of an anti-imperialist leaning governments ruled by forces that led independence processes in most Caribbean countries and the heroic and revolutionary socialist Cuba. These governments, with different paces and emphases, seek to scrap anti-popular and neo-liberal policies and promote changes intended to accomplish national development projects, in which, in the most advanced cases, revolutionary purposes are set with proclaimed socialist objectives. 17- Reality today comprises, as it objectively could not be different, a diversity of rhythms, emphases, and approaches. After all, these are countries with distinct social and economic formations; the forces at the head of each government have different origins, principles, and strategic goals; and their rise to the national governments results from distinct levels of accumulation of forces by the grassroots sectors. Yet, on the whole, the current trend that is developing in Latin America and the Caribbean is driven by a common general rationale, one that points to more sovereignty for nations, the search for deepening democracy and mechanisms for the participation of the people, for more

rights for the working masses and the majorities of the people, and an emphasis on continental integration.

18- To the revolutionary forces the vigorous experience of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, - of a democratic, popular, and anti-imperialist character, that this year, 2009, completes its first decade, - is particularly important. Supported by the masses, guarantors of its continuity in more than a dozen consultations and plebiscites, proclaiming socialist objectives of traversing to what it calls “21st century socialism”, the government of President Hugo Ch_vez has, in its first decade, carried out a sweeping program of social transformations, which has brought about an important decline of poverty, plus gaining broad popular participation. Moreover, it promotes changes in the structure of the State and adopts an advanced National Constitution. We also observe with interest the initiatives of the Venezuelan foreign policy, such as the ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas). 19- Arising from this there is a strong and powerful reaction from the conservative forces, one of multiple dimensions, with different signals of a counter-offensive by the right that manifests itself in the emergence of secessionist movements and threats in countries like Bolivia; in failed coups, as occurred with Ch_vez in 2002; in utillizing Colombia as a pawn in aggressions as the one perpetrated against Ecuadorian territory in 2008; or still in the re-creation of the United States 4th Naval Fleet. In 2009, the rightwing πB - 1/2010 communist party of Brazil

counter-offensive has escalated with the coup d’état in Honduras, overthrowing a president legitimately elected, who was taking resolute steps to implement political, economic and social changes and to join the in-solidarity integration as a member of ALBA. Also in 2009, US imperialism’s military presence surged in South America, through the signing of the military agreement between the United States and Colombia, which includes the installation of seven military bases. Thus, despite the important advances made in Latin America over the last decade, the progressive forces should be under no illusions. The conservative forces, in alliance with imperialism, are still very strong in Latin America. Similarly, it is pointless to underestimate the present moment lived by Latin America, nor overestimate one’s own forces and underestimate the power of reaction of imperialism and the endogenous right.

20- The important political transformations that have characterized the international situation lately indicate that important breakthroughs are in progress in the correlation of forces across the world, which improve fighting conditions and intensify the revolutionary accumulation of forces. The anti-imperialist struggle appears as the mark and the spirit of the time, as the great question capable of winning hearts and minds, unleashing the people’s creative and revolutionary energies. The struggle for socialism, positioned in the present conditions, taking into consideration the lessons learned from the previous historical period, is once again the order of the day, not as a

vague ideal, not as intention manifested through pamphlet rhetoric, but as a concrete issue requiring a concrete solution. The repositioning of the struggle for socialism shows that imperialism’s offensive is not the only driver of the international situation. New revolutionary forces awaken, new transformative potentialities are manifested, new roads are opened up. The roads to socialism will be neither easy nor straight. In this struggle, the forces of the revolution and socialism are confronted in each battle, at every moment, by a colossal system of domination that will not relinquish its position easily. The workers and the people, in order to attain a new political, economic, and social system – socialism – to enjoy rights, sovereignty, security, and peace, shall have to carry out the political class struggle, in which the patriotic antiimperialist struggle, the democratic struggle, and the action of national States governed by revolutionary and progressive forces gain prominence. This struggle will demand clarity of objectives, no illusions about the enemy, and tactical-strategic discernment.

21- In this context, the communist and workers’ parties may and should play a detached political and ideological role. Nowadays, it is necessary more than before to strength the unity of action and work together with other anti-capitalist and antiimperialist forces. More than ever our Party really appreciates the international meetings of the communist and workers’ parties as an important political benchmark at international level. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

“DEAR

Brazilian Communist Party IVAN PINHEIRO

COMRADES: We would like to salute all the revolutionaries of the whole world. We’d like especially to greet our comrades of the PCI and the PCI (Marxist), who have shown us that, in spite of political differences, it is necessary to build unity of action. One of the main manifestations of the historical limits of capitalism is the current world economic crisis, which has deeply and didactically revealed all the structural problems of this system, a system based on the exploitation of human beings by other human beings: its contradictions, debilities, its capacity to destroy material and social wealth and its class character. While the capitalist governments invest trillions of dollars to save bankers and speculators, workers pay the bill for this crisis by suffering through unemployment, through the removal of social rights, and living under deepening conditions of poverty. Although they’ve been wounded by the crisis, the imperialist countries are conducting a major offensive to try to recover the profit rates and to combat the rise of popular mobilization that has been taken place all over the world. They promote wars against the peoples, as they’re doing in Iraq and Afghanistan; they provide weapons to Israel to threaten the population of that region and expel the Palestinian people from their lands. In Latin America, they develop a policy of isolation and sabotage against the progressive governments of the region, as they reactivate the IV Fleet and transform Colombia into a large US military base. This whole strategy has the goal of threatening Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and even countries whose governments are unwilling to promote deeply social changes, such as Brazil, to ensure their control over the extraordinary wealth of the continent, which includes the “Pre-Salt” oil reserves,

πB - 1/2010 Brazilian communist party

the Amazon, the vast biodiversity of the region and the Guarani Aquifer, in the south. The crisis demonstrates the necessity for populations to oppose the capitalist barbarism and to find alternatives in order to build a new human sociability. All over the world, especially in Latin America, people resist and try to build alternative projects based on popular mobilization. Cuba’s heroic struggle is the example to be followed, an example that will be remembered as a historic milestone of a people’s resistance against imperialism. In this scenario, Brazil has been playing a decisive role in the continental balance of power, but clearly within the capitalist order and not to promote changes towards socialism. With the aim of becoming a major world capitalist power, the present government, in some episodes, has adopted positions that may be contrary to some interests of U.S. imperialism. However, these “progressive” positions have the goal of creating a third pole of Latin American integration, aligned with the interests of the capitalist system. In other words, neither FTAA, nor ALBA, but the leadership of a social-liberal block aligned with the Southern Cone countries, driven by forces that also behave as a “responsible left”, which is reliable in the eyes of imperialism and of the local elites, what contributes to deepening the isolation of those countries that have chosen the path of popular mobilization and confrontation. The institutional support to some Latin American leftist governments has fed into the expansion of Brazilian capitalism, which expands around the continent, where com-

panies from Brazil behave like any other multinational enterprises. As the main objective is to include Brazil in the world as a capitalist power, Lula’s government does not hesitate to adopt imperialistic actions, as when Brazil commands the occupation of Haiti to support a right-wing coup d’etat; when the Brazilian Government diplomatically retaliates against Ecuador to defend the construction of a Brazilian company; or when the Brazilian Army promotes military exercises on the border with Paraguay – using real fire – to defend the Brazilian soybean farmers settled in Paraguay who are opposing the Paraguayan peasant movement; and when the Brazilian government insists in keeping the conditions of the Itaipu Treaty which are unfair to Paraguay. Brazilian capitalism is part of the global accumulation process and integrates the world’s imperialist system, The Brazilian ruling classes are inextricably linked to international capital. The Brazilian bourgeoisie doesn’t dispute its hegemony with any pre-capitalist sector. It is the other way around: it primarily disputes spaces within the imperialist capital order, though it remains subject to it, especially to avoid the possibility of a revolutionary process, in which the proletariat might emerge as a protagonist. The present development status of productive forces is enough to solve the needs of the whole world’s population, but it’s in full contradiction with the form of bourgeois social relations which privately accumulate the socially produced wealth. Capitalism is definitely antagonistic to human life. So, it’s time to create the conditions to overcome πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

this system in order to promote the socialist revolution. Latin America will keep on being an important centre of struggle against capital, as important social change processes are articulated around ALBA, in clear opposition to imperialist factions which dispute hegemony over the markets and the natural resources of the region, and that includes many sectors of the Brazilian bourgeoisie. Communists of the whole world must work together to denounce and defeat the paramilitary and terrorist State of Colombia. This is part of our struggle to strengthen support to Socialist Cuba and to deepen the processes of social change that are taking place in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and possibly in Paraguay and other countries. We must keep on denouncing the coup d’Etat in Honduras, and keep on fighting for Democracy and social change; We must fight for peace and Democracy throughout Latin America and we must denounce the creation of the seven U.S. military bases in Colombia; We must offer total solidarity to the Colombian Communist Party and oppose the criminalization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, as well as support its right to be recognized as a political organization. Every people have the right to choose the necessary form of fighting against oppression. Finally, we would like to propose that this Meeting takes some steps towards the strengthening of the ties between our parties, and towards increasing both the number and the quality of our joint actions: The first one is a common public letter, signed by all of us, to the Colombian Government,

demanding the recognition of the FARC as a political organization; We also propose the organization of regional Meetings of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in all continents. Long live the Communist and Workers’ Parties Long live the Proletarian Internationalism! Thank you”

πB - 1/2010 Brazilian communist party

THE MONOPOLY CAPITALISTS, their politi-

Communist Party of Britain ROBERT GRIFFITHS

cians and their intellectuals want the public to regard this crisis as entirely a financial one, flowing from the ‘credit crunch’: all the fault of reckless mortgage companies and banks; of low-paid workers who borrowed beyond their means; and of greedy bankers who should not have lent them the money in the first place. What a convenient picture this paints on behalf of the capitalist system as a whole! The truth, of course, is that this is a systemic crisis, a crisis intrinsic to the system of capitalism itself, what Marx characterised as a periodic crisis of overproduction. At the same time, I think we should also note a significant feature of the current crisis, namely the role of what Marx in Volume Three of Capital defined as ‘fictitious capital’. By this he usually meant, according to a narrow definition, interest-bearing financial paper, in particular government bonds comprising the National Debt. But he also employed a broader definition which embraced bills of exchange, commodity contracts and all kinds of stocks and shares. When traded on the financial markets, these instruments increase their moneyvalue way beyond the reproduction and expansion of capital in the production of real commodities for real consumption. They are still capital in the sense that they derive from real capital once invested in the production or circulation process. Like other forms of capital, their moneyvalue also represents a future entitlement when cashed in - to the product of labour. But, Marx pointed out, this capital has become ‘fictitious’: it has been used up in its original form and now survives only nominally, on paper; its value has since been determined more or less independently of the reproduction of capital in the production process; it now bears no relation to the

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

money-value of the original capital invested in the government or enterprise. Marx called the process of forming fictitious capital ‘capitalisation’, although it does not correspond completely to the bourgeois category which can reflect the expansion of real capital as well as fictitious capital. For that reason, some Marxists prefer the term ‘financialisation’. According to the Bank for International Settlements, by June 2007, on the eve of the financial crisis, the nominal future value of all the financial instruments, physical assets, credit risks and betting slips (on future economic factors and indicators) being traded in world markets as financial derivatives - the main vehicle for fictitious capital - had reached $516 trillion. Share and bond market capitalisation totalled $111 trillion. The combined and largely fictitious value of $627 trillion was 13 times greater than the world’s GDP of $48 trillion in 2006. While world GDP grew annually from 2.7 per cent in 1995 and by up to 3.9 per cent in 2006, the notional amount of value in the derivatives market ballooned by 24 per cent a year, and in the equity and bond markets by 11 per cent and 9 per cent a year respectively. Originating in the reproduction and then over-production of real capital, these fictitious capital values could never be realised upon maturity in the future. Sooner or later, realism would break out as nervousness and then panic stepped in. But in the meantime, this fictitious value enabled a massive extension of corporate, personal and government debt, which in turn further

intensified and prolonged the boom in most leading capitalist economies. Financialisation thereby ensured that when the crash came it would be severe. And by placing the banks, mortgage companies and the money and financial markets in mortal danger, it compelled governments and central banks to bail them out on an unprecedented scale, at the expense of support for productive industry, at the expense of public services, and to the cost of future generations forced to pay off additional public debt. Although the financial crisis broke out shortly before the generalised economic recession began, it was a signal rather than the cause. There is a dialectical relationship between the two. The over-production of capital provides the basis for transforming a portion of real capital into fictitious capital. Fictitious capital values accelerate demand through credit and thus steepen the descent into recession, which the financial crisis then prolongs through mass redundancies in the financial sector and a credit strike by the banks and money markets. But the surest sign of an impending cyclical crisis of over-production had already shown itself two years before the collapse of US and then other banks and financial institutions in summer 2007. From May 2005, year-on-year crude steel production had begun to drop significantly in the European Union and the USA, although it temporarily recovered in the latter the following year. Here is conclusive evidence that a cyclical crisis of over-production was on the way before the ‘credit crunch’ occurred. πB - 1/2010 communist party of Britain

Incidentally, Marx did not mince his words when referring to the agents of ‘capitalisation’ or financialisation. He called them ‘gamblers’, ‘swindlers’ and ‘bandits’. They perform no socially useful function except to vindicate the demand of socialists and Communists that the whole financial sector be taken into democratic public ownership, under new management, pursuing very different policies and objectives. This demand represents a qualitative advance from tighter national and international regulation or measures such as a Tobin tax on cross-border financial transactions. Democratic public ownership represents part of the transition to what we Communists used to call an advanced anti-monopoly democracy - the stage which sets the scene for the decisive, revolutionary struggle for state power. Yet even if measures to regulate or nationalise the financial sector could be achieved under capitalism, periodic crises of overproduction would still exist for as long as capitalism exists. Britain’s Prime Minister Brown once claimed that he had abolished the cycle of ‘boom and bust’ in the British economy. An ancient English king, Canute, once claimed that he could sit on the sea shore - on his throne - and stop the waves from coming in. He got his feet wet. In Britain the government, the Treasury and the Bank of England have so far allocated í1.35 trillion ($2.25 trillion) in public funds and guarantees to rescue the banks, financial institutions and money markets. That’s equivalent to Britain’s entire annual

GDP, twice the annual total of public expenditure, ten times the National Health Service budget and 15 times government spending on education. Less than í20 billion has been allocated to support manufacturing and other productive industry in Britain. That imbalance in government support reflects the peculiarities, priorities and contradictions of British monopoly capital. Now the British ruling class has launched a fierce offensive against the jobs, wages, pensions, social benefits, public services and trade union rights of the working class and peoples of Britain. Whichever government is elected next May, this offensive will intensify. Cuts in public spending will be deeper and quicker under a Tory government, whereas a Labour government might be more amenable to pressure – especially in relation to employment and trade union rights – from the trade unions. The Communist Party is seeking to alert the labour movement and the people generally to the nature and scale of this offensive, especially through our work in the unions and through the Morning Star daily newspaper (which now enjoys substantial support from leading sections of the trade union movement). We are calling for the formation of campaigning alliances of left, trade union and local community organisations to defend public services. As an alternative to the offensive’s policies, we propose a Left-Wing Programme of immediate social, economic, environmental and foreign policy demands to πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

counteract cut-backs, privatisations, militarism and environmental degradation. Many of these demands are reflected in the People’s Charter, an initiative proposed by our party in July 2008 and adopted – after a struggle - by the Trades Union Congress last September. A People’s Charter convention this Saturday in London will launch the campaign for a million signatures across Britain. Our Charter for Women, which promotes the interests of women in work, in society and in the labour movement, is now supported by more than 13 national trade unions. We are seeking united and popular fronts of struggle on all the main problems facing the working class and peoples of Britain, including against racism and the rise of the fascist right. A new publishing house, Manifesto Press, has produced three new books to carry forward the battle of ideas on the left and in the trade union, peace and solidarity movements. But what we believe is now required on the global level is closer, organised co-operation and co-ordination between the Communist and Workers Parties. The remit of the Working Group could be extended to promote links between leading comrades in different parties in each major field of political and trade union work. An international programme for Marxist-Leninist education could be established through the internet. And the extended work of the Working Group needs to be facilitated by a permanent office, with one or two full-time staff supplied by parties which have the necessary resources.

Our Communist and working class internationalism is one of our greatest potential strengths. As the monopoly capitalists and their state representatives meet, plan and take initiatives at the global level through a host of different institutions, we Communists have a responsibility to do likewise in the interests of workers and their families, humanity and our planet.

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Britain

DEAR HOSTING PARTIES AND FRATERNAL

Communist Party of Canada HARJIT DAUDHARIA

DELEGATES, DEAR COMRADES, First of all, we would like to thank our hosts – the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India – for all of their efforts in convening this Meeting, and for their generous hospitality. The leader of our party, cde. Miguel Figueroa, was unable to attend due to visa problems and has asked me to convey his warmest greetings to all. ***

DEAR COMRADES, the theme for this 11th Meeting of Communist & Workers’ Parties – the global capitalist crisis and the role of the Communist and working class movements – is most timely. The maturing of the basic contradiction of capitalism is rendering the system ever more volatile and destructive, with dire and sometimes unpredictable consequences. In the hope of reversing the falling rate of profit, ruling circles are stepping up a vicious offensive against our class in order to ‘save’ capitalism while transferring the cost of the current crisis onto the backs of working people. At the same time however, the deepening crisis is having a radicalizing effect on sections of the working class whose economic and social conditions are sharply deteriorating and are increasingly driven to fight back. These are dynamic times indeed, full of dangers and challenges and also with the potential of resurgent socialism. The main task of Communists today is to help foster class unity and struggle in the face of this deepening crisis. Our orientation should focus on mobilizing and winning today’s immediate (largely defensive) struggles, but always with the perspective of building conditions for our class to mount a counter-offensive against the political and ideological edifice of capitalist relations, of winning state power and buildπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

ing socialism. The main thrust of this perspective is contained in the Draft Delhi Declaration prepared by the Working Group for this meeting, and it has our wholehearted endorsement. The global crisis is still in its early stages, but certain general features can now be identified, and conclusions drawn: everywhere the crisis is attended by

growing impoverishment of workers and the masses of the people, job losses and rising unemployment, economic insecurity and the degradation of public services and social conditions; the corporate/government drive to impose the costs of the crisis on the backs of working people is accompanied by an intense ideological offensive directed at the working class to split its ranks, and to scapegoat the unemployed, new immigrants, racialized communities, and women workers. A crucial part of this ideological campaign is the resurgence of virulent anti-communism; one aim of this ideological offensive aims to mislead working people with rosy and sometimes falsified reports that economic recovery is now underway, even though this is contradicted by the facts. Bourgeois apologists try to justify such wishful and dishonest claims on the grounds that ‘good economic news’ helps to stimulate consumer and investor confidence. But it also serves a more sinister purpose – to delude working people into believing that the worst is over, and that they simply need to wait and ride out the storm, rather than

to organize and fight for their class interests; the crisis is aggravating contradictions among the leading imperialist states and blocs, as each scrambles to defend its own financial interests at the expense of foreign competitors. Notwithstanding the rhetorical defence of ‘free trade’ and ‘open markets’ at G-20, World Bank and other summits, the evidence unmistakably points to increasing economic nationalism and retrenchment. In time, this will lead to rising inter-imperialist tensions and rivalries – the historical precursor to imperialist aggression and war; the current crisis has more fully exposed the relative decline of U.S. economic might compared to other competing centres. This decline applies not only in relation to Japan and the EU, but also and even more significantly with respect to the PRC (China) and to a lesser extent, India and Brazil; and the labour and people’s fightback has been slow to develop and remains uneven and sporadic, even though important advances have been made in a number of countries. This is due to a number of factors: the impact of fear and insecurity among broad sections of the working class, weakening – if only temporarily – their capacity to unite and fight; the imposition of state measures to restrict, and sometimes directly repress, organized dissent, and the betrayal of social democracy; and the failure of the trade union leadership to initiate – and in some cases, to actively obπB - 1/2010 communist party of Canada

struct – the development of a united and coordinated fightback movement. Clearly, the current recession/depression will be deep and protracted, with ruinous effects on the living standards and social conditions of working people.

DEAR COMRADES, The global economic crisis has impacted heavily on Canada and its people. While the financial sector escaped relatively unscathed – none of the Canadian banks collapsed during the meltdown – most other parts of domestic economy, especially the manufacturing and resource sectors, both of which are heavily dependent on exports to the U.S. market, have been severely crippled. Unemployment continues to increase, and is expected to officially surpass 10% by the end of this year, although in real terms, it is already much higher than that. Construction, retail trade, tourism and the public sector are also in decline. The right-wing Conservatives under Stephen Harper have stubbornly resisted implementing any significant measures to protect workers’ jobs, living standards and the public services upon which the people depend. Their last budget prioritized bailouts for the banks and other lenders, and tax hand-outs to business. Over the past three years, the Harper Conservatives have repeatedly ignored laws, court rulings, Parliamentary resolutions, and public opinion to impose their reactionary agenda. The government has extended Canada’s role in the dirty imperialist occupation of Afghanistan, encouraged the corporate as-

sault on workers’ pensions and collective agreements, and refused to sign the historic United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Harper and his government deny any responsibility to tackle the global crisis posed by climate change. In short, at a crucial time of economic crisis and environmental degradation, Canada is governed by one of the most extreme neoconservative parties in the capitalist world. And yet despite their right-wing, antipeople policies, the Tories remain in power and are even positioned to gain a majority in the general election expected next year, in large measure because the bourgeois ‘opposition’ parties, including the main social-democratic party, the NDP, have failed to bring forward any substantial alternative policies to those of the Conservatives. Generally speaking, the fightback by the labour movement and its allies has been slow to develop. There are many reasons for this, including the intensity, speed and escalation of the assault. But it is also a result of the lingering effect of the Cold War attack on the left and the socialist states, which ushered in the dominance of right-wing social democracy as the main ideology of the trade union leadership. This has definitely hampered attempts by organized workers to develop extra-parliamentary political struggles to resist plant closures and economic attacks. Notwithstanding these weaknesses however, Canadian workers have repeatedly shown their capacity to struggle in the face of the capitalist crisis and its consequences. The problem of leadership – or lack thereof – in the fightback against the corporate attack is not primarily organizational, πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

but rather ideological in character. It is absolutely essential therefore to build the left & militant forces within the trade unions. This is the main challenge confronting our Party as we prepare for our upcoming 36th Convention next February.

DEAR COMRADES, Finally, a few words about our own movement internationally. Over the past decade, these international meetings have grown both in terms of participating parties and with respect to our capacity to initiate and strengthen coordination and joint action. At the same time, we must note a growing differentiation among the parties on certain fundamental questions. While respecting the right of each member party to articulate its political analysis and line of march, and while working to foster unity-in-action despite a diversity of views, we reiterate our conviction that the essence and strength of our Communist movement derives from its fidelity to Marxism-Leninism, both in theory and practice, including our collective responsibility to respond to, and struggle against, all manifestations of opportunism, revisionism and reformism within our ranks. These are the shared challenges which the Communists throughout the world face in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turbulent and dangerous world. And the degree to which we confront these challenges in a principled, militant and united way will be decisive in building the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s counter-offensive, in defeating capitalism, and in building socialism for the benefit of our class, the oppressed and exploited and for all humanity. Thank you. Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Canada

MR. CHAIRMAN, FELLOW DELEGATES: It’s

Communist Party of China AI PING

an honor for me and my colleges to be delegated by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to attend this gathering of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. First of all, allow me to convey to you the warm greetings and best wishes of our minister Wang Jiarui and his deputies in the department. This IMCWP is an important platform for communist parties across the world to share information, exchange ideas and hold discussion on certain issues. So far, 10 conferences have been held successfully and today, we are gathered here in New Delhi to witness the opening of the eleventh IMCWP conference. Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to brief you on new developments in China and the recent endeavors of the CPC. The financial crisis, originating in the United States last year, has seriously affected the economy and the livelihood of countries in the world. Due to the serious impact of the crisis, 2009 has been the most difficult year for China’s economic development since the beginning of this century. In order to deal with this crisis and maintain steady and rapid economic growth, the CPC and the Chinese government judiciously adjusted the macroeconomic policies by adopting a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately relaxed monetary policy, and formulated a package plan to expand domestic—demand and promote growth. A two-year investment plan, amounting in total to four trillion Yuan, is being implemented involving greatly increased government spending to boost domestic demand and improve people’s livelihood. Structural tax relief policies were put in place, bringing about several interest rate cuts to allow liquidity in the banking system πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

and to stabilize external demand. A wideranging industrial restructuring and rejuvenation program was initiated to encourage innovation and enhance energy conservation, emission reduction and environment protection. Great efforts have been made to expand the domestic market, especially the rural market, stabilize agricultural development and increase farmers’ income. Effective measures have been taken to reform the social security system to ensure access to basic medical service, free compulsory education, as well as affordable housing for urban and rural residents so that they can be free of worries. Now, these measures have taken initial effects and have produced some positive signs. From January to September 2009, our GDP grew by 7.7%, volume of retail sales increased by 15.1%, state revenue grew by 5.3% while the consumer price-index dropped by 1.1%. This data shows that our domestic consumption is robust, demand for investment is increasing steadily, the society on the whole is stable, and the overall economic situation is about to turn for the better. These countermeasures China has taken against the crisis have not only worked positively on China’s economy, but will also serve as a boon to the economy of the region and that of the world at large. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of new Xhina. In the past sixty years, the Communist Party of China, and the Chinese people under its leadership, have achieved glorious accomplishments that have attracted world attention: China’s economic and overall strength have been greatly enhanced and China has become

the third largest economy in the world with a trade volume ranking also third in the world. The standard of living in China has been markedly improved with per capita GDP increased from $35 in 1949 to $3,266 in 2008 and life expectancy extended from 35 to 73 years. The moral and ethical standard of Chinese society has been uplifted. A socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has taken shape; constant effort has been made to promote the rule of law and to improve the overall cultural integrity of our people. The relationship between China and the world has undergone historic changes, whereby the world is paying more and more attention to China. The fate of China and the fate of the world are ever more closely linked together. Experience in the last sixty years shows that throughout the primary stage of socialism, we must always take economic development as the central task, take reform and opening up as the driving force to promote all round economic, political, cultural and social development and cultivate a sense of conservation among the general public. We must push forward economic and political reform and reform in other areas to motivate the entire population for greater enthusiasm, initiative and creativity so as to realize social equity and justice and fill the country with vitality. We must carry forward socialist democracy, improve the socialist legal system, stick to the rule of law and guarantee the lasting stability of the country. We must enhance and improve party building, carry out in-depth anti-corruption campaigns, and bond the party and the people closer together. πB - 1/2010 communist party of China

Some parties, due to a lack of knowledge about the national conditions of China, think that China has given up Marxism and has deviated from the socialist path, and some even call China’s system “authoritarian capitalism”. But these accusations are not true. As you all know, China is a large oriental country with a relatively backward economy and culture. China is, and will be for a long time to come remain, at the primary stage of socialism. There are no references in the classics on how to carry forward Marxism and develop socialism with our special national conditions. The CPC has always upheld Marxism as our fundamental guiding ideology, insisted in adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to Chinese conditions and the features of the times and tried to explore a new road for building socialism. CPC leaders of successive generations have pooled the wisdom of the whole party, drawn upon the experiences and lessons of other countries and established a system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the way of exploration, the CPC as the ruling party must learn from all the excellent achievements of human civilization including means and management systems which can reflect the laws governing modern social production such as the capitalist market economic system. However, this doesn’t mean that we are pursuing capitalism, let alone changing into it. On the contrary, our purpose is to improve, consolidate and develop socialism. I am convinced that the unremitting exploration of the Chinese communists, their success in building a stronger China can not only help enrich and develop

Marxism, but also encourage and inspire communists across the world to stick to socialism. This, I believe, will be a great contribution to international socialist movement. Last September, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee was held, where the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening and Improving the Party Building” was adopted and concrete measures were planned out for party building endeavors in the new period. The main ideas of this document are as follow:

THE IMPORTANCE OF PARTY BUILDING UNDER THE NEW SITUATION Having been at the helm of government for 60 years, the Communist Party of China has proven to be the key to every success made in the country, and its leading position must be upheld unswervingly. In a world that is undergoing great development, great transformation and adjustment, China is now faced with a series of new circumstances and new problems. The CPC shoulders huge, complex and heavy tasks in pressing ahead with reform and openness, and a socialist modernization drive. Therefore, it is imperative for the party to be vigilant to the challenges lying ahead, by courageously blazing new trails and making relentless efforts in selfimprovement. BASIC LESSONS FOR PARTY BUILDING Ideological and theoretical building must be prioritised to enable the entire membership to have a better command of the essence of Marxism. Party building endeavπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

ors must be integrated with the ultimate mission of the party so as to guarantee its core leadership in socialist development. We must focus our effort on strengthening the Party’s governance capability and maintaining its vanguard nature so that the CPC is always at the forefront of the times. We must always bear in mind that the CPC is meant to serve the public interest, and is mandated to exercise state power for the people, and it must maintain close ties with the populace. What’s more, the party must embrace new ideas and new practices in order to enhance dynamism. Last but not least, the party must exercise self-discipline, be strict with its members and improve management of party affairs.

FUTURE TASKS OF PARTY BUILDING IN THE NEW PERIOD The CPC will build itself into a learning-oriented Marxist party and raise its ideological and political consciousness. We must improve democratic centralism and expand intra-party democracy. We must also deepen reform of the personnel system and build a contingent of high-caliber cadres who are more competent in promoting scientific development and social harmony. What’s more, doubled efforts must be made to reinforce primary party organizations to consolidate the organizational foundation of the party. Meanwhile, it’s also imperative for the party to carry forward its good style of work and maintain close ties with the people. We must accelerate the building of corruption punishment and prevention systems, and intensify the fight against corruption. Thirdly, I’d like to

share with you some of my personal views inspired by the theme of this meeting. At present, the global financial crisis has not bottomed out yet and there are still many potential risks in the world economy. Many politicians and scholars have done extensive studies on the crisis and provided many valuable views. Here are my own perceptions of the cause behind this crisis and its impact on global capitalism. Many people put the blame of this global financial and economic crisis, triggered by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S., on “the rampant speculation in the financial market”, “vicious competition” or “excessive lending” and are expecting to tide over the crisis and achieve recovery by “regulating” capitalism. In my opinion, this crisis is no different from other ones in history which were caused by the inherent contradictions of capitalism. Such crises can not be eradicated and will recur periodically as long as the private ownership of capitalism and the inherent contradiction remain unchanged. That is why we have witnessed the repeated cycle of crisis-reliefcrisis in the development of capitalism. The temporary prosperity at certain times is in fact the presage of another crisis. This ongoing crisis is but another testimony - Carl Marx is right in his judgment of the capitalist economic cycle and that the capitalist mode of production is doomed to failure. But can we rush to the conclusion that capitalism will die in this crisis? My answer is “no”. What we can say is that this crisis will accelerate the transition of capitalism to socialism. This is because since the mid20th century, with new scientific and techπB - 1/2010 communist party of China

nological revolution and the self-adjustment of capitalism, coupled with economic boom followed by capital expansion, the capitalist world has experienced a relatively stable and prosperous period. In the past 360 years after the English Bourgeois Revolution, the capitalist world has accumulated much experience in handling their crises. At present, there is still room for growth in capitalist productivity and the self-adjustment capacity of the capitalist mode of production has not been exhausted. The inherent contradiction of capitalism is represented in complex forms of motion which can be radical at one time and mild at another. As a result, it will take a long time for socialism to replace capitalism. This was also embedded in Marxist thought: â&#x20AC;&#x153;no social order ever disappears before all the productive forces, for which there is room in it, have been developed; and new higher relations of production never appear before the material conditions of their existence have matured in the womb of the old societyâ&#x20AC;?. A correct understanding of and response to the development of capitalism can help us obtain a scientific view of the reality and adopt correct policies. I think that given the current balance of power, capitalism will remain more powerful than socialism for a certain period to come and that socialist countries should deal with capitalist countries through both struggle and cooperation to sharpen our horns and broaden our room for survival. Finally, I wish this conference complete success. Thank you!

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

AKEL, Cyprus GEORGE LOUKAIDES

BEHALF of the Central Committee of AKEL, I would like to convey our warmest greetings to all the Parties participating in the 11th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. Allow me to particularly thank the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India – Marxist, for hosting this meeting in such excellent conditions. The continuous dialogue and exchange of views and experiences between the Communist and left parties are of crucial importance, since through this process we can elaborate positions and coordinate activities and struggles. DURING THE LAST TWO YEARS humanity is witnessing a global economic crisis that constitutes the clearest indication of the failure of the capitalist system and the neoliberal policies that have been implemented during the last three decades on a global level. From the beginning apologists of capitalism and neo-liberalism, rushed to claim that the economic crisis was the result of the personal responsibility and behaviour of leading officials of the large financial institutions. Of course, this argument has nothing to do with reality. The causes of the crisis have to do with the very nature of the capitalist system itself. This is a result of the inherent unjust and inhuman nature of this system where working people labour but only a few reap the benefits and accumulate wealth and profit. As Marx analyzed, the basic contradiction of capitalism is the social character of the production versus the individualization of the results of production by the oligarchy. Although the working class is not in any way responsible for this crisis, they are now the ones that are called upon by the ruling classes to pay the price. πB - 1/2010 AKEL, Cyprus

In addition to the millions of workers who are the first victims of this crisis and are losing their jobs, there are millions of others, above all from the countries of the South, who are at the same time losing the fragile resources to sustain their families. The ILO estimates that more than 30 million people lost their jobs in 2008 and this figure will increase to more than 50 million in 2009. The FAO estimates that the number of people threatened by famine rose from 850 million in 2007 to 960 million in 2008, and that the figure could reach a billion in 2009! All this is taking place even though everyone acknowledges that humanity has sufficient productive capacity to meet peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs, and even though it is increasingly clear that specific scientific and technological advances are not utilized, since they do not serve to the criteria of profitability demanded by capital, which controls the process. The current situation though, is not a new phenomenon but reflects the worsening of an unequal and unfair world based on the capitalist system; a world where inequalities are reproduced and also reflected in the development rates of the regions all over the world. In this world, the so-called advanced economies (31 states in total) until today hold 56.4% of the World Gross Product, whilst the emerging / developing economies (141 states in total) hold the rest - 43.6%. The wealth of the 15 richest men of the world is higher than the GDP of an entire continent, Africa. According to the UN, half the population of the planet is threatened by hunger. In the richest countries, 100 mil-

lion people are living below the poverty line. The neo-liberal model implemented over the last few decades throughout the world, has intensified the contradictions of capitalism. In particular, in the European Union the conservative forces, with the social democrats largely in full cooperation, imposed neo-liberalism as the dominant philosophy of the EU. Thus, the lawlessness and anarchy of the market, the restriction of the control and regulative role of the state and the destruction of the welfare state were imposed. Unfortunately, it is obvious that these forces are not willing, even today, to change course and policy. They still insist on dead-end policies. What else but deadend policies do the policies of flexicurity, privatisation and liberalisation, the extension of active employment represent? They are attempting to put the burden of the economic crisis on the backs of the peoples of Europe. The approval in a second referendum of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish people constitutes another step in this direction. The Lisbon treaty institutionalizes the neoliberal model, pre-emptive wars outside EU and the complete dependence of EU on NATO. On the political level, the so-called New World Order continues to flagrantly violate the Constitutional Charter of the United Nations and impinge International Law. It continues to strive to sideline the UN and merely use it in order to serve the selfish interests of the imperialist forces of the planet and multinational companies. The law of the powerful is being imposed by all means in Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

the name, allegedly, of “exporting democracy”. NATO is seeking to intervene in every corner of the world, violating International Law, through operations that are termed as “humanitarian interventions” in the name of combating terrorism. The attack of the USA and NATO against Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans, prove that world peace and security remain mere flamboyant declarations. In its attempt to project some kind of legal appearance, NATO is seeking to utilise the creation of programmes with glowing names, such as the “Partnership for Peace”. Of course, despite the inconsistency between words and deeds, the forces of conservatism and imperialism appear to remain very consistent on another issue: in their anti-communism propaganda. An intense incomprehensible attempt to equate communism and Nazism is underway, as if the irrefutable historical facts and political criteria do not nullify the philosophy, spirit and arguments of this effort.

SINCE I COME FROM A COUNTRY that has also been a victim of the imperialist conspiracies throughout its history, allow me at this point to refer briefly to the Cyprus Problem and the recent developments concerning efforts for its solution. This year, 35 years have elapsed since Cyprus and its people became divided as a result of the Turkish invasion and occupation. In the past 19 months since his election, the current President of the Republic of Cyprus, comrade Dimitris Christofias is making an enormous effort for the reunification of our country and people through a just solution that will be based on the Unit-

ed Nations Resolution, and that will be to the benefit of the Cypriot people as a whole, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The direct talks between the leaders of the two communities began in September 2008. The two leaders agreed, before the commencement of the negotiations, that they are aiming at a bi-zonal, bi-communal federal solution, with political equality as set out by the relevant UN Resolutions. It was clarified that a reunified Cyprus will have a single sovereignty, a single international personality and a single citizenship. The first phase of the negotiations was concluded in June. The leaders of the two communities discussed the chapters regarding governance, the property issue, participation in the European Union, economy, the territorial issue and security and guarantees. In this first phase, quite a number of convergences, but also many divergences were recorded in the positions the two communities. Since September 2009, the two leaders have begun the second phase of the negotiations. On the chapters regarding the territorial issue and the settlers, the positions tabled by the two sides did not reach any convergences, as the Turkish Cypriot side remains intransigent, refusing to accept the basic principles of International law. Regarding the chapter on Governance, after the recent meetings between the two leaders an agreement has been achieved on several issues and that allow as to be cautiously optimistic for the possibility of reaching an agreement. Concerning the property issue a step forward was recorded, since the right to πB - 1/2010 AKEL, Cyprus

property of Greek Cypriots was recognized by the Turkish Cypriot side. However, there are huge differences still because the Turkish side insists that the current users, instead of the lawful owners, should have the right to choose what will happen with the properties. Regretfully, disagreements have also been arisen on the issue of participation in the European Union. The Turkish Cypriot side is raising the issue of permanent derogations from the acquis communautaire in relation to the right of settlement, property and related issues. They even raised the proposal of replacing Protocol 10, and are calling for a new Protocol, which according to their proposal, should be tabled for ratification in the Parliaments all member countries, establishing the solution as primary law. The Greek Cypriots cannot accept any of these demands. During the discussion on the security and guarantees chapter, the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community insisted on the preservation of the Turkish guarantees of 1960 and also on the right of unilateral intervention as its basic position. The President of the Republic underlined that such a position will never be accepted. As AKEL, we agree with this position. While the 2nd phase of the negotiations is underway, it is our conviction that longstanding problems can only be solved when principles are respected. This is a fact that, unfortunately, the Turkish side appears to ignore. Despite all these developments, our commitment is to increase our efforts, in order to achieve a solution based on the principles agreed.

THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS has re-confirmed that the future of humanity cannot be capitalism, but socialism. The future of humanity cannot be a system that has as its primary goal the continuous concentration of wealth and the maximization of profit to the detriment of social needs. As AKEL, we believe that the Communist forces, together with progressive, antiimperialistic and anti-capitalistic forces around the world, must take more decisive steps to open up the socialist alternative path to our societies and the world. We need to convince people not just that capitalism is driving humanity into barbarism but also that socialism is the only possible alternative. In order to do so, we have to reinforce our contacts with the working class and all the strata of the society that we are addressing. We have to convince them that our struggles are also their own struggles. We have to be out with them on the streets, in the factories, the trade unions, at the work place and anywhere else where we have to wage social or political struggles. We have to dialectically connect our struggle for socialism with our struggles to elaborate and project short-term solutions on major social issues such as unemployment, homelessness, the increase in the retirement rate, reduction of salaries and wages and the restriction of workers rights. We have to reinforce our struggles for saving the planet from environmental destruction. Marx and Engels, once again, are proven to be absolute correct when they wrote that capitalists are destroying the two basic resources of their wealth, humanity and nature. We have to unite our forces in the Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

struggle against the unjust, aggressive, imperialist wars and strengthen our solidarity activities with all peoples and movements struggling for national independence, peace, freedom and social justice.

UNFORTUNATELY, we have to acknowledge that the impact by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp, still affect Communist and progressive forces in a negative way. Nevertheless, the Communist movement has already stood on its feet and is gradually becoming stronger. The developments in Latin America and the anti-imperialistic radicalization of many countries in this continent is one of the examples showing the possibilities we, as a Communist and left movement, have. Though it is obvious that our road still remains a difficult one, full of obstacles, however this remains the only road that can provide a positive perspective to the working class and humanity as a whole: the perspective of the emancipation of humanity; the perspective of socialism. Thank you.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 AKEL, Cyprus

FIRST, LET ME TO COMMUNICATE to you

Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia JAROMIR KOHLICEK

greetings from the United Left group from the European Parliament. We are not too strong in this period – just 35 from total of 736. Many thanks to both Communist Parties of India for the organisation of this meeting. Let me to commemorate the late Czech conservative government. It was overthrown during the Czech presidency of the European Union and we, the Czech communists, contributed to it. After these remarks, let me concentrate on the matter for discussion. Recent development of the world economy is influenced by a steep growth of divergence between the income of 90% of the population and the big proprietors and top managers, which year by year actually gets smaller. In the ‘70s, typical ratio of income between management and workers was twenty to one. In the ‘70s values traded in different stock exchange schemes were not more than two to three times the value of outstanding real values available. Since then we have seen not only the total destruction of “Real socialism“ in Europe, but also a left wing revolutions in Latin America and a rapid growth of several big Asian economies. A huge wave of liberalism in the ‘90s led to the devastation of the European social model, together with the destruction of the welfare state in Central and East European states. A huge experiment involving the total privatisation of industry, along with the destruction of the agricultural and food sector in these countries, was accompanied by two other major features. The first one was the rapid growth of management to workers income inequality. From an income ratio of 1:20 at the beginning of the twenty first century the ratio soon changed to 1:100 or worse.

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

THE AMOUNT OF VALUES traded in the market nominally grew in the USA to approximately more then ten times higher value then real estate and ware available. In Western Europe the difference was also very steep: approximately one to six. The periodic capitalist crises in the last twenty years were solved by huge amounts of money, especially in the form of low price loans, being pumped into the economy of the most developed states. This situation deepened the critical problems in the world economy and demonstrated that the liberal approach can no longer solve these increasing problems. The rapid rise in unemployment, and the rapid decrease in international trade highlights a major economic crisis, which the capitalist system cannot solve. It is time to say clearly that the only way to stabilize the situation is through a socialist prospective, looking at the needs of society. Up to now majority of anti-crisis measures have consisted in national governments giving huge amount of money to a nearly bankrupted financial sector and some selected measures supporting, in the majority of cases, the car industry. Some countries, for instance Hungary, Lithuania and Iceland were approaching bankruptcy. Nearly all European Union countries will be unable to fulfill the economic criteria of financial stability this year. Many of the governments are still unable to understand that a low tax regime in not the solution. This approach merely allows the high-income sector of the population to further increase their income / profits while the benefit for the state economy is negligible.

TO THE CONTRARY, if a government raises the income of the low poorer sector of the population, then the economy starts to grow. Multi-millionaires, who, due to the anti-crisis measures of the government gains an extra million dollars, won’t consume more. On the other side the growth of the minimum salary by even a few dollars per week will immediately cause a growth in consumption and hence lead to growth in the economy. Top income groups have to make a much bigger contribution to the national budgets than low-income people. If the governments in the majority of states are unable to accept this fact, it is time to change them. The solution is an economy oriented to the social sector, supporting the education system, development, and promoting science and research. But this requires states to concentrate their efforts on peace and disarmament instead of star wars, wars against terrorism and rogue states. Let us just look at the most vulnerable states. They are producing mostly tertiary sector “products“ while the primary and secondary sectors have been strangled. Conclusion: The time for change has come. Let us act together. Only the Left Wing movement can rescue the world. Socialism now has a major opportunity. What, therefore, are the measures we propose to undertake in the present situation? Closer cooperation of all left wing par-

ties No flat tax - a progressive taxation sys-

tem No limits for social and health security πB - 1/2010 communist party of Bohemia and Moravia

Introduction hot capital tax â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so called

Tobin tax and elimination of tax paradises An agreement on general disarmament and peaceful settlement of the world problems instead of the so-called world war against terrorism. No foreign military bases. Reinforcing regional political and economic cooperation Let us promote fair international economic cooperation instead of the World Bank and World Trade Organisation which promote neo-liberal economic policies Let us strongly oppose anti-communism, for example by presenting our sophisticated and clear proposals to parliamentary bodies at all levels Last but not least â&#x20AC;&#x201C; let us reinforce the cooperation with youth, women, and trade union organisations

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Last year in Brazil we discussed the current

Communist Party in Denmark BETTY FRYDENSBJERG CARLSSON

situation of international capitalism. At that time the financial crisis had just started, and we were analyzing what would happen later. This year we know better what capitalism, and almost all the governments worldwide, have done and are doing to survive and overcome this very severe crisis in the capitalist system.

THE SIGNS OF THE CRISIS are the ones we would expect: a large growth in unemployment, severe cutbacks in total production measured by gross national production (GNP), and the closure of many companies. The real reason for the economic crisis is, as usual, the ever existing antagonistic contradiction between the capitalists chasing the maximum profits and the relative decline of the purchasing power of the workers and the majority of the population. Therefore the growth of production in the first years of this century has been replaced by a situation where the market for the goods produced declines, and the products cannot be sold. This cyclical crisis is, as Marx demonstrated many years ago, a situation that emerges regularly for the capitalist system. But the current crisis is not just another - of many - economic crises. There are some very important new characteristics in this crisis. The first very important characteristic is that the crisis is truly global. Only a very few countries in the world have avoided the crisis. Another important characteristic is that large capital, in order to try to maintain its profits, has transferred millions and millions of dollars from the productive sphere to pure speculation in diverse financial packages. The money spent on speculation exceeds by many multiples the money spent in real production. In the long run it is, of Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party in Denmark

course, not possible for a country to build a sustainable economy on speculation. What makes this even more serious is how the state and the working class – (for the working class neither willingly nor knowingly) - have been caught up in financial speculation. In our country it is rather new that, for instance, the money people are saving through their jobs for their pensions has been invested in stocks and speculation. And not many people knew that the money we pay to the state in income tax was also invested on the stock market.

THE NORDIC MODEL OF CAPITALISM was, until the middle of the ‘90s, based on collective benefits paid through taxes. Workers in the public sector also saved money through their wages which ensured a better pension than many private sector workers, and this money was placed – as also was income tax - in public companies where the public was in the control, or in bonds. In thiscrises municipalities as well as the state and pension companies have lost a lot of money in the financial meltdown. Through this the people have lost money. What has been the political reaction of the rulers to the economic crisis? The reaction has been more or less the same in most countries: Very big financial subsidies to the banks, to other financial institutions, and to the capitalist companies. And everywhere these subsidies are paid mainly by the tax payers, by the workers and by vulnerable groups such as the elderly, families with children, the youth, people in hospitals, etc., who have suffered a severe reduction in public service.

In Denmark the main reaction from our bourgeois government and our Social Democrats has been two so-called ‘bankpackages’ that transferred thousands of millions to the banking sector, gave direct and indirect subsidies to companies, and gave tax reductions to the richer section of the population. On the other side the government has severely cut back the state’s finances, and has dictated that the municipalities, who are responsible for most of the public service, should cut back their services, etc. On one hand the result has been that civil servants, teachers, etc employed in the social sector and in the health sector have been fired. And on the other hand the result has been a deterioration of the public service. The budgets for next year have just been decided in the municipalities, and the state budget is about to be decided in the parliament. We have had big demonstrations in many towns against cutbacks in schools, in childcare and care for the elderly. A specific area of struggle and discussion in Denmark is our healthcare, our public hospitals. In Denmark hospitals have always been public. Private hospitals are a new thing for us. They exist now, and people are allowed to demand treatment in a private hospital, if they have to wait more than one month for treatment in a public hospital. The tax payers are paying for the excessive prices there, and this money is taken away from the public hospitals. In a time of crises, people protest, but on the other hand, everybody wants to be cured as fast as possible. For us communists this is an important ideological struggle between public and collective rights for all and liberπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

alist individualism. We say: Pay for your individual rights. The collective rights in our country were not handed to the working class as a gift, we have fought for them through generations.

IN OUR CONGRESS in May this year the party drew up a programme to make capitalism pay for the crisis instead of the working class. In our analysis we point out that the crisis is a crisis for the capitalist system as such, and that the economic crisis goes hand in hand with an energy crisis, a food crisis and an environmental crisis, and at the same time the imperialist foreign policy, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is hidden by the crisis. We therefore concluded that since the capitalist crisis is man-made and should be solved by the working people, the only durable solution is to abolish capitalism as a system and replace it with socialism. But until we achieve this goal we put forward a series of important demands, of which I shall just mention a few: The banking sector should be nation-

alised. In order to relieve unemployment much

more investment should take place in public services including renovation of railways, schools, hospitals, non-profit dwellings. To relieve the situation for those directly affected by the crisis, including the unemployed, we demand - amongst other important steps - that taxes on food and medicine should be lifted, that

the unemployment benefit should be raised, that the prices for water, gas, heating and electricity should be frozen. These kind of actions cannot solve the crisis but can make living easier for the working class and ordinary people. We have discussed these matters with our comrades in the trade unions, and they have now started a campaign, signing a mass petition demanding 25% more in unemployment support. Many trade unions, even national unions lead by the social democrats, are supporting this petition, and are demanding it from the government. Our argument is, of cause, that when so many are losing their jobs, they are losing at least 50% of their income. Subsequently they can buy less, which means more problems for the companies selling their goods, which creates more unemployment and so on.

A PROBLEM FOR OUR STRUGGLE is the propaganda propagated through the media. First of all they all stubbornly call the crisis “the financial crisis”. And second, all media, including the television, daily reports from the so called stock-market about several indexes which people don’t understand at all. Now they are declaring that the crisis is about to be reversed, because this and that index has gone up some points. But they never connect it with the increase in unemployment and the increase in the number of people who cannot pay for their houses or apartments because of unemployment. And that is where we see the economic crisis, the crisis of the capitalist system. The crisis which will continue to reπB - 1/2010 communist party in Denmark

cur, and capitalism will not be able to maintain its speculation and massive maximum profit, because people are poor and unemployed. The last aspect to which we would like to draw your attention is the measures our government has taken in the present situation. We are not only thinking of the so called anti-terrorist legislation, but new laws. As you all probably know, Denmark is hosting the international Climate summit (COP15) in December. At the moment our parliament is about to pass a special law. It is not yet fully finalised because of many public protests, and also objections from legal experts. But you can be sure it will be passed. The law will mean that the police can arrest people for prevention purposes, if they suspect people of planning to take part in a demonstration where there might be violence. It also says that if you have a sit-down demonstration, you are obstructing the work of the police, and will be immediately arrested, and be subject to a statutory summary sentence without being brought before a court. The police and the government have already publicly practised this new strategy in order to see how it will work. Iraqi refugees who were denied asylum had asked for protection in a church in the middle of a working class area in Copenhagen against the authorities who wanted to send them back to Iraq. These people had lived in Denmark for many years, isolated in terrible camps. The solidarity was enormous. In the middle of the night the police came, went into the church and took away the sleeping men in front of their mothers, wives and

children. Immediately a lot of people gathered outside the church and through a sitdown demonstration tried to stop the police taking the men away. The police brutally baton-charged the demonstrators. It was all filmed, and it became a very big event in the press â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and still is. Most of the men are now back in Iraq, many of them have been arrested, and many of them havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been heard from since. It was and is a big scandal, but nothing happened to the minister or to the police. And now the new law will make it legal. The Danish people had collected a lot of money to support the families who are still in Denmark, but now the court has confiscated all that money. The government is playing hardball, and it feels like a police state.

NEVERTHELESS we are sure that there will be many big demonstrations in connection with the summit in Copenhagen, and a lot of NGO activities. Surely the biggest event is a large demonstration organized by the Danish-Cuban Friendship Association, our communist parties, trade unions, solidarity movements and other progressives. On the 17th of December 2009, at the end of the summit, we have organized a large public solidarity meeting with all the presidents from the 9 ALBA countries in Latin America. As far as we know at present, most of them will be there. There is room for 5.000 people in the hall, and we are selling tickets. But they are already very much in demand, so if any of you will be in Copenhagen during the summit and wish to attend the meeting, please tell us, and we shall book tickets for you. Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

So, comrades, we are struggling in Denmark as are all of you. The capitalist system is a dying system, but its death takes time, and they will not give up voluntarily. That is why they create this special legislation and make such a big event out of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, among other things. We are all struggling in our countries and regions, but the struggle against capitalism and for socialism is an international struggle where international meetings, as the present one, can play an enormous role in inspiring us all and in the coordination of national activities.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party in Denmark

Why talk about the economic crises of cap-

Communist Party of Denmark HENRIK STAMER HEDIN

italism? Everybody knows that capitalism is haunted by crises. So why talk about it? We were told that economic crises, cyclical crises were a thing of the past – that in these modern days of regulated capitalism these things were just not tolerated anymore. We were told this when I was young; we were told this again a couple of years ago; it was wrong.

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THE CRISIS. Contrary to what is often said it did not come as a surprise. Rather, it was expected and predicted by many. The only thing surprising was that it took so long coming – or rather: that it proved possible to postpone it for such a long time. It started no less than twenty years, as a matter of fact. The current doomsday crisis began in 1987 with the heaviest slump that the New York Stock Exchange had ever experienced in a single day – 1929 included. And a genuine crisis did follow: by the winter of ’89-’90 production had begun shrinking in the leading capitalist industrial countries, and unemployment was on the rise. But at that very moment – paradoxically and ironically, one might say – occurred the liquidation of socialism in Europe. East European economies were laid open to western capitalist initiative – and the lack of it – and it proved possible to “rub off” the crisis on Eastern Europe. This was most obvious in Germany, where industrial enterprises in the East were shut down massively in order for their western counterparts to survive, but the same thing happened in the other formerly socialist countries, and it was these countries, not capitalist Western Europe, that got to feel the destructive effects of the crisis with production slumps of 30-50 percent – the sad story which we know only too well. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Two years earlier it was the fall of capitalism that was on the horizon; now the former doomsday prophets were cheering the fall of socialism. The only one of the big capitalist countries to experience fully the crisis was Japan, having nowhere to pass on the crisis. And the Japanese economy still has not recovered. Further crises ensued throughout the ‘90s and the beginning of the new millennium, but each time imperialism was able to “rub off” the crisis on some peripheral growth area – now the Southeast Asian “Small Tigers”, now Latin America. Production was boosted by wars, and a general consumer optimism was boosted by blatant propaganda claiming a “historic” boom every time the market revived a little. Thus it has been going on for twenty years. Now there are no peripheral regions left on which to rub off the crisis: Eastern Europe has been smashed to pieces; Latin America has turned its back on the very neo-liberalism that made possible the rubbing off; South East Asia is itself hit by the crisis. Now the US, Europe, and Japan are feeling the full brunt of the crisis at the same time. For these last two years it has been obvious for all to see how false the picture of blooming capitalism was. It began with a payment crisis in US housing; the “subprime crisis” it was labeled. It spread to the banking sector and was relabeled “financial crisis” and “credit crisis”. Stock rates nosedived, capital was annihilated, and those surviving fled from the financial exchange markets to speculative investment in raw materials, oil and foodstuffs; food prices soared, and the label

was changed to “food crisis”. Later, though, prices slumped again, and this year major parts of the world, Europe in particular, has experienced genuine deflation. Price slumps were followed by slumps in production and employment, in income and welfare, and it has become clear that this is not some “special” crisis, but a classical and general crisis: A capitalist surplus production crisis. As such, the current crisis is among the worst in history, comparable to the Great Depression of the ‘30s. Some prominent economists even point out that certain statistical indicators of the current crisis are worse than the corresponding data for the first two years of the Depression. These economists accordingly warn against believing that it will all be over next year, even though figures for production and employment this summer seem to promise so, and even though stocks have been rising since March. Against the optimists’ expectation of a “V-development”, i.e. a fast recovery following the slump, they suggest a “U-scenario” of more delayed recovery, a “W-scenario”, in which temporary recovery is followed by a new slump before the crisis is finally done with, or even an “L-scenario” or “Japanese disease”, thus labeled because of the prolonged crisis in Japan of which I have already spoken. If this summer’s fragile signs of improvement are really promising a recovery, it can at any rate be predicted with a fair degree of certainty that the entire cycle is going to repeat itself before long. For these last six months’ pronounced stock rate risπB - 1/2010 communist party of Denmark

es, coinciding with a rise in bond rates causing the interest rate to go down, show that there is still lots of surplus capital, or fictitious capital, around seeking in speculation the profits that it is not able to find in material production, and thus that the necessary reorganization of the economic circuit of capitalism has not yet been brought to its conclusion. To put it another way: The recovery has come too fast and depends entirely on government intervention aimed precisely at saving the very same surplus capital which caused the crisis. The expectation that the recovery will not last is therefore widespread among economists. In Denmark the crisis has led to bank crashes, mass sackings, and elimination of jobs in industry, and recently it has been announced that the country’s last great shipyard is to be closed down in the space of three years. Official, heavily embellished unemployment numbers have exceeded a hundred thousand. In a population of just five million, mass unemployment is back after just a short break.

endeavour is to set up a joint committee later this winter with the purpose of convening some time next year an open conference on the crisis of capitalism and the socialist alternative. It is our hope that in this way we can succeed in getting together a new, broad force critical of capitalism and capitalist solutions, thus creating a new consensus of the Left and a new agenda of Danish politics.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF DENMARK, at its National Committee plenary of February this year, reacted by issuing an appeal “To the progressive forces in Denmark”. The crisis calls for activity and alternatives. In this document we call on the other workers’ parties, the trade unions, and other popular forces to join in a “common effort” for “new initiatives capable of adding dynamism and renewed life to the task of developing democratic and socialist alternatives to the bankrupt capitalist structures”. Our aim and πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

AS COMMUNISTS we are internationalist

Communist Party of Finland JUHA-PEKKA VÄISÄNEN

by nature. We have gathered here in New Delhi, India because of our ideology. Communism is not a frozen concept preserved in the history books. We are here to make an up-to-date analysis of the state of our struggle, strength of our solidarity, and set out new collective tasks. Socialism is not a tool used by the antiquarians. This 11th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ parties can be a lively example of the active use of the political tool we have for our common ideology. Let us use it for strengthening our togetherness and finding more friends than enemies. On behalf of the Communist Party of Finland, I want to salute the organizers, both the Communist Parties of India and the participating parties from all over the world. I am sure that we can express our strength on those issues that will bring us ever closer on ideological questions and providing concrete actions for a better world. We all know that every one of us faces a multitude of daily socio-economical and political problems in our countries. It is no news to say that once again we suffer from worldwide global economic crisis. In Sao Paolo last year we said that the crisis is probably the gravest crisis since the Great Depression started by the 1929 crash. We declared that socialism is the alternative and the victories of the left forces in Latin America inspire us. In Minsk, Belarus we said that the ideas of October 1917 are more relevant than ever before. In Lisbon we concentrated on the strategy of imperialism and the energy issue. The word “We” is so much more than the solitary “I” word. We communists expressed a few months ago our solidarity with Palestine and Syria at the Syria / Israel

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Finland

border and demanded a free Golan Heights. The extraordinary meeting held in beautiful Syria underlined the right of the Palestinian people to their independence, freedom and peace. Solidarity both in words and concrete actions is essential and important.

FINLAND IS KNOWN for thousands of lakes, sauna and high technology innovations. Our political map today is drawn by young conservative urban professionals and “green” businessmen based on an idea that “Everything is for sale”. You may call it ultraliberal or neo-liberal but in the end it is a concrete example of repulsive capitalism. Right-wing Finnish politicians have tried to create new faces to show how surprised they are by the actual global crisis. Capitalists say that the crisis came like the “first snow”. We Nordic, Finnish communists are not surprised at all that the cold capitalist system has not been able to take care of the basic needs of people like the right to work, health care, home, environment and peaceful living. We communist are not surprised at all that the rich have become even richer and the poor have become even poorer. We, the representatives of the working class and oppressed, should pay more attention in our speeches on how to direct our ideological, theoretical brainstorming into a clear understandable message that brings concrete actions around the words of our ideology. We may not have the advertising companies to help us do the talks, campaigns and calculate public opinion. But we always have the theory of Marx and Lenin and the working man_s dream. It is no use being surprised. It is no use to stay passive

and let egoists takes the stage. Perhaps theory without action works in academic seminars held at universities. The current situation urges us to find action, to find the way out of the capitalist crisis. We cannot make the big mistake and leave the practical part of political struggle, the action for the big stakes, to the capitalists and the new racist nationalist parties. They will certainly run campaigns like the Lisbon Treaty of the European Union to privatise and to militarise whole continents. Capitalists use their neo-liberal power to create new positions like presidents and foreign ministers as has been shown in the EU recently. New radical ways of protest against capitalism’s politics of privatization have burst out of peoples’ creative initiatives. The alternative has its origins in people’s own initiatives. We communists must function as a power-house of political know-how and develop communal and social strategies together with a large number of different left and progressive forces, trade-unionists and action groups. Who would have imagined that thousands of Finnish nurses would quit their jobs during a strike to make the demand for better wages more effective? Who would have expected that famous artists would sing atand meetings fighting against closing down paper mills? It wasn’t only because of the communists that some changes for better happened and it wasn’t only the radical activists one could name. It was the collective power of the people that was shown. It was the unity of the people that made the difference. Mass movements are our political tools. Our only way out of crises, the πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

economical, ecological and political crises is to organize and join mass movements, class based trade-unions, non-governmental organizations and diverse groups that have influence in the civic society. Our way out is collaboration and solidarity. Even little success can lift up the resistance and political consciousness. “First we were only three activists and soon there were thousands protesting on the streets”. Marxist education of new cardres is essential. At the same time when the party collaborates with actions groups, it must have a clear vision of how to educate new young and older party members to a Marxist analysis. We like to talk a lot about our scientific approach to ideology. For example, I do not have a scientific education. I have a higher academic degree but it does not directly mean that without special training I could not start produce scientific Marxist analysis. Therefore it is important to understand different needs of Marxist education in the party work. A nurse does not have to feel underestimated in the party because her analysis and Marxist theory is not a scientific one. I dare to think that we even more need the working man’s vision and participation in bringing new perspectives in our political analysis. We need a large variety of perspectives and a bright intellectual collective mechanism to produce that political vision into a national and global plan of action. In Finland we have created new Marxist study groups that combine actual and local political questions and people have shown growing interest in studies. The Communist Party of Finland has just published a book

with a title The Actual Crisis and Marx. Even if we struggle with very tiny budgets every time a new Marxist book comes out it gathers the new and old activist to debate about the actual political questions like Climate Change and wars, European extreme right and nature crisis, Poverty and Pandemics’, Marx and working class today are just some topics from our new book. Currently in Finland we are fighting concretely against the right wing government’s labour politicies which demand workers to lower their wages in the name of competitiveness and productivity. Private and state-owned companies have vastly increased their profits. During the last decade (1999-2008) Finnish companies made some €325 billion in profits which is almost the same as what was spent on the national state budget during the same years. During the period we are observing companies have paid profits more that €128 billion. It is essential to understand that it is neo liberal policies that have increased the companies profits and competitiveness has not had any positive influence on employment.

PUBLIC OPINION IN FINLAND is against NATO membership. The political elite and right wing forces are campaigning for a future NATO membership of Finland. Few of them say it with open and direct words but concrete actions and steps to prepare joining the Nato have been taken over the years. Finnish troops take part the NATOled operation in the Afghanistan war. Just a few weeks ago the government decided to buy a new US-Norwegian air defense system that is in use in NATO countries. The toπB - 1/2010 communist party of Finland

tal price for the system, which includes a new radar system, will exceed over â&#x201A;Ź520 million. This purchase is the biggest for the Finnish Defense Forces since the Air Force acquired US-built F-18 Hornet jet fighters. Finland has also agreed to give NATO all radar information from its territory. There is a new type of campaign against NATO. Actions groups use Facebook and other social media in this campaign. There are groups like mothers, librarians, students, nurses, journalists, gays, lawyers, artist etc. against NATO. These groups play an important role in giving concrete faces to the majority that is against NATO. It is important that a variety of arguments is presented in this struggle for a better world without wars, oppression an injustice.

FINALLY I want to underline the importance of the unity of all left forces in our common fight against capitalism and imperialism, for democracy, peace and socialism. The experiences of the Indian communists and other left forces in developing this unity are important for us in Finland, too. I thank you for your attention. Long live internationalism! Long live friendship! Long live solidarity!

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE MANIFESTA-

German Communist Party HEINZ STEHR

TIONS of the crisis of neoliberal capitalism have profoundly changed conditions in the world. This is also true for the Federal Republic of Germany, which is a highly developed capitalist country; well known for being the “world champion of exports” up to the year 2008. The crisis in the banks alone took eight hundred thousand million Euro to put right, in the final analysis to save the wealth of the rich. It is the population who has to carry the burden of the crisis. In the first half of 2009 alone there were 16,650 company insolvencies, with 254,000 people losing their jobs. For the second half of 2009 another 18,500 bankruptcies are forecast with about 300,000 further redundancies. In the winter of 2009/2010 the official unemployment figure could well rise to more than five million people. If you include those unemployed people that are excluded from the statistics by tricks and manipulation, the real number of unemployed people might well far exceed six million. In the realm of government, which include the state, the regional states and the cities, €45 billion is missing in 2009. Up to 2012, the tax losses will add up to €316 billion. The national debt will rise to €1.7 trillion. The consequences of this will be cuts in programmes for employment, in public subsidies for the rent insurance and for health insurance; the employed people alone will have to pay for the additional costs. The systems of social insurance in Germany will be changed in a negative way. The absolute impoverishment of increasing parts of the population is rising. In this rich country one in three children has to grow up under conditions of poverty. More than one third of the overall workforce must work under working conditions which are not normal - and this tendency is increasing. πB - 1/2010 German communist party

How does the consciousness of people change in this negative situation? There is resistance coming from some workforces in affected factories, administrations and branches of industry and from some parts of the affected population. But up to now a comprehensive and united resistance is lacking, especially resistance coming from the workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and trade union movements. One reason for this is the widespread fear of both the working and unemployed population of losing their jobs or to suffering social decline. Another reason is anti-communism, which still guarantees that no alternative to the capitalist social system is being discussed, and the united power of the media which gets the people to believe that they are to blame and that they are responsible individually. Anti-capitalist, socialist and communist forces are not influential enough, they have no effective strategy developed together to change this situation in a positive way. At least this is the situation today. Now, after the general election, the contradictions are sharpening. On every important issue the bourgeois right-wing government is advocating the political positions of the bourgeoisie. The development of extra-parliamentary struggle will be crucial to make existing political positions effective, which reflect the majority opinions of the population. In the Federal Republic of Germany a majority of the population is convinced that this situation is unfair. The majority demands an immediate end to Germanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement in the war in Afghanistan. The majority also thinks that Socialism in gener-

al is a good social system - which unfortunately cannot be realized, as demonstrated by the experiences of the former Socialist countries in Europe. Who are the forces in a position to act politically in a way which can change things? These are first of all the trade unions; with more than 7 million members they are still the biggest and decisive factor in the formation of left politics. The challenge is to develop class-orientated positions in these predominantly reformist trade unions as well as corresponding forms of struggle to achieve these demands. The different forces of the left include left-wing reformist positions, especially advocated by the party Die Linke (The Left), as well as positions developed on the basis of scientific socialism, which are reflected in the DKP and in other organisations. There are also some very important are popular mass movements, for example the peace movement, the ecology movement, the movement for democracy; but also movements on issues like migration, international solidarity, solidarity with socialist Cuba, and other issues discussed in the general public. One of the central challenges of the near future is to consolidate these movements, to bundle them up as demands recognised as correct by all these forces. This process is not only the formation of counter-balance in the national framework - but also the linking-up within the European Union and beyond to meet world-wide challenges as well. What, from the point of view of the DKP, can be expected from the communist and Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

working class movement in this situation of profound manifestations of capitalist crisis? We need to agree on a program of action on decisive problems. We need it to develop pressure for our demands and our politics in our respective countries as well as in internationally linked campaigns. These could be campaigns:

ian internationalism. Che Guevara was right when he said: Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples!

For peace, against every form of war and

intervention A common struggle against unemployment For the rights of the migrants of this world For ecological conditions which correspond to the living interests of the peoples. We should, for example, agree upon a common appeal on the 1st of May, the international fighting day of the working class. We could use the 8th of May, the day of liberation from fascism and war, as an opportunity to come out firmly in favour of putting an end to the imperialist wars in all countries. We could exchange speakers for meetings in our respective countries. An annual international conference about issues corresponding to our demands could also be a useful contribution.

OUR INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION must be more concrete and visible; it must become easier to experience in reality in order that this collaboration will attract more people to our parties. The DKP is convinced that especially this globalized world of neoliberalism has to be confronted by proletarĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 German communist party

We would like to thank the Communist Par-

Communist Party of Greece GIORGOS MARINOS

ty of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India for hosting and organizing the Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. The fact that the International Meeting takes place in Asia for the first time is a very significant step. Amongst others, it underlines our solidarity with the peoples in the region that increasingly become the target of the imperialist plans and rivalries as well as our solidarity with the struggle of the communist parties that often face extremely difficult conditions, persecutions, discrimination, assassinations.

THE EXAMINATION OF THE DEVELOPMENTS regarding the capitalist crisis will enrich our experience and it will contribute to the development of the communists’ struggle. Communists study the capitalist crisis, its causes and its consequences, the conditions it creates for the development of the ideological, political and mass struggle. Nevertheless, the concentration of our attention on the capitalist crisis should not distract us from the capitalist development of the previous period in which the factors that led to the crisis developed. Furthermore, the working people must treat the capitalist development in a unified way in all the stages of the economic cycle and draw conclusions as well. Capitalism is not dangerous only in the phase of crisis, the economic recession. It is dangerous as a whole. Because in all its stages it is characterized by the exploitation of the labour force, by the surplus value which is created by unpaid labour, by the drive for capitalist profit which is the life and soul of the capitalist system. Even in conditions of economic rise, of expansion of production and increase in the wealth produced by the workers, it is big πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

capital that appropriates the fruits of this development, increasing its profit and its power. The profits of magnates, bankers, ship-owners as well as other sectors of the plutocracy, the strengthening of monopoly capital are immense. On the contrary, workers face increasing unemployment, the freezing of salaries and pensions, an increase in the retirement age, the downgrading of the right to education, healthcare, welfare, sports, culture, as well as the heavy consequences from the privatizations and liberation of markets of fields and sectors of the economy. These tendencies do not apply merely to the capitalist countries that hold an intermediate or subordinate position in the capitalist pyramid. They also apply to the US, to the EU as an interstate imperialist organisation; they apply in the capitalist world as a whole. On this ground the preconditions of the crisis developed. Therefore, the communist parties must struggle in order to highlight the real causes of the crisis and reveal the false allegations of social democracy and opportunism that use many pretexts in order to safeguard capitalism and conceal its irreconcilable contradictions. There can be no retreat; the ideologicalpolitical struggle must intensify. We must respond resolutely to the allegations of the bourgeois and opportunist forces, especially to that of the European Left Party and the party “die Linke” that play a leading role in the attempt to promote capital’s positions in the working class. We must respond to the new wave of anti-communism unfolding on the occasion of the 20

years of the counter-revolution with the full supported of liberal, social democratic and opportunist forces.

FIRST: the allegation that the crisis has been caused exclusively by the neo-liberal management conceals the truth, it exonerates capitalism from its responsibilities and whitewashes social democracy. Capitalism has suffered crises since the 19th century. With its transition to the imperialist stage crises took on a systemic character. All forms of management have been tested in order to prevent and avoid crises: the reinforcement of the state commercial activity and the stimulation of demand according to the new Keynesian recipes; likewise the neoliberal recipes but also the mixtures of social democratic and neoliberal policies. However, the laws of capitalism insist. Economic crises of overproduction manifested themselves in all periods, irrespective of the form of management. The capitalist restructurings initiated after the crisis of 1973 and spread in the 1990s have not occurred by accident. Their goal was to deal with the problems concerning the reproduction of capital and the slowdown of capitalist development. These changes meet the internal need of the system for a bigger centralization and profit making of capital through the liberation of markets, the free movement of capital, goods, services and workforce. But even this management has lost its dynamics; it led to an economic crisis. SECOND: the characterization of the crisis as a financial one and the theory of casinoπB - 1/2010 communist party of Greece

capitalism conceal the real causes of the crisis. Furthermore, they have been refuted by the developments as the crisis has already embraced all spheres of economy. The history of the crises has proved that they can initially manifest themselves in the financial system but their root is the overaccumulation of capital that takes place in the sphere of production. The bad loans granted by banks and other financial companies in the US have served a specific need: to provide a profitable way out to over-accumulated capital that included the surplus value created by the exploitation of the labour force, by the unpaid labour in production; to provide a way out to over-accumulated capital and continue the expanded reproduction overcoming the problems regarding the purchasing power of the workers’ families by means of lending for purchasing homes or the satisfaction of other needs. The analysis of these complicated issues regarding the reproduction of social capital requires the comprehensive examination of the relationship between industrial, commercial and bank capital, taking into account that in the era of imperialism, even more so nowadays, the merging of industrial with bank capital, the formation of financial capital has taken on huge dimensions. The real cause of the crisis is the intensification of the main contradiction of capitalism, the contradiction between the social character of production and the capitalist appropriation of its results due to the fact that the means of production are under capitalist ownership. The goal

of capitalism is profit and not the satisfaction of the people’s needs. These elements prevail in the exploitative system; they constitute the basis of the anarchic, uneven development; the basis of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall which is caused by the increase of the organic composition of capital; the basis of the contradiction between production and consumption. These factors lead to disfunctions in the reproduction of social capital, to “outbreaks”, and crises of overproduction. We struggle so that the people realise the real causes of the crisis and we devote all our forces to the organisation of the struggle of the working class and the popular strata against the capitalist aggressiveness and the anti-peoples policy that supports capital and tries to place the burden of the crisis on the peoples’ shoulders. People should draw conclusions. Trillions of dollars have been allocated for the reinforcement of bankers, magnates and other capitalists strengthening the offensive on workers’ and peoples’ forces, the effort to make them pay for the capitalist crisis. This course is followed both in the US and the EU as well as in other capitalist countries, both by neoliberal and social democratic parties. The decision of the G20 is also in the same direction. Their contradictions reflect the rivalries between the monopoly interests they serve. Capitalist powers fear the crisis of capital over-accumulation overproduction that embraces the US, the EU, Russia, Japan and Latin America causing a slowdown in the economy of China and India. In order to mislead the people they use πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

several contrived theories; they promote false expectations in order to check the social reactions and hinder the development of class struggle. The social democratic forces, the Socialist International and its cadres play a leading role in this effort.

FIRST: they present the control of the movement of capital as a way out, they talk about the democratization of the World Bank and the European Central Bank. However, it has been proved that nothing can prevent the sharpening of capitalist contradictions and that no measure can change the nature of the bank system which is a tool of capitalism. SECOND: they promote the nationalization of certain banks or other capitalist enterprises as a way out. This position is deceptive because even in that case the criterion of profit remains on the ground of a liberated market that breeds competition and aggressiveness against the peoples. THIRD: they are worried about the increase of unemployment and as a solution they promote the increase of the development rates combined with the so-called “green development”. They are actually fooling the peoples. Capitalist development has never managed to ensure the right to work for all the people, and it won’t do so. The source of the evil is the fact that the means of production are in the hands of the capitalists, that profit is the criterion for the development and that in any case the system is characterized by anarchy in production and the uneven devel-

opment between various fields and sectors of the economy as well as geographical areas. This fact underlines that under capitalism workers can never be before profits; it reveals how misleading the assertions about “rationalized”, “human” capitalism and the regulation of the market are. Communists must refute resolutely these illusions about the management of the capitalist system and encounter the difficulties in the organisation and the development of the class struggle, clarifying that there is no common interest between capital and the working class, neither in the phase of the crisis nor in the phase of the revival of the capitalist development. Capitalists and their parties promote new anti-people’s measures in the name of climate changes, concealing the fact that they constitute the result of the exploitation of the natural resources by capital with the aim of making profit. Energy, water, forests, waste, agricultural production, are privatized and accumulated in the hands of a few multi-national corporations, now also in the name of the environment. Similar measures are promoted, to a larger or lesser extent, in all capitalist countries irrespective of the degree of capitalist development. Furthermore, the protection of the environment is also used as a pretext for imperialist interventions. Multi-national monopolies, through the powerful imperialist powers, above all the USA and the EU, promote anti-people interstate agreements in the framework of the WTO and the Doha round of negotiations with the less developed capitalist countries. Thus they set πB - 1/2010 communist party of Greece

goals, for example, for biofuels, which destroy vast forest areas, they promote genetically modified food and other measures as well, striking an even bigger blow to the income of workers and the poor and medium sized peasantry. The “green economy”, promoted mainly by the EU, constitutes a way out for the over-accumulation of capital and the safeguarding of the monopolies’ profits by means of intensifying the exploitation of workers and natural resources; not only does it not solve the problem of climate change but, on the contrary, it intensifies it. Climate and environmental problems cannot be dealt with as detached from the ownership over the concentrated means of production and the issue of political power.

SOCIAL CONCESSION, class collaboration is one of the most insidious and dangerous tools for the manipulation of the working class and its disarmament. We are thus obliged to strengthen the ideological front and struggle against such positions, which in most cases are expressed not only by neoliberal or social democratic parties but also by parties that present themselves as “left”, namely opportunist parties. These parties try to build relationships with communist parties and exert influence on their ranks, their ideology and their policy. Some of these so-called “left” parties do not only promote positions that serve capitalism but they also resort to open anticommunism, they slander socialism and the history of the communist movement. The effort of the communist movement for the unity of the working class

should not be based on its relationship with the so-called “left” opportunist parties; it should depend on its ability to convince, to rally and mobilise working and popular forces against monopolies and imperialism against their open or covert supports. The KKE believes that the clarification of this crucial issue will give an impetus to the struggle of the communist movement; it will strengthen its independent action and the recruitment of new forces in the labour movement. This issue is particularly important for the change in the correlation of forces and the effectiveness of the struggle under the conditions of the crisis but also for the future. Furthermore we would like to stress the following: This intense ideological-political struggle requires a bigger effort to tackle with the developments according to the MarxistLeninist analysis. It also requires the strengthening of the international meetings of communist and workers parties in this direction. Only in that way can the international meetings fulfil their role, respond to the complicated duties of the communists and meet the expectation of the working people. In Greece we experience the difficulties of a hard battle characterised by the aggressiveness of the EU and the social democratic government. Under the conditions of the crisis the enforcement of the capitalist restructuring is accelerated, the effort to impose the so-called “flexicurity” and the flexible forms of employment in general intensifies, the policy of dismantling social secuπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

rity rights continues - healthcare, welfare education are being further privatised while salaries and pensions are frozen. All means are used to reduce the price of the labour force, to increase the degree of exploitation and capitalist profit-making. Under these conditions the KKE increases its efforts for the class unity of the working class and the social alliance with the peasantry and the other oppressed popular strata. It insists on the organisation of the working class in the workplaces and the trade unions; it supports PAME, the classoriented pole in the trade union movement that struggles against the forces of yellow trade unionism and fights hard battles for the rights of the working class. The strengthening and the effectiveness of the struggle of the class-pole of the movement require its orientation against the efforts to place the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of the people; likewise the promotion of demands that meet the people’s needs (full-stable employment, substantial increases in wages and pensions, free public healthcare, welfare, education system etc). The trade unions that struggle through the ranks of PAME have achieved significant results. Through strikes, demonstrations, occupations and other forms of struggle they rescind dismissals; they force the employers to reinstate dismissed workers; they sign collective labour contracts that provide increases exceeding the incomes policy; they intercept the attacks against immigrants. The KKE, along with the class oriented movement, confronts these difficulties and

is particularly demanding regarding the strengthening of the ideological, political, mass struggle for the liberation of workingpopular forces from the influence of the bourgeois policy and ideology, reformism. In our opinion, communist parties must combine efforts for the strengthening of the class oriented movement at national level with the strengthening of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) which makes a significant progress in its reconstruction. We should be in a state of alertness. Capitalist crisis intensifies the intra-imperialist contradictions in a period when significant reshufflings take place, when the share of the US and China in the GWP reduce, the EU reinforces its presence and China, Russia, India and Brazil are strengthened. Working people should not have any illusions about the so-called “multipolar world”, about the slogans of social democracy, about the “democratisation of the UN” or the “new architecture of international relations”. These slogans are only intended to humanize capitalism. In fact, there has never been a “unipolar world”! Intra-imperialist contradictions have always existed. Nevertheless, in the past they were mitigated due to the need to confront the USSR and the other socialist countries. Nowadays, we witness a new intensification of the intra-imperialist contradictions as well as the pursuit of several rising imperialist forces and alliances to play an upgraded role in international affairs, which is described through the model of the “multi polar world“. In fact imperialism is characterised by the drive for markets and natural reπB - 1/2010 communist party of Greece

sources. Communists have assumed great responsibilities as regards the enlightenment and mobilisation of the peoples against imperialist wars and interventions, against imperialist occupation, as well as against all imperialist organisations and centres irrespective of their “colour”, their name or the region in which they are formed. The conflicts inside, but also between, the imperialist organisations such as the WTO should not trap the working people in demands for a better or a more “fair” management of the capitalist system. The agreements concluded there reflect the correlation of forces and it is an illusion to believe that they can become fairer. Communists do not struggle for a better position for their country in the world capitalist market or a better management of capitalism but for the overthrow of capitalism and for socialist construction! The working people, both in developed capitalist countries and in countries with medium and lower rate of capitalist development, should respond with a unified common front against the imperialists, against efforts to divide the peoples irrespective of any class criteria into “South and North”, into “rich and poor” countries. Communists must respond to these pseudo-divisions with the elaboration of a common strategy against imperialism, with an even more distinctive unity at global level that will be forged in our coordinated struggles at national, regional and global level in cooperation with other anti-imperialist forces.

The historical slogan of the Communist Manifest “proletarians of all countries, unite!” is still relevant. The distance between capitalists and the working class increases both in the socalled “developing” and “developed” countries. The social contradictions sharpen due to the overall attack, launched by big capital after the overthrow of the socialist system in Europe, on the rights and the gains of the workers around the world. Historical experience has proved that the communist movement strengthens to the extent that it is firmly dedicated to the line of anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly struggle and to its strategic goal, namely to the struggle for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, that is socialism, the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. In the modern era, the era of transition from capitalism to socialism the struggle should not aim at bourgeois democratic transformations but at socialist power that will overthrow the power of the monopolies and solve problems of economic backwardness, dependence etc. The enemies of socialism and the various anti-communists, who celebrated a few days ago the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow of socialism, cannot stop the course of history, no matter what they do. Socialism has made a great historical contribution. In a few years it solved problems that capitalism has not managed to solve throughout centuries. It established the right to work, to free healthcare and education, it developed sports and culture for the people, it abolished πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

the exploitation of man by man, it showed the supremacy of socialism over capitalism. The Soviet Union has been a key factor in the victory over fascism having lost 20 million of its people in the battle. We study the shortfalls, the mistakes, the opportunist deviations that led to the overthrow of socialism; we draw lessons. The socialism of the new century constitutes an integral continuation of the heritage and the lessons of the socialism of the 20th century. Socialism is more relevant and necessary; the intensification of the main contradiction, unemployment, poverty, exploitation and the capitalist crisis show capitalism’s historical limits. The way to the satisfaction of the needs of the people passes through workers’ power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the socialisation of the means of production and land, central planning and workers’ control. This is the beacon that lights our path.

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Greece

On behalf of the Hungarian Communist

Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party GYULA THÜRMER

Workers’ Party, I would like to thank the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India for the invitation and for the excellent organisation of our meeting. The communist movement of India plays a very important role in the international workers movement and we should be grateful for their valuable contribution to the anti-capitalist struggle.

LAST YEAR, IN SAO PAULO we came to some new and very important conclusions. We declared, “The world is facing a grave economic and financial crisis of large proportion. The current crisis is an expression of a deeper crisis intrinsic to the capitalist system which demonstrates capitalism’s historical limits and the need for its revolutionary overthrow.” We think that our estimation is basically correct, and we should not change it. At the same time we should see that capitalism has many possibilities to defend itself, to manipulate the masses and to avoid – at least for now – the socialist revolution. FIRST, there is the propaganda of capitalist reforms. The forces of capitalism do not deny the existence of serious problems but they try to demonstrate that capitalist reform can solve all problems. We should convince the working masses that if they want to live better they should overthrow capitalism. SECOND, there is the gradual liquidation of communist parties. Capitalist forces support politically and financially the opportunist parties and integrate them into the European systems. They use anti-communism and legal and financial pressure against us. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

We should save our clear ideology, strengthen Marxism-Leninism, improve our co-operation.

THIRD, there is the use of right extremist forces. In Hungary and in many other countries of Europe the right extremist forces can profit more from the crisis than we do. The right extremist forces have strengthened their positions in the elections to the European Parliament. Why? In Hungary, the ruling classes have adopted the right extremists as a normal factor of political life. They do not like them but they gave them free access to financial circles and the media. Second, the right extremist forces use political weapons which we cannot use. These are anti-Semitism and racism, primarily antiGypsy emotions. What is the solution? We should be more radical, more revolutionary, and more anti-capitalist. People should see every day that we are with them. HUNGARY is one the weakest elements of contemporary European capitalism. The crisis is far from being solved, and nobody can foresee its consequences. What does it mean? First, Hungary totally depends on Western capital. Multi-national companies produce almost 70 percents of the Hungarian GDP. European capital tries to solve its own problems at the cost of Hungary. That is why there are no signs of recovery in the Hungarian economy. This year the GDP will decrease by 7-9% in comparison with the previous year. Second, people begin to understand more and more what capitalism means.

Unemployment is about 10%. People lose their resources, their savings; more and more people live in poverty. According to the US-based Pew Research Centre 20 years ago 80% of Hungarians supported the market economy. Today only 46% say that they are in favour of capitalism. Under these circumstances, we should not only criticise the capitalist system but we should also demonstrate to the people the real possibility of establishing a new world. We should demonstrate socialism as a real alternative to existing capitalism. We understand our international responsibility. If there are social revolts in Hungary, it will seriously influence Ukraine, Russia, and the countries of Eastern Europe.

THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNIST WORKERS’ PARTY will follow the way of socialist revolution. We should demonstrate that capitalism will never give us a better life, or any place in the parliaments. We should achieve these as a result of serious struggle. However, this way is a realistic way and we can create a new world, socialism. We consider our main task is to prepare the communist party for such a situation. Historical experience shows real revolutionary situations remain unused if the subjective circumstances do not exist at the material time. We create mobile “combat groups” which can participate in different demonstrations, street-actions, and solidarity-events. We are building a new youth organisation with young people deeply devoted to idea of revolution. πB - 1/2010 Hungarian communist workers’ party

We began to go directly to the factories to meet the workers. The experiences are very positive. We are open to all anti-capitalist, antimonopoly initiatives and participate in all social actions, which fight against super markets, against neo-liberal housing policy, against evictions of those who cannot pay for gas and electricity. We are creating a more effective system of alternative media, using the weekly paper “Szabadsag”, the internet and other means. We build up a wide system of homepages of local organisations, using “You Tube” technology, and other modern internet-technologies.

WE FIGHT FOR a more effective co-operation of communist forces in the international area. Since our last meeting in Sao Paulo we deeply studied the experience of the communist parties of Greece and Portugal on how to organise and arouse the masses to greater activity. We strengthened our relations with the left parties of Brazil, Venezuela and other parties of the Sao Paulo Forum to get impulses from the revolutionary process in Latin America. We supported the idea to create the International Communist Review and we take an active part in it. The HCWP has left the European Left Party because we do not agree with the revisionist and opportunist policy of the EL. We want to liquidate capitalism; the European Left wants to make it better. We stand on the basis of Marxism-Leninism,

the theory and practice of the struggle of the classes, the principles of proletarian internationalism. The European Left, unfortunately, is standing on the basis of reformism. The European Left fights against capitalism only in phrases, but, in practice, it helps to strengthen the “democratic” image of the European Union, the European Parliament and the capitalist system generally.

THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNIST WORKERS’ PARTY is now in a very complicated situation. The sympathy of the Hungarian people toward our party is rising. After 20 years of capitalism most of the people begin to understand what capitalist exploitation, unemployment, and social injustice mean. They also realise that the Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party has always stood on their side and fought for their interests. This is an historic opportunity. Perhaps we will not have such again for many years. If we can use this chance, we can get into the parliament in 2010. However, and this is our central problem, we should see that after 20 years of consistent struggle our party has exhausted its financial resources. We have an historic chance in our hands but we do not have money to publish materials and prepare our candidates. It can mean, comrades, that we may not be able to exploit our historic opportunity. In this case, the Hungarian communist movement can find itself in a very grave situation. However, you can be sure that we will never give up. We wish you great successes. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

My greetings to all the delegates of this In-

Communist Party of India S. SUDHAKAR REDDY

ternational Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties on behalf of the Communist Party of India. Our Meeting is taking place in the midst of the most serious economic crisis, bigger than the Great Depression of 1930s. Some economists confine themselves to terming and analyzing it as a financial crisis, which has at the same time affected the world economy and led to an economic crisis. They choose to term this as ‘economic meltdown’. All this is with a view to concealing its real character. These bourgeois commentators are afraid to call it for what it really is, viz. the crisis of capitalism.

A MYTH WAS SOUGHT to be created all these years that capitalism has now reached a stage where it is ‘crisis free’; that this is a thing of the past. Following the end of World War II, and the advent of the Scientific and Technological Revolution, the capitalist system they said, is on a steadily expanding course and the Free Market is fully capable of matching supply with demand; warding off any contradiction, and self-regulating prices etc. They were aware of the century-long history of booms and busts in capitalism. But now, they thought, we had reached the stage of the ‘end of history’ and there was no longer any need to worry. Our homegrown economists and the bourgeois political leadership had drunk deep from the theories of neo-liberalism. They were complacently looking at the soaring Sensex, mounting foreign exchange reserves, the growing inflow of foreign investments, and happily talked of the 9 per cent growth of the economy. They were blissfully unaware of the approaching crisis. They were caught by surprise when the crisis, originating in the US, that citadel πB - 1/2010 communist party of India

of capitalism, swiftly overtook one country after another and began impacting the Indian economy. We are in the era of globalisation. The effect of the crisis is global, and not confined to this or that country. Though economists in the past had noted the cyclical crisis that periodically overtakes the capitalist economy, it was Marx who analysed the laws of motion of capitalism, exposed its inner contradictions and explained the recurring phenomenon of capitalist crisis, arising from ‘over-production’, ‘over-accumulation’ in relation to the ‘aggregate demand’ of the masses. In its drive for profits, for maximizing profits, capitalism expands accumulation and production, at the same time revolutionizing the forces of production. Simultaneously it increases exploitation leading to the misery of the working masses and leaving them in poverty so that the goods produced cannot be profitably sold. In Marx’s own words: “The ultimate reason for all real crisis always remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses as opposed to the drive of capitalist production to develop the productive forces as though only the absolute consuming power of society constituted their limits.” To find a way out of the crisis that has engulfed them, the bourgeois ruling circles everywhere are pouring in billions of dollars from public funds as bail-out packages for the captains of business and industry and for stimulating demand. The burden is passed on to the workers and the common people through retrenchment, closures, wage-cuts, price rises and so forth. Thus profits are in a

way ‘privatized’ while losses are ‘nationalized’ and shoved on to the shoulders of the people. All this, however, cannot save capitalism from crisis as the very same system is sought to be continued. It is clearer than ever that the system has to be changed if we are to be rid of crisis. Egged on by the imperialists and their financial institutions like the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation which they dominate, India also became a part of the ‘Washington Consensus’ hoping this will enable it to advance and grow. Liberalisation, privatization, globalisation and the Free Market system were pushed through as so-called economic reforms. The fast economic growth only led to unheard of polarization with a handful of multi-billionaires emerging, some rising to be among the richest of the world, with wealth equivalent to 25% of the GDP of India in their pockets while 77 per cent of the people (84 crores) eked out an existence with less than Rs. 20 a day. More than one and a half lakh farmers committed suicide to get out of the misery of indebtedness and ruin. A large majority mostly from dalits, adivasis and Muslim minorities were excluded from any process of development. This stark reality is forcing the ruling circles to speak more and more about ‘inclusive growth’. But this remains a mirage. Meanwhile corporate entities prospered and even turned into multi-nationals with mergers and acquisitions. Prices rose to the skies. The common man could hardly meet his basic needs not to speak of accessing healthcare and education. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

INDIA AVOIDED the disastrous effect of the financial crises to a great extent precisely because its financial sector was mostly in the public domain and the Left prevented it from being privatized. Even so, the economic crises had an adverse impact, especially in the export industries, leading to heavy job losses, closures and retrenchment. But the ruling party drew no lessons from the disastrous course of neo-liberalism. It went on pretending that there is nothing to worry about, that every thing will be soon alright, and in fact is already getting alright. It missed the opportunity to change course and prescribed even more of the same prescriptions. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that an economy as big as that of India was bound to pull its weight in the world. Neo-liberal reforms have led to a situation where with all the vast resources in personnel and material that India possesses, it ranks very low in the human development index. Even in other indices the position of India is very disappointing. Taking note of the yawning disparities between the rich, who are getting richer by the day and are vulgarly flaunting their wealth, and the desperately poor majority of people whose miseries are getting worse by the day, the ruling party is trying to carry out some reform measures. These are for instance, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Right of Tribals in forests, the Housing Mission and so forth. We from the Left have supported these measures and are pressing for their honest implementation. But they have severe lim-

itations. Such well-intentioned sectoral reform measures can hardly reverse the situation without a radical transformation of the capitalist system. They are at best palliatives. Agriculture, which is the source of livelihood for 65 per cent of our people, is in a state of chronic crisis. It suffers from the relics of the earlier land relations superimposed by aggressive capitalist offensives. Land reforms have been given the go-bye and there is talk of corporatisation and contract farming. Food production is severely lagging behind the growth of population. Hunger and starvation stalk certain parts of the land. Droughts and floods which periodically devastate one or other region, further aggravate the situation. Food security is a major issue confronting our people. This calls for increased production and adequate availability of all essential food items at affordable prices to all people. The farmer is the key player in food and agricultural production. Today, farmers are fighting for land (against land acquisition under the old Act from British colonial times), for cheaper prices for inputs, and remunerative prices for their produce, such as rice, wheat, sugarcane etc. A country as big as India with a population exceeding 110 crores, cannot rely on food imports, except under exceptional circumstances. Food is the biggest political weapon in the hands of imperialism. India has experience of it, from the past. Today the country is faced with a similar situation. In the name of completing the Doha Round of negotiations under the WTO, pressure is being mounted on India, by the USA in parĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of India

ticular, to compromise and sacrifice its interests in agriculture. That will adversely affect our farmers and the common people. Trade unions of all shades of political opinion have come together and are organizing big united militant actions against high prices, closures and job losses, for a fair deal for farmers and agricultural labour and other sections of unorganized workers. About 40 million people in India earn their livelihood from retail trade. This section is threatened by the aggressive designs of Wal Mart, Carrefour etc. in collaboration with big domestic corporate entities to take over retail trade. This is being pushed forward by Government in the name of encouraging FDI in business. Our rich mineral resources, iron ore and manganese ore for instance, are literally being looted by MNCs. They are working in tandem with mine mafias who are enriching themselves fabulously at the cost of the nation. All these sections are playing with Big Money to buy up unscrupulous bourgeois politicians and influence our political institutions and limbs of governments. Money power is becoming a threat to our electoral system, and thus to democracy itself. Huge funds are stashed away in Swiss and other tax havens abroad. The government is dragging its feet in unravelling and combating these elements. Foreign hands and domestic operators are collaborating in these activities, which are also the sources of huge corruption in economic, political and social life. It is leading to a social and moral crisis in society. Communists and other left and democratic parties and elements are

trying to alert the people against such evil forces.

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM is trying its utmost to draw India into a strategic partnership in support of its global designs. The series of Indo-US agreements signed in recent years, especially the defence deals and including the Indo-US nuclear deal, in addition to their avowed purpose also impose curbs on our sovereignty and our independent foreign policy. US imperialism has also pushed India into defence agreements with Israel, which have made Israel the biggest arms supplier for India. The Indian people have made untold sacrifices for their freedom. They will not permit any power to subvert their independence and sovereignty. But under the garb of globalisation in the economic sphere and strategic partnership in the defence and political sphere, the various moves of the government are cause of concern. The election of Barrack Obama as President of the USA has brought about certain changes as far as the approach and some tactical moves are concerned, compared to the days of the Bush Presidency. But to think that this will eventually change the essence and character of American imperialism, will be wide off the mark. It is not any individual that is at the root of the American Administration and its military-industrial complex. They continue unaltered. The role of the individual can be appreciated within the framework of the social, economic and political forces that determine the system and the changes that are likely to occur Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

within it. Therefore, one need not harbour too many illusions about Obama’s Presidency.

OF COURSE, THE PRESENT GLOBAL CRISIS, the weakening of the dollar, a certain weakening of the dominant position of the US economy, an end to unilateralism and the growth and rise of several countries and groupings, have seriously undermined the American hegemony and destroyed the dream of the ‘American Century’, though it still remains and will remain for sometime more, the most powerful military and economic power. The world is today becoming multi-polar. What is called for is the abolition of the world capitalist system and its replacement by a new system which emancipates mankind and ends the exploitation of man by man and of one country by another. Global capitalism in its pursuit of superprofits is seriously destroying the environment and endangering the civilized life of future generations. The resources of the planet are not limitless and with their depletion, human civilization will head towards a catastrophe. Capitalist production and extended reproduction has ruthlessly exploited and ravaged nature, boastfully claiming to have mastered it. Developing countries, and even the rising socialist countries have unfortunately followed in the footsteps of the developed capitalist countries in this matter. Non-renewable sources of energy are being consumed at a rate that spells a looming catastrophe. The world is today facing a climate change arising from greenhouse gas emis-

sion. The biggest culprit is the USA followed by a host of other developed capitalist countries. America refused to limit and cut its gas emission and failed to sign the Kyoto Protocol which was an effort at collectively regulating it. The Kyoto Protocol is due to expire in 2012, and the question is what after Kyoto? In the interest of mankind’s survival, and maintaining the eco-balance and biophysical condition of the planet, we have to ensure that mandatory and binding cuts are accepted by America and other developed countries, and that the developing countries are financially and technologically compensated, so that they are not left far behind in the race for growth and development. The major issues that are confronting the working class and the people today are global. While developing mass actions and conducting struggles on a local and national scale are very important, what is essential is developing co-ordinated international actions, launching solidarity actions and so forth. We have to recall the co-ordinated actions that took place against the meetings of the IMF, World Bank, the G-7 Economic Summit, the Davos Conclave and so on where the leaders of the bourgeoisie gathered to deliberate on how to maintain and intensify their hold and exploitation, how to maximize their profits. There was an element of spontaneity and the beginning of organisation in these actions. The forthcoming actions have to be broader, draw in new sections of people and be widely coordinated with various organisations. The working class and its mass and political organisations have to play a πB - 1/2010 communist party of India

leading role by taking the initiative in launching and developing such militant actions. The present Meeting is of great significance in exchanging experiences and views of parties from various countries belonging to different continents, on all these issues. Life has shown that capitalism is incapable of solving the problems of poverty, hunger and impoverishment. There is no social justice, under it and the mass of the people cannot aspire to a better life. The peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s struggle is leading them towards transforming this system and for bringing in socialism. The 21st century will be the century of socialism.

Long live the CPI. Long live the unity of Communist and Workers Parties. Long live Proletarian Internationalism.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

On behalf of the Communist Party of India

Communist Party of India (Marxist) MANIK SARKAR

(Marxist), I extend my fraternal greetings to all the parties that have come to attend this important 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, to discuss “The international capitalist crisis, the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement”.

THE PRESENT CAPITALIST CRISIS, which is the severest of all the crises witnessed in the post-Second World War period, has left no country untouched. It was rightly pointed out as the “most intense and all encompassing crisis - post-Great Depression of 1929”. As it happens during every crisis, it is the working class, peasantry and other poor sections of all the countries who are bearing the brunt of this crisis. Industries are being closed in large numbers across the world, leaving millions of people jobless and unemployed. A recent report of the OECD states that the number of unemployed may reach 57 million. This naturally is increasing the rates of poverty and further widening the gaps between the rich and the poor. According to the FAO, more than 102 million people have joined the already millions of hungry people in this world due to this crisis, meaning more than one billion people in the world suffering from hunger. As we have been witnessing for the past year the efforts of the respective governments, true to their class nature, are not to address the concerns of the working class, the poor and suffering people and postulate policies to free them of this suffering. They are more concerned about the capitalist class and are concentrating their entire energies to protect their profits. All the apologists of neo-liberalism, who have so far decried the State, pleaded with the State to rescue the big business houses from this πB - 1/2010 communist party of India (Marxist)

mess. While the costs of the rescue packages and bailouts are at public expense, the benefits accrue to few and are addressed to help the very elements that had created this crisis. Banks and financial corporates that were responsible for colossal volumes of speculative trading, conservatively estimated to have crossed 60 times the volume of global GDP, are back in business by making profits.

BAILOUT PACKAGES ALWAYS put profits before people rather than putting people before profits. This fact is once again proved by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, the two financial giants that collapsed on Wall Street. They have now emerged from the ruins, feasting on the monies they have received through such bailout packages and are reporting enormous profits. They ranted for aid when on the verge of bankruptcy and now out of it, they are despising even the minimal efforts to regulate their speculative activities. Instead, these banks are doling out perks and super bonuses to their executives. While common people continue to get ruined, tax payersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; money continues to be doled out in unprecedented amounts to bail out the corporates. Growing unemployment and depression of real wages is the gift for the working people as compared to the gift of huge bailout packages for the corporates. This crisis has occurred not due to an aberration based on the greed of a few or due to the lack of effective regulatory policies. It is the urge for profits, the very reason for which capital works, that has sharply

widened economic inequalities both between countries and within countries in these decades of globalisation. The natural consequence was a decline in the purchasing power of the vast majority of the world population. This impediment to profit maximisation was sought to be met by turbocharging the global economy through cheap credit. The speculative character of international finance capital exacerbated this through the fanciful financial new commodities like futures trading, credit swaps etc. The urge for profits had assumed newer heights under neo-liberal globalisation. Finance capital had used its control over the State to re-write the rules according to its needs and suit its interests. The absence of credit worthiness amongst the recipients of such cheap credit - thanks to this very unfolding of imperialist globalization - triggered this current global crisis. It is the new attacks and the re-ordering of the world for profit maximisation, under the dictates of international finance capital, that defines neo-liberalism. It operates, firstly, through policies that remove restrictions on the movement of goods and capital across borders. Trade liberalisation displaces domestic producers, engendering domestic de-industrialisation. So also liberalisation of capital flows allows multinational corporations to acquire domestic productive assets vastly enlarging capital accumulation.

THE IMPOSITION OF SUCH NEO-LIBERAL POLICIES by browbeating the developing countries is achieved by imperialism through the agencies of the IMF, World Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Bank and WTO – globalisation’s triumvirate. The structural conditionalities imposed by the IMF and separately by the World Bank, while disbursing loans to the developing countries, ensured compliance to neo-liberal reforms. The WTO similarly, especially in the current Doha round negotiations is used for further prising open the markets of the developing world for imperialist profit maximisation. In two important areas – the Doha round of negotiations in the WTO and on Climate Change - imperialism is seeking international agreements and arrangements that would allow it to retain its advantage and impose greater burdens on the people. Imperialism seeks to emerge from its current crisis by seeking to shift the burden onto the developing countries and onto the shoulders of the working class and other toiling sections. The impact of these disastrous policies is already being felt in these countries where, during the last two decades, neoliberalism has led to grave agrarian crises. In our country more than 200,000 peasants committed suicide due to the acute agrarian distress. The only way out of this capitalist crisis for the working class and the common people is to wage struggles to protect their present levels of livelihood. It is the experience of the working class that wherever it had mobilised its might and resisted these attempts, it was successful in protecting its rights. It is only the struggles that were waged by the working class that had forced the ruling classes to consider the demands of the workers. In these times of crisis, once again the working class is seething with dis-

content. Many countries have witnessed and are witnessing huge working class, peasant struggles, demanding relief. These struggles have to be further strengthened in the coming days by mobilising millions of people. These mobilisations should not just be confined to their economic demands but also for a political alternative to this crisis ridden capitalist system. This alternative, we believe, is socialism. As Marx had pointed out, it is men who decide the real course of history through their actions. Thus, though the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden, it does not collapse automatically. It has to be overthrown. In the absence of a communist led attack on the rule of capital, the rightwing conservatives and fundamentalists will always try to seize this ‘opportunity’ to safeguard and further consolidate the capitalist system. History has shown that it is in the period of such crisis fascism had risen. We should not allow this to happen again.

IMPERIALISM AND THE RULING CLASSES will launch an all out attack to prevent the growth of the communist and the workers’ parties and protect the status quo. All sorts of theories like “there is no alternative to imperialist globalization” are propagated and would be propagated. These should be effectively countered by projecting that socialism alone is the alternative.

πB - 1/2010 communist party of India (Marxist)

First of all I would like to express our Party’s

Communist Party of Ireland EDDIE GLACKIN

thanks to our hosts, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India, for organising this Conference. The struggles of the peoples of India and Ireland have been intertwined for many years by our common struggle for independence from British Imperialism. Almost 90 years ago when British Imperialism and its Irish allies imposed partition and ultimately Civil War on the Irish people, one of the first working class fighters in Britain who leapt to the defence of the Irish Republic was the outstanding Communist Member of Parliament Shapurji Saklatvala.

COMRADE SAKLATVALA, the first Communist elected to parliament in Britain, not only used his maiden speech in Westminster to defend the Irish republic, he also subsequently attended a conference of the Irish Trade Union Congress in Ireland and throughout his life was a staunch friend of Ireland and of the revolutionary and antiimperialist movements in the then British colonies of India, Egypt and South Africa and actively involved himself in the struggles of the workers of those countries. He was also, of course, a great friend and defender of the young Soviet state. It is appropriate here, in the land of this great revolutionary’s birth, that Irish Communists can acknowledge with gratitude his contribution to our struggle. Comrades, the political and economic landscape is undergoing significant changes and at an accelerated pace over the last few years. The absolute hegemony of the United States, as proclaimed by the authors of the “Project for a New American Century,” is now seen to be unattainable. The trend towards a multipolar world continues to gather pace as groups of countries and regional blocs emerge and gather πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

momentum in opposition to the two big imperialist blocs, the United States and the European Union. Most notable has been the development of ALBA, a group of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America which, inspired by the example of revolutionary Cuba, is setting about the development of an alternative model of economic development and co-operation which is progressive and anti-imperialist.

BUT IN EUROPE the opposite is the case. Across the globe, in all the capitalist countries, working people are being forced to pay a heavy price for the current crisis of capitalism, a price paid in millions of unemployed, increased taxes, home repossessions, growing poverty, and attacks on their health and educational services. The main front of this monopoly capitalist offensive in Europe is the growing concentration of power in the hands of the emerging imperialist superstate of the EU. The forcing on the Irish people of a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty by a supine Irish ruling class at the behest of the European Commission and the governments representative of European monopoly interests, exposed the subservient relationship between the Irish ruling class and the European Union. That class has lost all potential for independent action, and is a willing tool of both European and American imperialism. The Lisbon Treaty is the latest stage of a strategy adopted many decades ago. The EU itself is part of the Cold War architecture of Western Europe, set up as a bulwark against the advance of socialism. With the

defeat of socialism in Europe, monopoly capitalism no longer feels the need to hide behind the fig leaf of “Social Europe”. For all the pipe dreams and illusions of the social democrats and some so-called Left forces in Western Europe, neo-liberalism is woven into the very fabric of its institutions and procedures and, with the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, is now elevated to the level of constitutional law. Despite all the talk about a Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Lisbon Treaty makes human rights and workers’ rights subject to market forces and the primacy of the market.

THE EUROPEAN UNION ITSELF, with the adoption of the Treaty, will be reconstituted and will be superior in law to its constituent members, that is, the member-states. More and more policy areas, previously requiring unanimity, will be decided by “weighted majority” voting, which ensures that power is heavily loaded in favour of the big states. For example, Germany will have 18 per cent of the votes, while Ireland will have 0.8 per cent. It is also structured in such a way that there is a built-in blocking minority (based on population size). Thus three of the larger countries would have enough votes to block any measures they oppose. The European Union will also be able to speak at WTO talks and in other international institutions with one voice, giving greater weight to the forces of imperialism at the global level. What this means in effect is that any independent foreign and security policy is ended for the small member-states. Neutral Ireland will be dragged further into the military build-up of the European Union and πB - 1/2010 communist party of Ireland

also of NATO. At a time of massive cuts in public spending we will be obliged to spend more on our military forces to keep them up to date and comparable to those of other EU member –states– that is, compatible with NATO. We will also have to contribute to the growing arms industry in the form of the European Defence Agency. The European Union has been extremely clever in how it has developed over the last few decades. At each stage of the process the people have been presented with a fait accompli. Everything is presented as inevitable and the only possible way forward. Even changes of name, from European Economic Community to European Communities to European Union, as well as its flag and anthem, were all brought into use, making the people accustomed to them, before they had been legally established. What is being constructed, step by step, is a superstate, with institutions above and beyond democratic control and accountability. During the referendum campaign millions of euros flowed in from Brussels to its many front organisations. Manipulation on a scale we have not witnessed before was the order of the day. This is a lesson they learnt very effectively from all the colour-coded so-called “revolutions” in Eastern Europe. Sports stars, entertainers, TV and radio personalities, never previously known to have any political opinion worthy of note, were all trundled out as part of a hugely expensive propaganda campaign to assure us that “civic society” supported a Yes vote. The mass media abandoned all pretence of balanced reporting and threw their full weight behind the Yes side.

Such bodies as the American-Irish Chamber of Commerce –the mouthpiece of American transnationals based in Ireland– called for a Yes vote. The giant US computer chip manufacturer Intel spent €500,000 campaigning for a Yes vote. The viciously antitrade union company Ryanair committed €500,000 to the Yes campaign and provided free flights from Brussels to Dublin for any employees of the European Union who were prepared to go to Dublin to work on the Yes campaign. They also offered free flights to the estimated 30,000 Irish people who live in Germany to come home and vote Yes. The Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation, the body that represents the big employers, sent a letter to each of its member organisations for them to distribute among all their employees, making the case that workers had no choice but to vote Yes. In all, it has been estimated that the Yes side spent at least €10 million in the course of the campaign, more than ten times the amount which the No side, with no corporate or official funding, was able to muster. The EU Commission itself interfered almost daily in the Irish referendum, with constant statements challenging the No campaign. It organised a series of public “information” meetings; not on the Lisbon Treaty but on how good the European Union has been for Ireland. This dovetailed into the strategy of the Government in turning the referendum into a vote on membership of the European Union rather than on the contents of the Treaty. The Commission also placed advertisements in newspapers and had large advertisements on hoardings throughout the country. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

OUR PEOPLE were bullied into voting, not on the Lisbon Treaty and its contents, but for or against our continued membership of the European Union. The economic collapse was used to frighten people into believing that there was no alternative and that if we voted No we would be punished and Ireland would become a pariah state in Europe, with the withdrawal of foreign capital leading to even greater job losses. The referendum campaign was a period of intense class struggle. With the exception of Sinn Féin, all the major political parties supported the Yes campaign. The People’s Movement, a broad organisation, which includes communists, greens, individual members of the Labour Party and Sinn Féin and many independent activists, was the main focus of our Party’s work during the referendum campaign. It campaigned in defence of workers’ rights, of national sovereignty and democracy. While the national leadership of the trade union movement supported the Yes campaign this was not supported by the majority of their members and in fact two major trade unions called for a No vote. Despite all the bullying and lies, the working class, small and medium farmers, and the fishing communities mainly voted No. Slightly more than 55 per cent of the people eligible to vote took part, with 35 per cent of these voting No. Combined with the more than 40 per cent who did not bother to vote at all, this No vote indicates a massive level of alienation by mainly working people from a political system and a society which they believe no longer represents their interests.

We would like to thank all those parties who signed the joint appeal issued by our Party and our Greek Party comrades in support of the No campaign. This was an important initiative, as it showed that workingclass forces across Europe, both inside and outside the European Union, understood the issues at stake and their importance to the future struggles of the working class. It was a good restatement of the principle of working-class solidarity and opposed the lie propagated by the EU and supported by Social Democracy that all sensible workingclass forces had succumbed to the EU steamroller and its sham democracy.

WHILST THE LISBON TREATY has been the main focus of our Party’s work over the recent past, it is not the only manifestation of imperialism affecting the working people in Ireland. Imperialism has left us a complex and difficult legacy, with a partitioned country and a deep fissure of sectarianism running through the working class in Northern Ireland, which is still officially part of the British state. Our Party comrades, North and South, contend daily with these complex issues and seek to unite workers in struggle based on their common class interests. With the deepening of the current world capitalist crisis, exacerbated by a profound crisis within the Irish banking system, the economy of the Republic of Ireland is now in a very precarious state, with unemployment running at 12 per cent and forecast to rise to 17 per cent. Despite the extraordinary economic growth during the boom years of the so-called “Celtic Tiger” there has been a huge growth in inequality. It has πB - 1/2010 communist party of Ireland

been estimated that a quarter of all children live below the official poverty line. A similar story is repeated in the North as job losses are announced daily. While the collapse is not on the same scale as that facing the South, the economy in the North has not escaped the crisis of capitalism that is having such a heavy impact in the Republic. The Northern economy was tailored to meet the needs of the imperial centre during the height of the British Empire, and the decline of its traditional industries mirrors the decline of the British Empire. As the capitalist crisis develops and deepens in Britain the present levels of subvention from the British exchequer will come under growing pressure. This relationship of dependence reflects how, in the political, economic and social spheres, the people of the North of Ireland are marginalised in three ways: the potential to change or influence the economic and social policies of the British government remains negligible; they cannot change or influence the policies imposed by Brussels, and they cannot influence the policies of the Irish Government. None of the neo-liberal economic models or the mentality behind them can offer anything to the people of the North. What is needed is maximum unity of all radical forces in pursuing an agenda that will strengthen and deepen democracy as a counterweight to sectarianism, develop demands that challenge the limitations of the existing institutions and push for greater all-Ireland economic and social development and community reconciliation.

What the current crisis has exposed is that our people are made more vulnerable to the effects of the current crisis of capitalism by the policies pursued by both the Irish and British governments. The whole of Ireland faces marginalisation within the European Union while being tied to it and controlled by it. Only a united working class can challenge our new imperial masters and reassert the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland. The development of an alternative all-Ireland economic and social strategy has the potential to provide greater stability and protection to all our people. This would contribute to strengthening the unity of the working class, and weaken the influence of pro-imperialist ideas. At the moment the main focus of struggle in Ireland against the consequences of the capitalist crisis is the forthcoming government budget in early December and the massive cuts in social expenditure and public-sector wages which it will entail. The trade union movement is the major instrument that the working class has with which to defend its interests against the onslaught that has been launched against it by employers, governments, and the EU. Its strength has been sapped by decades of class collaboration and â&#x20AC;&#x153;social partnership,â&#x20AC;? and it is consequently ill equipped to organise an effective resistance. However, some union leaders are now learning the realities of a class-divided society and realising which class elements control the state, the Government and the mass media. Others are being pushed into action by the anger of their members and their insistence that their leaders stand up against the establishment onslaught. Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Two weeks ago tens of thousands of workers took to the streets of the main urban centres around the state to protest against proposed Government cutbacks in public-sector pay and in welfare and pension payments. Last week thousands of essential services workers—firefighters, ambulance crews, nurses, prison officers, even police—marched in protest through Dublin against the Government’s and employers’ demand for pay and job cuts. On Tuesday the 24th a one-day general strike will take place in the public services. Support for the strike call has been unprecedented, typically being supported by margins of 80/20 in ballots of members in the main public-sector unions and this week even senior civil servants, for the first time, have voted 60/40 in favour of the strike action. The class offensive launched by big business and the state is at last meeting with a response. The challenge facing our Party is to give political content to this response and show clearly to workers that “social partnership” has not served and cannot serve their interests but has in fact disarmed them in the face of the class enemy. Only a class-conscious militant and vigilant trade union movement can defend and advance the interests of working people. We must develop an alternative economic and social strategy for the trade union movement and the Left. As part of this strategy our Party has recently produced a pamphlet, /An Economy for the Common Good,/ which was launched by the leader of Ireland’s biggest trade union, SIPTU, and which is receiving a very posi-

tive response from many trade union and community activists around the country. Following on from the Lisbon Treaty campaign we must continue to champion the defence of national democracy and sovereignty, linking both to class relations and anti-imperialism. Without a clear understanding of the nature of imperialism in Europe and the strategies it pursues to ensure its hegemony over the working people of the continent, no effective struggle for socialism is possible. In these tasks we will seek to develop maximum unity and co-operation of workers’ organisations across the EU, most importantly, outside and independent of the structures and institutions of the EU. We will also continue in the spirit of internationalism and anti-imperialism to work at national and international level to promote solidarity with heroic Cuba, whose principled and consistent challenge to imperialism continues to inspire us to campaign for a cultural and economic boycott of Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinian people to oppose the imperialist occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan to build solidarity with the progressive anti-imperialist forces in Latin America and to frustrate the efforts of the USA to reassert its hegemony over the continent. Thank you, comrades.

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Ireland

It is a pleasure to participate in this impor-

Communist Party of Israel FATEN GHATTAS

tant meeting of communist parties and unions from around the world as a representative of the Israeli Communist Party, a party internationalist, Jewish and Arab. Our participation in this meeting comes from the strategic vision of the importance of sharing ideas and attitudes and creating a unified strategy for our party to stand in the forefront of the struggle against capitalism and class oppression and for social justice, socialism and peace.

THE ISRAELI COMMUNIST PARTY, which concluded its celebration of the ninetieth anniversary of its founding on the seventh of this month in a lavish ceremony with the participation of thousands of former Communists, militants, brilliant history-makers, along with the Communist Youth young guard of the party and the participation of delegations from communist parties and sister unions, came to confirm the followup to this process based on the unity of intellectual Marxism - Leninism and solid party work. The newspaper “Al-Etihad” which is maintained by the Arabic language and Arab culture of the Palestinian minority in Israel also celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding. The Communist Party, which was founded in 1919, has faced many very difficult situations in our country, past and present, through conflicts, wars and numerous calamities, but the positions of the party has proved its strength, especially at difficult moments. We did not make fundamental errors and the internationalist vision of class, Marxism – Leninism, applied to the reality of the national question has always provided us with the intellectual and political vision for the appropriate starting points. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

The capitalist system in Israel is in deep trouble as in the rest of the capitalist world but the crisis is deepened in three areas:

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND FURTHER ECONOMIC POLARIZATION. The Central Committee of the Communist Party considers that the global economic crisis is deepening. It is an expression of the fundamental internal contradictions of capitalism and the outcome of neo-liberal policies, which are widening the gaps between the owners of capital and labour. The proposed budget and economic plan, presented by the Netanyahu government, together with the militarization of the budget and the occupation and settlement, aims to rescue the major corporations at the price of reducing wages, expanding unemployment, providing other tax concessions for the rich and continuing cuts in social services. Economic development in the Israeli economy will continue to stagnate. The Reports of the Central Bureau of Statistics show that 1,650,000 people in Israel are poor and this equates to 24% of the population. The proportion of poor among the Palestinian national minority is up to 48%! The per capita income of the Jewish family is the largest of the per capita share. The details of the data and analysis reflect the terrible reality we have known for decades but these prove to us that the policy of racial discrimination is increasing and this is evidenced by the widening gaps between Jews and Arabs. As for unemployment, which is approaching 8%, among Arab women it is above 80% and 80% of Arab academics are unemployed.

What we are witnessing here is a policy of starvation and oppression with Jews living according to the standards of developed countries and Arabs according to the standards of the poor developing world. It should be emphasized that the military budget accounts for more than fifty percent of the public budget. The State budget has deducted spending from education and social welfare, industry and housing in favour of the militarization and preparation for a new war. The Government is enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor, reducing income tax on employers of big capital and corporate monopolies and reducing the corporate income tax from 65% to 35%. This proceeds along with the continued policy of privatization, the sale of state property, state land and state-owned companies to the owners of capital. The phenomenon of violence and murder is rife within Israeli society. The power of money towards State institutions and its impact is sometimes crucial. Gangs threaten the judiciary, which also threatens the remnants of the democratic system. Former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, faces trial for the abuse of power for the benefit of the owners of capital. The right-wing government and the occupation settlement does not include in its plan steps to address poverty and unemployment and an exit from the circle of economic stagnation. The Government which adopts the commission of crimes against the Palestinian people cannot pursue an economic policy that reconciles the high cost of the policy of aggression and the deĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Israel

velopment of the civilian economy and the policy of social justice.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN ISRAEL and its work towards the State of Apartheid. In Israel there are about 1.25 million Palestinian Arabs who clung to their land despite the catastrophe, wars and all attempts to displace them. They are the legitimate owners of the country, this national minority, which is an integral part of the Palestinian people. They demand the right to be recognized as a national minority with rights common to the national demands for full civil equality. In 2000 the army and police shot dead 13 Arab youths in cold blood and none of the killers were indicted. At the beginning of this month, the Attorney General submitted an indictment against a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, a member of the Israeli Parliament and the President of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, Comrade Mohammed Baraka, for his involvement in four different demonstrations with his people against racism. This trial is a nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy, said the Communist Party, which will use all its power to defend Comrade Baraka and which invites you to conduct the widest possible global campaign of solidarity with our comrade to stop this farce. Our party will work to turn this trial into an indictment and condemnation of all the practices of the apartheid government. In practice, we are witnessing in recent years a wave of legislation led by the Israeli right and passed in the Knesset, which was, in fact, attempting to impose a new formu-

la for dealing with the Palestinians in Israel and for dealing with the Palestinian people in general. Israel is using the negotiations with the official Palestinian leadership to draw the parameters of a new relationship with the Palestinians at home, to limit the political freedoms of the Palestinian Arab minority in order to promote a Jewish State and the superiority, formally and in practice, of the Jewish citizens of Palestine, and to promote an inferior legal status as second or even third class citizenship for the Palestinian Arab minority. Israel claims that it provides rights and civil liberties for individuals, meaning it does not recognize Arabs as a national minority, and affords no collective rights to them, but provides them with full equality as individuals. This legislation, in fact, reflects a serious deterioration in the Jewish-Israeli societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception of the Arab community. It does not recognize the right of Arabs to obtain equal rights with Jewish citizens, as confirmed by recent polls which reported that two-thirds of Jewish citizens agreed with the argument that Arabs should not be granted equal rights Comrade Baraka has led our party in the first of October general strike of the Palestinian masses inside the country. Israeli society is sliding toward fascism. This is really disturbing. We are on the brink of the abyss and we hold the most effective tool to combat the outbreak and stop it before it is too late!

THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION AND THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE. The Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the Syrian Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Golan and the territory of Shebaa in Lebanon has continued for 42 years. This occupation is the core conflict in the region and any other focus on terrorism is just a smokescreen. The real terrorism is the occupation. Israel has tried hard to transform the conflict into a conflict between different religions, particularly in Jerusalem, because this is in their interests. and accords with the policy of U.S. imperialism in linking Islam with terrorism. U.S. imperialism has created, and cultivated fundamentalist movements to fight communism in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and Israel gave birth to Hamas to fight the Palestine Liberation Organization. These movements have not been unrelated to religion and we have always emphasized this and countered religious fundamentalism. The state of division in the Palestinian arena is extremely dangerous and threatens the future of the Palestinian cause. The image is of a convergence of the work of an unholy trinity: imperialism, Zionism and Arab reaction, because this division only serves Israel. The Communist Party sees the importance of the role of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which stepped down this role in recent years in favour of the Palestinian National Authority, which recently discovered that it had completed its role and become a civilian administration under the authority of the Israeli occupation. Our Party assesses the left forces globally and in Israel, as well as in the Palestinian arena, the growing strength of fundamen-

talism and the weakness of a genuine political, militant, anti-occupation alternative, recognizing that people do not live in a vacuum. Progressives even see Hamas as a force against the occupation and America. Our party stands along with all anti-occupation movements because resistance is a sacred right, but progressives should not be fooled by appearances, but should analyze the substance. Arab reaction takes its role seriously, a full partner in the plots of Zionism and U.S. imperialism woven against the Palestinian people. The Communists have an important role in the erosion of these positions and explaining this to the people. The way out of the crisis in Israel means: ■

■

■ ■

ending the occupation, full Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders, the dismantling of settlements and the recognition of the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people. the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel with Arab Jerusalem as its capital and resolving the refugee issue in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations on the right to return or compensation. Recognition of the Palestinian masses in Israel as a national minority and affording them full equality in their homeland, the restoration of their stolen land and the return of refugees to their homes and villages. dismantling the Israeli nuclear arsenal and a halt to the nuclear arms race. a just and real peace which gives securi-

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Israel

■

ty to Israel and changes the priorities of the economic war budget to social welfare, education and housing. increasing the strength of the Communist Party and the forces of the left in general. Pursuing the construction of socialism, clarifying what socialism is, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Our Party highly assesses the importance of this meeting and the efforts to unify the positions of the communists in the world. “Workers of the world unite,” This is a logo and a realistic ambition. We raised the slogan of “Communist parties unite,” because the unity of the Communists is the foundation stone for the strengthening of the socialist alternative. We extend our deep gratitude to our fellow communists in India, the CPI and CPI Marxist, for hosting this important meeting, Communist Party, a consolidating step towards the unity of the communists in India! On behalf of all the Communists in Israel we send greetings to all the revolutionary communists and progressives in the world in their difficult and arduous struggle to achieve our goals of progress, freedom, social justice and for the victory of socialism.

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

THE GLOBAL CRISIS OF CAPITALISM, that

100

Party of the Italian Communists FRANCESCO FRANCESCAGLIA

started more than a year ago, was described as a financial crisis, tightly connected to the USA real estate bubble. Many stressed the fact that all the responsibilities for the crisis lay in the shameful behaviour of business world banks (many of which went bankrupt or were rescued by the Governments of their countries), but also in the swindles driven by great financial operators, such as Bernard Madoff, or the creation of useless financial products. But if we use the tools of Marxist analysis, we must say that such phenomena represent just the effects of an overproduction crisis. The TRPF, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in the material production of consumption goods, especially cars, obliged Capital to look for other sectors in order to get higher profit margins. The choice of financial speculation, on the one hand, and real estate, on the other, have come together in the creation of a speculative bubble, that inevitably exploded, with disastrous effects.

FINANCE, then, is not the disease of capitalism: it is the drug that hides the symptoms of the disease. The real disease is the crisis of overproduction. For the past 10 years, the Federal Reserve has just been the pusher, drugging the world economy through a monetary policy of expansion, that favoured the new economy bubble in 1999/2000, and that was used to exit the 2001 crisis. This then created the real estate bubble. All this was possible because the dollar is used as an international reserve currency and for the purchase of oil. But such predominance today is unjustified. The USA has the highest public debt in the world, in absolute terms: its commercial scale is decreasing since 1976 and its familiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; private debt is enormous. A counĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 Party of the Italian communists

try with such a debt can defend its positions only with a policy of war and imperialist aggression. The dollar doesn’t collapse, however, because it is kept up by the massive purchase of US Government Securities by China, which has more than $2,000 billion.

A DEVALUATION OF THE DOLLAR is definitely something the Chinese don’t want: it would be convenient for them to get rid of the US Securities but they can’t, not brutally, at least. If they were sold, the value of the dollar would be severely diminished. It is just with the aim of keeping the dollar steady that the Chinese go on buying American debt. The Chinese want to free themselves from such a trap, as they are aware that the dollar is on its way towards the sunset. China is working towards a new global monetary pact, able to limit the extra-power of the dollar, involving Russia, Japan, France and some Arab countries, in order to replace the dollar as an exchange currency for oil, with a currency basket including the Euro and the Yuan. We can definitely state that we are in a delicate transitional phase of the restructuring of global capitalism – a process of reduction of the role of the dollar, and consequently, of the USA. Bush reacted against such a decline with an imperialist policy of pre-emptive wars, although failing in its target. We are aware that the USA will go on defending itself by using all the tools of imperialism. The hypothesis of a new expansion of capitalist authoritarianism is, in fact, already visible in Latin America, the (sub)continent that accomplished the

greatest efforts to build up a process of emancipation from imperialism and of triumph over neo-liberalism. The coup in Honduras, the proliferation of US bases in Southern America, clearly show that the USA does not mean to move backwards, on the contrary it means to regain ground in what it has always considered as its backyard. That’s why we should strongly re-affirm our internationalist solidarity with the LatinAmerican people, beginning with Cuba’s commander-in-chief, Fidel Castro, with Chavez’s Venezuela, Evo Morales’s Bolivia and Lula’s Brazil.

THE FIRST TASK OF THE COMMUNISTS and workers’ international movement today is putting the real causes of the crisis into evidence: the structural incapability of capitalism to manage efficiently the cyclical crisis of overproduction. In this phase, it is only the communists who can point at the responsibilities of capitalism and its structural contradictions. It is only the communists who can re-affirm what they have always stated about neo-liberal thought: they always warned that it would soon take the world to the edge of the abyss. Today, we have the ideological, political and cultural tools to lead a new battle of ideas against capitalism and its dominant ideology. But we cannot forget, as history teaches us, that it is always possible to exit the crisis to the right, rather than to the left. Several Governments in the world, Obama’s above all, are simply using the old capitalist strategy, with the privatisation of πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

101

102

utilities when the economy is expanding and with the socialization of losses during the phases of crisis. As usual, workers have to pay for saving Capitalism. This happened even after 1929 crisis: Roosevelt, with the New Deal, used the State to save American Capitalism, while Hitler used the State to consolidate the Nazi regime. The 1929 crisis produced authoritarian and fascist regimes in Europe rather than the expansion of Socialism and the October Russian Revolution. We have to be ready, today, as a new capitalist and imperialist attack is imminent. Only a renewed process of internationalism of the communist and progressive forces can provide us with a common analysis and a strategy of struggle, equal to the phase in which we are living. In such a phase, then, the political process that we launched with SOLIDNET, becomes a crucial strategic element for those who fight, like we do, for the transformation of society, for a transition towards socialism, for the emancipation of workers and for the defeat of imperialism.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 Party of the Italian communists

I would like to begin by extending my

Workers’ Party of Korea PAK KYONG SON

warm congratulations to the 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties and my cordial comradely greetings to the delegations and delegates from various Communist and Workers’ Parties present at this Meeting. Allow me also to express my heartfelt gratitude to Comrade Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Comrade A.B. Bardhan, Secretary General of the National Council of the Communist Party of India for their kind invitation for the delegation of the Workers’ Party of Korea to this International Meeting.

TODAY, the whole world is going through a serious crisis, resulting from the irrationality and essential weakness, intrinsic to the U.S.-dominated global capitalist economic system. The economic growth rate worldwide has slowed down, the average per capita income growth rate has plunged by half, and the economic situation has worsened in as many as 168 countries. The chaotic U.S. financial policy, designed to stave off financial difficulties resulting from its “war on terror,” has only touched off the collapse of the domestic real estate market and sweeping financial crisis at home, and this, in turn, has instantly developed into an economic crisis worldwide by virtue of the economic “globalization.” The present global economic panic is the “worst in 100 years.” In a pandemonic scene of the law of the jungle for which the capitalism-promoted “globalization” is responsible, an unprecedentedly grave threat is staring humankind in the face, with its survival being at stake, shaken by the global economic panic, compounded by food, enerπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

103

104

gy and environmental crises. Statistics show that the losses from the ongoing global economic panic in the period from late 2007 to 2010 are estimated to reach 3.4 trillion U.S. dollars. Capitalism’s political, economic and systemic crises have only intensified the bipolarization of “the rich getting even richer and the poor getting even poorer” on a global scale and landed a population of 1.4 billion in-abject poverty, who are now voicing loud and clear their view that socialism is the only alternative to capitalism. The 10th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, held in Sao Paulo last November and attended by the delegates from 65 political parties in 55 countries, pointed out the gravity of the political and economic crisis faced by the capitalist world, and unanimously stressed that socialism is the only path that will end exploitation and the oppression of the popular masses and ensure genuine independent rights for them. The Meeting also called for a dauntless struggle for socialism that ensures people’s independence, free from class exploitation and oppression. Comrade KIM JONG IL, the great leader of our Party and people, said as follows: “The cause of socialism is the just cause for realizing the independence of the popular masses, and the humankind’s movement toward socialism is the law governing the inexorable development of history.” Socialism is science. There might be twists and turns in the course of the development of socialism, but the direction of

the development of history will not change, and there is nothing whatsoever that will be able to hold back humankind’s aspiration for socialism. Today, socialism is marching forward triumphantly, tolling the death knell for capitalism.

THE BREAKDOWN OF SOCIALISM IN CERTAIN COUNTRIES towards the end of the last century was, in fact, the failure of opportunism that had corrupted socialism. The imperialists and reactionaries, however, have capitalized on this phenomenon for a boisterous public relations campaign to justify their allegation that socialism has failed for good and socialism itself was a fallacy, in a frantic attempt to coax all the nations around the world into the embrace of capitalism. In the mid-1990s in particular, the U.S.imperialist allies left no stone unturned in pursuit of their hysterical efforts to isolate and stifle the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), through blatant military pressure and a further tightened economic blockade, and by bringing the spearhead of their offensive to bear upon the DPRK, in their misplaced belief that the collapse of the socialist system in the DPRK was just a matter of time. Worse still, several consecutive years of natural disasters one after another conspired to exacerbate the tribulations, which have compelled the Korean People’s Army and the Korean people to undertake the unprecedented “Arduous March” and the forced march. The socialist system and socialist community markets worldwide having ceased to exist, our only πB - 1/2010 workers’ party of Korea

resort was self-reliance in carrying forward our socialist construction, with no outside assistance available. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the Workers’ Party of Korea has successfully thwarted all the imperialists’ challenges, honorably defending and upholding and triumphantly advancing the cause of socialism.

THE DPRK TODAY has firmly raised its profile as a politico-ideological power, a military power and a power of science and technology, and at present it is channeling all efforts into economic construction. Earlier this year, the Workers’ Party of Korea initiated the 150-day campaign that came to a victorious conclusion later, and again called on the entire Party, the whole country and all the people to launch another 100-day campaign so that the flames of a new revolutionary upsurge are flaring up everywhere in the country, in honor of the centennial birthday anniversary of the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG in 2012 when we will definitely open the gate to a great, powerful and prosperous socialist Korea. In the course of the 100-day campaign, unprecedented successes are being made in economic construction in that the national economy as a whole is on a steady track of upturn, on the basis of the foundation of its independent national economy. All this is entirely the fruition of the leadership by the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, who has steered

the Korean revolution along the victorious course of his Songun (military-first) politics. The Songun revolutionary leadership and the Songun politics of the Workers’ Party of Korea are the leadership method of revolution and the mode of socialist politics that prioritize military affairs over other state affairs, defend the country, revolution and socialism on the basis of the revolutionary disposition and combat strength of the Korean People’s Army, and push forward the socialist construction as a whole; and they are the all-powerful treasured sword for a victorious revolution under the changed world situation today. The revolutionary practice and reality in the DPRK have testified to the correctness and excellence of the Songun idea and Songun politics of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and the great vitality of the Songun politics is gaining in evidence with the passage of time. Upholding the ever-victorious treasured sword of socialism, based on the Juche idea and the Songun idea, the DPRK is performing historic miracles one after another on its march of progress toward a bright future, despite the current global turbulence. The Korean People’s Army and the Korean people hold fast to their unshakable conviction and faith about the future as well as about the correctness of their cause of socialism that they have chosen by themselves and carved out by their efforts. They are also full of revolutionary determination to follow through with the path of socialism under the leadership of the great Comrade KIM JONG IL. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

105

106

Under the leadership of the great Comrade KIM JONG IL, the Workers’ Party of Korea, the Korean People’s Army and the Korean people will, as ever, fulfill their sacred historical mission and duties in the just struggle for independence and socialism against imperialism. I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to reiterate my heartfelt gratitude to various Communist and Workers’ Parties for their consistent support for and solidarity with the Workers’ Party of Korea, the Korean People’s Army and the Korean people in their struggle for building a great, powerful and prosperous socialist Korea and achieving Korea’s reunification. Thank you.

πB - 1/2010 workers’ party of Korea

THE CONTRADICTIONS OF CAPITALISM OF-

Lebanese Communist Party DR. MARIE-NASSIF DEBS

TEN LEAD TO LARGE AND SMALL CRISES, which rupture and explode every now and then, leaving in their wake economic destruction which is reflected, inevitably, in the forces of production. It can even be argued that these contradictions do not explode and unravel except when the development path of the forces of production starts approaching and threatening the narrow limits of the private ownership of the means of production. In such instances, the bourgeoisie resorts to actions with the aim of causing a crisis, thereby attempting to prevent the forces of production from effecting real change. Examination of the second half of the twentieth century shows that several crises unfolded during that period; perhaps the most important of which is the crisis of 1974, which came about due to the oil stoppage which in turn was a reaction to the Israeli aggression on the Arab countries. The crisis of 1981 was equally important, and lasted like its predecessor for approximately 16 months, and affected the economies of the large capitalist countries and adversely affected the forces of production within these countries. In this context, one must also view the crisis at the beginning of this century (in 2002-2003) which shook the global capitalist system and exposed the stock exchange system of Wall Street and the deception and lies embedded within it. All the above crises are no match to the current structural crisis which, according to the most optimistic experts, is predicted to last for at least three years with more devastating consequences than the crisis of 1929 and its ripple effects which eventually led the world to World War 2. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels point out that the â&#x20AC;&#x153;bourgeois system Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

107

108

of ownership and the modern bourgeois society, which led to the development and creation of magnificent means of production and exchange, now resemble a magician who is no longer able to control the supernatural forces that have been unleashed. They add, in the context of addressing the recurring crises that threaten the existence of the bourgeois society, “each crisis systematically destroys not only a group of products but also a large section of the forces of production”; – As if the society goes back to a state of temporary barbarism. Based on this understanding, it can be said that the bourgeoisie has so far succeeded in transgressing beyond its small and large crises “through the use of violence against the forces of production on the one hand and through acquiring new markets and focusing investment against old markets”. This leads, according to the Communist Manifesto, to preparing the grounds for more universal and deeper crises; and it also leads to a diminishing of the tools available for avoiding such crises.

HOW DOES THE CRISIS MANIFESTS ITSELF IN OUR MODERN TIMES? Firstly, the crisis manifests itself in a sharp manner in the production of ownership and services; that is in the real economy. For the coupled effect of the stacking of products and the reduction in markets, or in other words the significant drop in demand as compared to supply, has aggravated the situation which was already worsening due to the sharp drop in the field of loans and borrowing. This is what happened last year in the United States, where the collapse in the re-

al estate prices led to a severe crisis in the building industry and destroyed the lives of millions of workers in this sector. This is in addition to the crisis in the automobile industry and the drop in demand for both the supporting industries and for petroleum products. This means an unfolding of a chain reaction affecting all sectors of the American and world economies accompanied by an increase in unemployment levels worldwide and a corresponding drop in the living standards of the masses. And so, since the end of 2008, and according to the bulletin of the National Office for Economic Research, the United States and with it most exporting industrialized countries have been suffering from a state of severe recession. Indeed, the analysis refers to a negative development that can continue through 2010; accompanied by a drop in industrial production, a drop in gross domestic products and an increase in unemployment where the ILO predicts that more than 2 million jobs will be lost during this year – a number which, according to some experts, is an underestimate of what has already taken place. These events are taking place at a time when large capitalist countries are witnessing an increase in banking concentration; as well as significant and direct intervention from the ruling authorities in these countries to help struggling banks. In this regard, billions of dollars have already been wasted, and even now the United States and the European Union are examining the possibility of pumping a further 2300 billion dollars as treasury bonds in order to finance the public debt and maintain the profits of the πB - 1/2010 Lebanese communist party

banking sector while not addressing the excessive salaries and bonuses of the senior employees within this sector. This direct intervention has led some pseudo-leftist economists to claim and to brag that the United States and the European Union are now implementing the Marxist theory which refers to the necessity for the intervention of the state. Even though what Marx actually meant by intervention was in the context of a process of redistribution of wealth, albeit partial, by taking from the bourgeoisie and giving to the poor and struggling classes - that is by giving to the forces of production, unlike what is happening today. Secondly, as for the rest of the world, including our world which is still marching towards development, the consequences of the crisis are more painful and more severe. These consequences are the following:

IN LARGE INDUSTRIALIZED CAPITALIST COUNTRIES, there has been a significant drop in the volume of imports from third world countries; which had a very severe effect since the under-developed countries have only raw materials to sell. Furthermore most of the ruling authorities in these countries, particularly in the oil producing countries, especially the Arab oil producing countries – most of these regimes are directly linked with capitalism’s interests, and therefore the consequences of the crisis went beyond the direct drop in exports to include, especially in the first half of 2009, a footing of a large part of the bill for the crisis. The regimes of the oil producing Arab countries have recently admitted that they

have contributed in excess of 800 billion dollars (some say 1.2 trillion dollars) to stop the downward slump in the state of the American economy. Of course, the above figure excludes the Republic of Iraq where the level of theft and pillaging is unlimited. A drop in liquidity and investment, accompanied by severe problems in the banking sector, and a monetary crisis since the local currencies are considered unsafe and since the debt of these countries is linked to the dollar which is experiencing a reduction in its exchange rate – or in other words witnessing a diminishing of its influence. It is these developments that have prompted Saudi Arabia, for example, which has very close ties to Washington, to suggest a few days ago, and for the second time in recent months, its determination to reduce its dependence on the dollar and diversify its reserve currency basket to include its local currency and other foreign currencies.

LEBANON IS NO EXCEPTION to the above with respect to the degree of influence exerted by the crisis and its detrimental consequences; particularly since it has been transformed to rely completely on imports, including the import of agricultural and industrial products that it has now ceased producing due to both the civil war and repeated Israeli aggressions as well as the nature of the bourgeoisie which focuses its presence in the pecuniary banking sector (and the real estate sector which is a sub sector of the banking sector). And so the wealth of this bourgeoisie keeps increasing astronomically due to both its lending to the government (including foreign currency πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

109

110

debt) and its external investments especially in Africa. This is particularly important since this year the public debt has reached 50 billion dollars which makes Lebanon amongst the countries with the highest ratio of public debt with respect to GDP Gross National Product. Indeed, it can be said that the large proportion of the public debt is from the banks – both the local and foreign banking sector, and at high interest rates, which makes Lebanon vulnerable to monetary and fiscal fluctuations, especially since the Lebanese economy is directly and completely linked to the dollar.

PROGRAM AND SOLUTION. There are more than one billion people going hungry in our world, which is equivalent to 1/6 of the total human population - a percentage which is unprecedented in our human history. At a time when foreign aid supplied by the G8 group to the poor of the world has not exceeded 21 billion dollars (according to the World Food Programme – WFP); the total sum of bonuses in the banking sector in the United States has reached 140 billion dollars – an increase of 23% in comparison to 2008 figures (according to a report carried out by the Wall Street Journal). This situation has led to political consequences including the radicalization of the important changes taking place in Latin America. It has also led to mass rallies and protests including, as an example, the mass rallies and protests in Iceland and Greece, as well as protests in Russia where communists took to the streets to protest against the economic policies of the government. This is in addition to the resistance move-

ments, particularly the national resistance in Palestine and Lebanon. Currently American Imperialism together with the European Union and Israel (in our region and in Africa and Latin America) are trying to go on the offensive in Asia by trying to control oil and gas supply routes and to maintain and strengthen their control over countries where these are produced. American Imperialism is also trying in Latin America to stifle and strangle the promising avant-garde movement of the UNA SUR (Union of Countries of the South) at times by military coups and at other times by resorting to an intensification of military bases. Against this background, our parties should develop a program of work and a staged plan with the aim of overcoming capitalism and going beyond it. For the solution lies in going beyond capitalism and setting course towards socialism yet again, while taking into account all the factors which led to the failure of the past attempt through comprehensive evaluations of it. As for the current stages of our plan, it is our opinion that our gathering must focus now on ridding the world of neo-liberalism, through focusing on the following: Intensifying the struggle to eliminate in-

direct taxes and focusing instead on taxing wealth. Defending, maintaining and developing the public sector, and resisting ongoing privatization attempts. This should be accompanied by tangible plans within each country to re-launch the process of production and organize the forces of πB - 1/2010 Lebanese communist party

production in trade unions according to the various professions. Intensifying the struggle for correcting the wages of the workers and maintaining the purchasing power of these wages; for putting an end to mass layoffs; and for fighting the trend of cutting down on social benefits. Intensifying the struggle towards a reorganization of social welfare which provides social and medical benefits to the workers and the poor; in addition to focusing and calling for an improvement in public education. Intensifying the struggle for the redistribution of the excessive wealth owned by less than 1% of the population of the world; in order to combat hunger and achieve the social goals of the working classes through a redistribution of the main part of the value of production.

111

Our movement should go on the offensive, not only within each country individually, but also by giving due importance to going on the offensive on the international level by moving from the particular conditions within each country to the general solution which unites us.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

FOR THE FIRST TIME FOR DECADES the to-

112

Communist Party of Luxembourg ALI RUCKERT

tal number of employees in Luxembourg has been reduced in 2009, and the official unemployment rate has been growing up to 7.1 per cent. Many industrial plants have introduced short-time work, the number of bankruptcies is growing and the capitalists are systematically trying to reduce starting wages, to impede salary increases, and to reverse any kind of social achievements generations of workers had fought for. The Luxembourg government has been delaying since 2006 the automatic adaptation of wages and salaries to prices, and it continues its policy of re-distribution from the bottom up. Spending capacity is going down, and already 14 per cent of the population is living under the risk of poverty. The public debt will increase up to 19.8 per cent of the GNP by the end of 2010, and the workers’ chamber, an organ of so-called workers’ participation, has found out that the ratio of wages within the surplus value has been decreasing for several years. There is no doubt: The workers are about to pay for the crisis they are not responsible for. Despite those facts at the parliamentary election on June 7 this year we witnessed that those political parties who are in favour of capitalism, that those politicians who have supported the neo-liberal concepts during the last years and implemented them in our country, have again gained more than 95 per cent of the votes. The Communist Party of Luxembourg, which for the first time after 15 years was running its own candidates in each and every district of the country, could increase its votes by 35 percent up to a final result of 1.5 per cent, but this was unfortunately not sufficient to gain a seat in the national parliament.

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Luxembourg

Those political parties, who are supporters of the capitalist system did not become weaker, and the coalition of the ChristianSocial Peoples’ Party and the Social-Democratic Party will continue to rule the country for another five years. The reason for that, among others, is that the government had saved the two biggest banks with billions of Euros, and in this way it had also saved several thousand jobs. The government distributed some financial gifts to the voters just weeks before the election, and adopted public investments to support small and middle size enterprises. Those measures leading to a cutting of social rights, health insurance and pensions have been delayed for the post-election period. Despite all its negative effects the capitalist crisis did not reach the majority of the working people yet, and still many people think that the crisis will not be as bad as expected. They see their jobs in danger, but they hope the crisis is passing by, they are ducking their heads and accept the simple solutions of right wing populists, that means they blame foreigners and working immigrants for their situation, for the fact that they have lost their working place and have now to live under the risk of poverty. But there are also long term effects we should not underestimate. First of all the political consciousness of the working class is much lower today then it was during the last decades – even if some of the workers are changing their relation towards the capitalist system and start to think differently. Nevertheless in the view of the big majority of working people capitalism is still offering a sufficiently com-

fortable material basis, so that they do not see any reason to seek another economic order. As communists we have to offer them a realistic alternative concept. This is urgently needed so that the majority of the working class that is objectively interested in abolishing capitalism find it attractive to vote for a communist alternative and to actively work for a real change.

THE DEFEAT OF THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM, which was of strategic importance and brought big losses to each and every communist party and to the entire communist movement, has still very serious effects on the European continent. Anti-Communist brainwashing is omnipresent, not only in the propaganda campaigns we are witnessing during recent weeks in the context of the anniversary of the so-called “fall of the Berlin wall”, but also in the existing social structures, in schools and in the bourgeois mass media. Despite the fact that several of our parties are already active in this direction – up to now we are urgently missing a basic common analysis by the communist movement on the reasons for the defeat of socialism, an evaluation of its experiences and achievements, but also of its weaknesses and deficiencies, as well as an analysis of the contradictions that appeared during the construction of the socialist society, that was to replace capitalism. We think that after 20 years we have to strengthen our common efforts in this direction. We do urgently need such a concept, when we want to meet the global chalπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

113

114

lenges, when the capitalist crisis will be deepening in the forthcoming years and the search for alternatives will be growing. Because it will be the most important precondition on our way to find a common view on the criteria and the character of a socialist alternative, on the development of productive forces and of the market under socialist conditions, on a different regulation of the economy, on effective socialist planning, on forms of social property, on the construction of institutional and juridical mechanisms for exercising power, as well as on the safeguarding of decision making by the working class in the economy and the society. In the process of working out this concept, we have to respect national peculiarities as well as the existence of different states of development in different countries. The precondition for all this will be that all communist and workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; parties which adhere to the unique theory of Marx, Engels and Lenin, to proletarian internationalism and to the goal of a socialist society see the necessity of a global and structural form of co-operation. Such a common structure has been necessary for many years, but it will only be possible if the communist parties undertake concrete steps to create such a structure of a permanent character, so that we become able to find concrete answers to the problems we are confronted with and to debate on common actions. Thank you very much for your attention.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Luxembourg

First of all, let me greet all of you gathered

Communist Party of Nepal (UML) K.P. SHARMA OLI

here in this 11th International meeting of the Communist and Workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Parties, on behalf of my party- The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and my own. I would also like to avail this opportunity to appreciate the initiations and efforts made by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India for successfully organizing such an important event in our neighboring country, India. We are gathered here to discuss such relevant and important subjects at such a moment when the capitalist system is facing a severe financial crisis and is imposing a sudden and extra burden to the common masses and to the working people all over the world. Due to its lower level of economic development, Nepal is of course less affected by the present global economic crisis in comparison with economically developed countries. But it does not mean that Nepal is not affected by it. Export business, job opportunities and remittance - areas such as these are deeply affected by the global recession.

NOW WITHOUT ANY DELAY, we must immediately educate and mobilize the people to create a situation where they exert heavy pressure to divert global wealth, resources and expenditure into the struggle for social justice, peace and environmental sustainability. Instead of bailing out a handful of big banks and companies and providing opportunities to gather wealth unnecessarily for a few people, support must be diverted for the betterment of the millions and billions of the common people. The 20th Century was a century of unprecedented revolutions and rapid progress. It was the century of awareness, organization, struggle, changes and achievements. In the field of science and Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

115

116

technology, transport and communication and overall modernization, this century witnessed and achieved the high-yield successes in a very short time. The 20th century was the century of National Independence against the colonization; socialist and democratic revolution took place and won victory. But unfortunately, the century also witnessed the downfall and dissolution of the Soviet Union and the failure of soviet-style socialism in Eastern Europe. But, although capitalism in its efforts for survival tried to learn from the past and bring possible reforms to the capitalist system adopting some policies borrowed from socialism, it could not avoid the inevitable consequences of its unjust policies of exploitation. It is clear that capitalism, the system of exploitation can not be changed through reforms and has to be defeated and replaced by the system of justice and equality that is socialism. Only socialism can be the alternative which can resolve the problems that the world is facing through improving production and productivity and establishing a new distribution system based on social and economic justice and equality. The current global economic crisis is not the result of any mistake of any individual capitalist or company but an inevitable result of capitalism and its regime of exploitation. The issues of climate degradation and global warming face us with alarming urgency and these issues also are no doubt the results of ruthless exploitation of humankind, but also the unjust and imbalanced use or consumption of natural re-

courses without care for the natural limits of the earth and its ecosystems. There may be different opinions among the experts and specialists, environmentalists and scientists, about how long it will take to melt the mountain icecaps, and to leave the worlds without glaciers, but expert opinion is unanimous with regard to the negative and frightening consequences of these problems for the future of this planet. Climate change is causing the rapid desertification or semi-desertification of many green and fertile parts of the world. To stop this and to reverse the situation, we have to take effective, urgent and immediate steps. We communist and workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; parties should take the lead in this. We can express and extend solidarity to each other, but we must be clear that the effectiveness of our support and solidarity depends not only on our logic but mainly on our influence and strength. The realms in which we can implement our common goals are basically our respective countries and we must concentrate on educating our people, organizing and mobilizing them in the struggle for the cause of socialism or for their own causes. To fulfill these purposes, we must open up our minds, be real Marxists, and learn from past mistakes and weaknesses committed in the name of communism, socialism or Marxism-Leninism. Marxists can not represent unscientific, irrelevant and failed ideas and methods, but represent justice, equality, and scientific, modern, democratic and revolutionary ideas and methods and the principles based on social and economic justice and equality. Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Nepal (UML)

Anti-people and reactionary forces pretend to campaign in favor of human rights. But, we Marxist and progressive peoples are the real vanguard of human values and dignity and in others words, the vanguard and defenders of human rights.

NEPAL AT PRESENT is passing through an epoch-making transformation process. Transforming as it is, Nepal has been source of hope and an exciting political centre for the international community. The historical people’s movement [of April 2006] which brought the autocratic monarchy to its knees, transformed the violence from which the Nepali people had suffered for 10 years, which was lunched in the name of “People War” by an ultra-leftist organization, into a peace process which is the country is still undergoing. Successful elections to a constituent assembly and the bloodless dispatch of the monarchy through the will of the people are the most exciting milestones in contemporary Nepalese history. Nepal, which has been giving pleasure to the world through her natural beauty and unequalled cultural heritage for centuries, has for 3-4 years now been drawing the attention of the international community through these acclaimed and astounding political events. The declaration of republicanism was the first major step forward taken by the country after the accomplishment of the Constituent Assembly Election on Tenth April 2008. But the political problems of Nepal do not end there because of the seats won by the parties in the CA Election. The result of the election made it mandatory for

all the major political stakeholders to develop an understanding on the drafting of a scientific, modern and democratic new constitution.

CPN (UML) is playing a very important role ideologically and politically in this process. With its scientific, modern, democratic and revolutionary principles and program of Peoples’ Multi-Party Democracy based on social justice and equality our Party is playing a responsible role, while it is leading the Government at present in its efforts to fulfill the complex task of making a democratic, progressive and consensual new constitution. UML’s correct, clear, balanced and coordinating role is highly respected. Similarly, the UML’s nationalistic vision has assumed an increasing importance at a time when negative tendencies in the directions of separatism, regionalism and communalism are increasing. As in the past, we are confident that in the future the Nepali people will receive generous support and strong solidarity from all the parties gathered here and other elements in the international community in their efforts towards strengthening democracy, sustainable peace and socio-economic development. With these words, I would like to finish off my speech here and once again thank you for inviting us to this important meeting and providing us with an opportunity to express our views. With warm solidarity, Thank you all πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

117

We thank you for the opportunity to share

118

New Communist Party of the Netherlands WILLIAM F. van KRANENBURG

our vision on current events. And we thank the CPI and CPI(M) for the organisation of this meeting. Chairman, fellow representatives of communist and workers’ parties, Despite reassuring comments of economic recovery in the bourgeois press, we are just at the first stage of a severe capitalist crisis. The consequences for the masses in terms of unemployment and impoverishment are growing day by day. Those responsible for the crisis are still in control of power in the countries affected by it. They are neither willing nor able to change the neo-liberal economic policies that are partly responsible for this crisis. This capitalist economic social and political system has nothing more to offer humanity than a further breakdown of the living standards of the masses and enrichment of the few.

THE RULING CLASS, their ideologists and ‘scientists’ have succeeded in presenting society in the countries they dominate as an area for the pursuit of profit by separate individualised members of that society. The idea that just a few, and especially the ones who are already rich, gain profit in this kind of society is growing within sections of the labour movement. But a lot of workers in the Netherlands are still able to make ends meet and even indulge themselves sometimes in the fine things of life like visits to concert-festivals, theatres, museums, vacations abroad and so on. Escape into the world of virtual reality is also an increasing phenomenon. A great part of the working class is orientated at continuing this quality of life and is less interested in the processes behind it. These aspirations find their expression in support for conservative, nationalist political movements that mobilise the fear of change against Islamic migrants πB - 1/2010 new communist party of the Netherlands

and promote protectionist measures, thereby leading the popular masses away from opposing the demolition of collective services in society put in place through the initiative and struggle of the working class movements. Continuation of the phasing out of workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rights is still high on the political agenda in the EU, despite the fact that friend and foe must admit that the remains of the social welfare systems in Europe have softened the effect of the crisis so far compared with the US. Further developments which will affect working people will be the abolition of social services and the erosion of social acquisitions, growing attacks on job security and, due to competition for jobs, a decline in income. The possibility of being confronted by severe armed conflict will increase for the peoples of the world as it gets becomes clearer that capital is no longer able to organise society as a whole, and indeed can only de-stabilise it. These developments will have an effect on the consciousness of workers and could increase the level of social criticism. It is our task to put the only alternative, a socialist organisation of society, forward into the public debate. At the moment in the Netherlands the unions are rallying against our governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attack on pension regulations

THE DUTCH PENSION SYSTEM consists of three pillars: a state pension which provides a basic income for everyone older than 65, collective pension plans by companies, and an extra individual income on the basis of a private pension insurance or life insurance for those who can afford it.

To understand the current developments one must bear in mind that all progressive pension regulations are the result of class struggle and historically, social improvements have only taken place when capital was under pressure and gave in a little in order to regain social peace. The changes that are underway in Europe, and that are the product of the neo-liberal policy of the ruling class, show two characteristics; firstly, we are moving from a system that more or less offers some kind of assurance to a system that only provides against the worse cases of poverty and, secondly, we are moving from from a welfare-system based on the last wages earned by a worker to one that is based on what kind of individual insurance the worker has organized and paid by him- or herself. Solidarity within the current pensionregulation struggle has two faces; first we want to create collective care for those who need it, second we struggle to create solidarity between the generations. That solidarity is constantly under attack by law reforms combined with ideological campaigns in the capitalist media. They are trying to change from a system of solidarity based on collective rules to a system where only the empowerment of the individual counts and a total individual responsibility is the only measure. The attack is aimed at the age of retirement: the capitalist forces want to lift it from 65 to 67, (on the Dutch Antilles from 60 to 65). The debate for a lowering of the retirement age to make it easier for the youth to find a job is not even mentioned. Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

119

120

It is necessary for progressive forces to strengthen the position of the working class in the class struggle. The fight for maintaining and improving progressive and collective pension regulations is a part of this. We see the struggle about the retirement age as a way of increasing the social consciousness about what is a just employment system and in that sense as a step in improving the conditions for the struggle for socialism in the Netherlands. This political work is not detached from our work in the European political context and our perspective of a socialist Europe. Nor do we see this work as outside our work in the international cooperation of communist and workers parties. International cooperation and the exchange of information, knowledge and experience are essential for a rapid progress towards a future of justice and peace.

THE NCPN is a small party, but within the Netherlands it is the only party striving for socialism as the only social-economic system after capitalism that can sustain and develop mankind. The party is based on Marxism-Leninism, staying loyal to the principles of historical and dialectical materialism, scientific socialism as discovered by Marx and Engels, supplemented and tested by Lenin and further enriched by the experience of others throughout history. We have the instruments at hand to understand and influence the development of mankind. We seek to look beyond everyday events and seek the means to lead us towards a socialist future. We see the process towards socialism as a series of concrete political ac-

tions, learning by doing from trial and error, putting up the best experiences as a model for further action, by fighting for and defending progressive reforms. We try to learn from negative experiences in the USSR and Eastern Europe but we also defend the positive experiences in the construction of socialism in those countries against forgeries of history and anticommunism. We see the socialist revolution as the only way to ensure real social change. To have a positive effect on the development of society, understanding that development and the changes within it, is essential to know what the right action is. Recognising the next step in the direction of socialism is the most difficult part of our politics. Despite the above-mentioned focus of our party on the pension issue, we still continue our other activities as well. Our government is first in line when it comes to the support of the imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and active in the defence of the interests of Dutch multinationals like Shell on the African continent at the cost of the local populations. The strategic position of the Dutch Antilles makes our country an important partner in the US strategy in Latin America as imperialism attempts to impose its will on developments there. Under the pretext of the war on drugs the USA has a basis on the island Curacao and a maritime treaty to secure the waters around it. I need not tell you this island is a neighbour of Venezuela. We support the national struggle for peace and the call for the withdrawal of Dutch troops to within the borders of our nation. We as a communist party make a Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 new communist party of the Netherlands

call for just and peaceful relations with the underdeveloped nations on the basis of mutual progress and struggle in solidarity with Cuba. We demand respect for the right of nations to choose their own path as long as that does not oppress other people in their development. It is becoming more and more clear that continuation on the road of maximizing profits is no less than collective suicide.

121

Long live Marxism-Leninism. Long live Socialism Thank you for your attention.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Many thanks to Communist Party of India

122

Communist Party of Norway SVEND HAAKON JACOBSEN

(Marxist) and Communist Party of India for hosting this 11th International meeting, first meeting in the Asian hemisphere, and in the Global Capitalist crises, this is in good accordance with the importance of the development in your hemisphere. The military coup in Honduras shows that USA is trying every mean in this new situation, to destabilize the left governments in Latin America to control energy resources and economic development. The 7 new US military bases in Columbia shows clearly their intensions.

THE CAPITALIST CRISES ARE INTRINSIC SYSTEM CRISIS. This last big overproduction crises started already about 40 years ago, when the banks developed big loans to finance the increased production. By the end of the 1980s the financial sector in the OECD countries was bigger in the GDP than goods production. For the big financial capital the profit margins in the financial sector proved to be much better than in industrial investments. In addition to the regulated, a huge totally unregulated international financial market developed with derivatives amounting to 30 times the GDPs of the whole world. When the trust in the financial system disappeared, the whole system broke down. In the imperialist countries the governments gave billions of dollars to the banks to hinder bankruptcy The tax money paid by the workers for welfare purposes was redistributed by the state to big finance capital. This saved finance capital, but did not create new jobs. The reason for the capitalist crises is the drastic fall in demand, as the population have less money to spend. In the US now according to New York Post the real unemployment has risen to an all high of 17 %. A lot of US workers have till now only paid a Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Norway

low rent on their house loans. From 2010 to 2011 most of them have to start to pay down their mortgage in addition. Many more people are unemployed, and many have drastic lowered income. In this situation the international capitalist crises will for sure deepen. USA’s strength lies in their military capacity. Therefore they will use this tool to get control of energy resources, and try to dictate their capitalist terms to weaker developing countries. But even if these wars are expensive, they are not of a magnitude that will solve the capitalist economic crises of today. Therefore the financial oligarch elite in the US must sort to fascism and racism to suppress and divide their crisesstricken working class, to hinder organized class fight for social change. Under the umbrella of ”fight against terror” laws reducing citizens rights have been implemented, and two fully equipped army brigades are decided withdrawn from Iraq to deal with civil unrest and demonstrations. In the US many signals imply that the ruling financial oligarchy class is prepared to install military dictatorship to secure their interests.

NORWAY, OUR SMALL COUNTRY IN THE HIGH NORTH is rich because of its oil and gas resources, lots of clean turbine electric energy from a lot of waterfalls, and a long coast which till now have been rich on fish resources. Big finance capital in Norway have been gambling high in the international unregulated finance market, and lost a lot in the crises. The ”red-green” Social democratic government in Norway pursued the same policies as in the other west-

ern imperialist countries. Equivalent to 100 billion US dollars from the workers paid tax money was redistributed to the big financial institutions, which helped the owners save their money. Only equivalent to 4 billion US dollars was given to the community service to keep up demands for building services on a small scale. Many carpenters and industry workers are now unemployed. The unemployment figure is about 100.000, or about 4 %, in a population of 4,7 million. The politicians say the crises are not so bad, and will be over by next year. The statistical department try to show nice figures, but are arrested by officials from offshore and export industries, many who are out of orders by the end of this year. Norways relative low unemployment rate of 4 % in comparison to the higher than 10% average of the western EU countries and 17 % in the US is due to our large state and community sector, which are not directly stricken by the capitalist crises, and therefore keeps up a relatively high demand for goods in society.

THE COMMUNIST PARTIES IN THE NORTHERN REGION HAVE CLOSE AND REGULAR COOPERATION. Communist Party of Sweden, Communist Party in Denmark, Communist Party of Denmark and Communist Party of Norway organize common Summer camp between us every summer. We also organize Kalott – meeting in the high north where also the Finnish Communist Parties and the Communist Parties of Russia participate. Last year the meeting was in Alta City of Finnmark in Northern Norway. Next summer of 2010 we hope to be invited by πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

123

124

Communist Party of the Russian Federation in Murmansk for the Kalott-meeting. We have no regular cooperation with former maoist parties in our region. Such parties call themselves “Communist” in Sweden and Denmark, and “Red” Party in Norway. These parties have been fighting the Communist Parties, they have acted anti-Communist and anti-Sovjetic, and their practice were based not on cooperation, but on political confrontation and coups, getting majority votes in meetings and take control. In Norway they have cooperated with the police on illegal political espionage on the Communist Party of Norway since 1972 on. In 2007 or 2008 a political journalist of Red Party’s Newspaper travelled to India helping the Maoists in India attacking one of the ruling Communist Parties in India in a difficult situation. Another journalist from the same party and newspaper travelled under cover as ”tourist” to Cuba, to support ”Ladies in white”, the US organized wives of jailed Cubans imprisoned for being paid agents from the US Interest Section in Havana. We know that this time the Swedish former Maoist Party is seeking to become member of our international meeting. If their case is presented on the agenda, we ask you to vote no to take this party to be member of our International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, both because of these parties political and organizational practice and their lack of proletarian comradeship and cooperation. Thank you for your patience.

πB - 1/2010 communist party of Norway

INTERNATIONAL CAPITALIST CRISIS. Last

Communist Party of Pakistan IMDAD QAZI

international meeting’s analysis of crisis of capitalism has been proved hundred percent correct. The crisis is not only continuing but is increasing in intensity. World Bank and international monetary fund have predicated increase in its depth and diversity. This expanding crisis has resulted in increase of unemployment and intolerable hike of prices in all the developed centers of capitalism particularly United State of America. This increase has engulfed developing countries as well. Cost of living has increased by minimum 20 per cent during last one year. More than 2 Billion people are living below poverty line and majority of them go to sleep without taking any food. Capitalism has been trying to wriggle out of crisis without any change in its system of exploitation. It is banking upon flight of capital from markets of developing countries and capturing of world energy resources. Capitalist world, under the leadership of USA, has adopted the path of creating war hysteria for attaining its objectives. In this way world has entered into an undeclared world war having its center in Asia. War adventure has been continuing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Different strategies are being adopted to control the oil and Gas reservoirs of Central Asia.

THE WAR HYSTERIA has been created to stop movements for social changes becoming stronger, in capitalist centers. Religious fundamentalism and theories of civilisation’s clash are being utilised as tools for the purpose. Non existing villains and so called heroes are being created to play with the people sentiments so that war atmosphere may be continued. World electronic and print media has played the required role of producing conducive environment, πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

125

126

for the campaign. Common man has been forced to think only about danger to its existence through this propaganda campaign. He has no time at this disposal to think on problems of life. Our country, Pakistan is also passing through this situation. Everyone is in the grip of fear from religious fanatics created by USA and its allied during cold war era. The militant wings of these fundamentalist forces have succeeded in intimidating the society to a very large extent. The so called war against terror, started by US imperialism has destabilised the entire region. No Pakistani Town or city is safe. Suicide bombings, claiming hundreds of lives, are daily routine now. This situation is being exploited, in capitalist centers, to gain support for continuation of war, as end of war is not in their interest. “The workers and people’s struggle”

WAR INDUSTRY has been flourishing as a result of above situation. Developing countries have also been tempted to join the arm race. Working class fined it in a situation where it has to fight for its survival only. Wage reduction and retrenchments from employments are the immediate dangers for them. They have to go one step backward and are not in a position to demand increase in remuneration and facilities. Trade Unions are trying to satisfy their members by promising safeguarding the rights of workers who are lucky enough to escape firing from jobs. Workers are being persuaded by their leaders to accept decreased facilities both in quantity and quality. Employment through contractors has become a common feature both in public and private

sectors. Laws for minimum wages are not being implemented. People have to retreat even from demands of social security and democratic rights. In a country like Pakistan people have fallen prey to the propaganda that US interference, its military bases and private armies are their protectors. Anti-imperialist struggle, in this way, has suffered a setback. People of developed capitalist countries, instead of raising voice against increasing war expenditure, become victim of war phobia. This is the reason why—liberal and social democrats have increasing their vote banks in most European countries and communists have lost some ground.

THE ALTERNATIVE AND ROLE of Communists and working class movement. Intensifying movements for establishments of peace and socialist societies as an alternative of war and ills of capitalism is the need of hour. Comrade Lenin had not proposed reforms in capitalist system during world wars to counter the imperialist campaign of capturing and redistribution of economic markets. He had, rather, given the alternative of socialism to attain the objectives of peace and ending the war. Today also, workers and communist parties should struggles on the basis of this alternative program. Parties of Latin America have succeeded in mobilising people on the basis of this alternative. They deserve full appreciation for this remarkable feat. We are confident that the communist and worker parties of the region will be successful in reaching their ultimate goal. We have to take repeated guidance from Marxism and Leninism while strugπB - 1/2010 communist party of Pakistan

gling on these lines. We have to make roots among masses by raising their issues. We must adopt revolutionary stances instead of following populist lines. Our parties have to organise people on cadre basis. Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revolts can only be organised by cadre parties. Peoples could be lead towards peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revolutions through these revolutionary movements. World will continue to remain victim of barbarism until a socialist revolution or revolutionary changes are brought in this direction.

127

Long live Marxism Leninism Long live socialist Alternative Long live communist and workers parties international unity

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

On behalf of the Portuguese Communist

128

Portuguese Communist Party <

ANGELO ALVES

Party, I want to thank the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India for the fraternal hospitality with which you are receiving us here in New Delhi and to commend you for the conditions youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve created to hold this 11th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties. It is valuable that this Meeting is held, for the first time, in the Asian continent and carries onward a path that has included Europe, Latin America, the Middle East (with the recent extraordinary meeting in Damascus), and now Asia. We hope, that in a very near future, we may meet on the African continent. ~

IN SAO PAULO, in our 10th International Meeting, we identified the profound causes, the systemic and structural character of the crisis, its dangers, and the alternative â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Socialism. One year later, reality demonstrates the accuracy of our analysis when we affirmed that the crisis could result in attempts by the system to escape its confines by running forward. The crisis is very far from over, the dangers and threats are very visible as is the potential for the development of our struggle. The situation demands the definition of guidelines of struggle and we will concentrate our contribution on this issue. Along with the criminal and millionaire bailouts to financial capital, workers and the people are now faced with a new wave of generalized exploitation and impoverishment, of privatization and of concentration of capital. Therefore, we think that the social and mass struggle, the growing consciousness of workers towards a class perspective of the present causes of the economic and social crisis, the political and ideological struggle against the attempts to Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 Portuguese communist party

place upon the usual victims the burden of the effects of the economic and financial crisis, is fundamental to further engage the working masses in the general struggle for a rupture with the present socio-economic and political system. In this context, we think it is necessary to continue to give central attention to the reinforcement of the class-oriented trade union movement, fighting existing tendencies to dilute the workers movement into a supranational, reformist, bureaucratic trade unionism that often supports the capitalist machine of exploitation. Alongside with the necessary exchange of our experiences on how we organize ourselves among workers, we think that the subject of the trade union movement should be further discussed in our meetings and in our movement. As we alerted, the development of the crisis has aggravated the repressive face of the system and its criminal and belligerent character. In new clothing, we witness the development of militarism; the opening of new fronts of the imperialist war; the strengthening of political-military blocks, like NATO; the accelerated consolidation and militarization of imperialist blocks such as the European Union and renovated attempts to engage regional powers in the revitalization or strengthening of militarystrategic alliances, be it in Africa, in the territories of the ex-Soviet Union, in Latin America or here in Asia. In this context, we think that the struggle for peace, against imperialist war, for solidarity with the people resisting imperialist occupation and aggression, against NATO – whose next summit will be held in Portugal, against the mil-

itarization of the European Union and against new strategic military agreements with imperialism, are in our opinion also fundamental guidelines of the struggle of our movement. As a result, we must pursue our work of strengthening the peace and anti-imperialist movement both at national and international levels.

FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY are threatened by an authentic institutional, military and media war of the ruling class, seeking, on one hand, the rehabilitation of the dominant ideology – of which the Obama administration is an outstanding example – and, on the other, the political persecution of forces and even countries that resist capitalist exploitation and oppression, namely those which clearly proclaim the objective of Socialism. In this framework, the struggle against anti-communism, against the opportunistic rewriting of history, against the rehabilitation of fascism and for the affirmation of the values and ideals of socialism, seem to us a fundamental task of the struggle of our movement. Actions such as the better circulation of information; exchange of experiences of communication with the masses, actions of solidarity among our struggles, common initiatives to promote the many common Socialist principles that unite us and common actions of solidarity with the peoples in struggle are some of the central lines of action that we could develop together with the aim of strengthening the social struggle. This work must take place together with another central task of our time, which is for us of utmost importance and crucial: to strengthen the ComπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

129

130

munist Party, its ties to the masses; develop its organization and political and ideological intervention; affirm its communist identity, its autonomy and its patriotic and internationalist nature. These factors, together with our unity and solidarity, are key to the strengthening of our movement and, therefore, for the broadening, strengthening and consistency of the Anti-Imperialist Front that we must continue to develop in our role as the historical builders of unity of the workers and peoples. To say it with Lenin, today more than ever it is necessary to continue to “unite the forces that create the great events”. Today, more than ever, it is necessary to pay attention to the subjective factor of the struggle, given that the objective conditions for these upturns and great events are becoming increasingly tangible.

ONE OF THE MAIN TOPICS of this meeting is the crisis of capitalism. And, if we speak of the crisis of capitalism we must speak of the profound and growing inequalities, both between classes and between nations. We also need to make reference to the “other” crises that are developing within this one – such as the food, energy and environmental crisis and therefore we must speak of the predatory character of capitalism. We should bear in mind that the deepening of the contradictions and historical limits of the system encompasses serious risks to basic conditions of subsistence of peoples, to the existence of Nation-States with its productive structures and their sovereignty, to peace, and even to the very existence of Humanity. We are speaking of phenome-

na and tendencies that the comrades of this region know well. Such tendencies develop in a context of an accelerated and complex process of rearrangement of forces on a global scale, with contradictory dynamics, that, on the one hand, contain elements of assertion of sovereignty in opposition to the totalitarian “new order” of imperialism and, on the other, express the deepening of inter-imperialist contradictions in the context of the crisis. In this context the so-called “developing” nations attempt to react to the imperialist strategy that limits their economic and social development using old and new instruments of domination, such as those designed for environmental issues. In this context these same countries are simultaneously involved, in most varied forms, in the imperialist strategy of exporting to the periphery the costs of the system’s crisis and of reforming the system so as to accentuate its exploitative, predatory and oppressive character. The present reality of the WTO, the role of the G20, the evolution of NATO and its partnership agreements and even the contaminated discussion of reforming the UN and its Security Council are educating examples of the complexity of this reality. These are turbulent times and processes that confirm the importance of remaining focused on the central objectives of our struggle without illusions about the role of the mechanisms of imperialist domination, despite the increasing contradictions that pervade in it. The popular struggle for the right to economic and social development of the less developed counπB - 1/2010 Portuguese communist party

tries; the struggle against scandalous regional asymmetries; the solidarity with the countries and peoples that defy the imperialist order; the struggle against the international institutions of capitalism; the political and ideological struggle around global issues like the environment, land, water, energy, sovereignty, must be priorities our movement.- priorities that are only possible to concretize if we continue to insist on the deepening of the class struggle in each of our countries and in the struggle for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. It is in this context of uncertainty, of great dangers, but also of real potential for the development of progressive and even revolutionary struggle – as we see in Latin America – that in our Party we identify the main tasks and guidelines previously mentioned. We must improve our capacity to interpret reality with exactitude; to have the ability to dialectically relate the necessary intensification of the ideological offensive of communists, the assertion of the socialist alternative with the daily struggle for the resolution of the most pressing problems of workers and peoples, for the defence of national sovereignty and of the right to development. Our cooperation, our points of intersection, our ability to advance in common or convergent action, our will and ability to develop and strength our International Meetings, with sometimes insufficient steps, but steady ones, assumes at this important moment for Humanity a crucial importance. If we are able to proceed in these directions, we will be able to meet the immense

challenge we are faced with: on the one hand, to respond to the immediate tasks, repelling the attacks of the dominant class and steadfastly defending the historic achievements of the workers’ movement, and on the other hand to take advantage of the situation so that – even if in a process still of capitalist accumulation- we can be the protagonists of new assaults on the heavens and move the World towards a future of peace, progress, justice. Towards Socialism! With the organization of this meeting the two Indian Communist parties have made an important contribution towards these objectives, by cooperating in a notable example of respect, mutual understanding and unity which will contribute to the affirmation, consolidation and strengthening of the Indian communist movement and also to this process international of communication that has proven to be so important to our movement.

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

131

I’m very glad to be here in this unique

brotherhood of the Communists of the World. We have here an extremely valuable exchange of ideas and experience. It is a great inspiration to Russian Communists.

132

Communist Party of the Russian Federation VYACHESLAV TETEKIN

IT IS A YEAR since the world economic crisis broke out. Its nature and possible consequences are still at the focus of attention. This is a systemic crisis which makes one doubt the prospects of American-style global economy that predominates in the world today. I think it would be appropriate in this respect to share the views of the Russian Communists. The events of late last year and this year have proved the validity of the classical Marxist-Leninist thesis to the effect that crises are an inherent and inevitable part of capitalism. The advocates of the free market have suddenly discovered that the existing capitalist system would have collapsed but for resolute state interference. We have watched with interest the government in the citadel of the free market, that of the USA, doing precisely what the Communists have been proposing all along, nationalizing key banks and major corporations. There is a lively debate on whether the bottom of this crisis has been reached and whether the recovery of the economy, of which there are some signs, will be fast or slow. Glib pronouncements about the end of the crisis have drowned out some candid and honest assessments, which hold that this is a crisis of the current speculative model of capitalism, and that its origin is the United States of America, the beacon of the capitalist world. Talk about an early end to the crisis is called upon, among other things, to justify the reluctance and inability of the “powers that be” to change anything in the existing model. While at the preparatory stage for πB - 1/2010 communist party of the Russian Federation

the first G20 meeting some concrete and resolute proposals were heard, now they have practically disappeared. And indeed, why change anything if the broken model could be fixed with tax payers’ money? Although the world oligarchy has lost some superfluous fat, it has no intention of giving up its attempts to continue living according to the old templates. The banks, the mainstays of oligarchic capitalism, which have benefited most from the anti-crisis measures, are staunchly defending corporate interests. They have an iron grip on the actions of their countries’ governments.

HOWEVER, the locomotive of speculative capitalism has broken down. Cosmetic repairs can be made, but it obviously is no longer able to move forward at the same speed and with the same load. Those, including Russia, who were pinning their hopes exclusively on “effective global capitalism” suffered the most. This should prompt far-reaching conclusions. We are convinced that the crisis of the world economy is of a fundamental character arising both from the contradictions of capitalism in general (as proved by Marx) and from the faults of the specific model of neo-liberal capitalism. In the opinion of major Western scholars such a fall cannot be overcome easily or rapidly. Recovery is only possible if the governments come up with qualitatively new methods of governing, methods whose novelty and practical implementation match the depth of the slump that has occurred. It took the Americans nearly ten years to overcome the Great Depression, and they

only did so with difficulty thanks to Roosevelt’s New Deal which was based on the left-centre economic philosophy of Keynes. The course relied heavily on the Soviet experience of the early five-year plans in the field of planning and social engineering. Today it bears repeating that notwithstanding all the Western crises, the Soviet country was enjoying a rapid and sustained development using novel economic and social methods. Ultimately it helped the world to recover from the crisis in those years. It helped to free the planet of the plague of fascism. However, no decisive changes are taking place in the consciousness and methods of running the state and society in the West today, and consequently, due to objective reasons, the crisis there will deepen. The next fall will be even more dangerous. It is perfectly clear today that protective mechanisms need to be found to prevent the destructive sway of globalization, that new approaches must be found. It cannot be denied that the crisis triggered the process of active erosion of the unjust world economic order that has existed up until now. Similarly, we see the erosion of the economic and political structures that ensured the dominance of one power in the world arena around which the main allies were grouped as satellites. Serious changes may be needed in the work of such organizations as the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. Simultaneously the question arises of ensuring the stability of the political system that enabled a small group of highly developed capitalist states to dominate the modern world. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

133

134

JUST AS I HAVE SAID the intellectual quality of our discussion is very high. One really feels that Marxism remains the most powerful instrument for the understanding of human society. We have brilliantly analyzed the contradictions of capitalism and confirmed its inevitable self-destruction. But we must not underestimate the ability of capitalism to adapt to changing situations. It managed to adapt itself to the October 1917 Revolution in Russia by introducing social security systems in Europe and the USA to keep people away from socialism. It succeeded in adapting itself to the collapse of colonial empires after World War II by introducing economic neocolonialism. And it is adapting itself to the current crisis by performing the unthinkable – nationalizing banks and major corporations. The intellectual stooges of capitalism are diligently studying Marxism in order to defeat it. Of course the adaptive power of capitalism won’t save it from eventual collapse. It is a system driven by greed and we can already see how at the very first signs of recovery capitalists abandon their lofty intentions of correcting the wrongs of current model. They are enthusiastically blowing up a new financial bubble similar to the one that caused the current crisis. In any case, it is clear that capitalism is unlikely to automatically collapse by itself. We must help capitalism to collapse. Of course the unity in action and collective solidarity are extremely important. But the most important thing is to strengthen our respective parties and turn them into the consolidation centers of all progressive anti-capitalist forces.

Russian Communists are moving in precisely this direction. The capitalist mafia in Russia composed of a criminal oligarchy and the top state bureaucracy is perhaps the most greedy and irresponsible in the world. Though Russia is potentially the richest country, this capitalist mafia has mismanaged the economy to the point that our country suffered the most severe impact from the crisis. Now people are starting to see tremendous differences between the socialism they had 20 years ago and the highly criminalized society they are offered now under the name of capitalism. Hence there has been a noticeable change in the political mood. Even under conditions of terrible electoral fraud, the Communist Party has systematically received from 15% to 20% of the vote in various elections. We know, however, that our potential support is well above this figure. And we pledge here that we are going to intensify our work to return socialism to Russia and restore the Soviet Union. Che Guevara’s famous expression reads as follows: “Be realistic – demand the impossible”. But world socialism is increasingly becoming possible. Let’s work for it!

πB - 1/2010 communist party of the Russian Federation

The South African Communist Party (SACP)

South African Communist Party CHRISTOPHER MATLHAKO

would like to external its fraternal greetings to communist and workers’ parties gathered at this 11th International Communist and Workers’ Parties meeting hosted by the Communist Parties of India – Marxist (CPIM) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) – parties with whom we have had long standing fraternal relations and great admiration for many years of glorious common struggle waged on behalf of and with the working class and poor in India against British colonialism and imperialism. We would like to thank the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) for hosting and organizing this 11th International meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. The fact that the International Meeting takes place in this region for the first time since the regrouping of the international communist movement after the fall of Berlin Wall and disappearance of Eastern European socialism and the Soviet Union - is in itself a very significant step for the international communist and workers’ movement. Amongst others, it underlines our solidarity with peoples of the region that increasingly have become the target of imperialist’s plans of war-mongering, aggression and domination as aptly illustrated by the ongoing socalled war on terror and religious fundamentalist in Pakistan and the subsequent battle for geo-strategic influence and domination. Over the last two days in this meeting, we have analyzed and presented perspectives on the nature, character and impact of the global capitalist crisis and its implications for the working people and poor going-forward – and as such we would not want to dilute that, nor do we desire to regurgitate what has already been said. Suffice it to argue that the crisis itself presents πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

135

136

us -those of us who are committed to bringing about a just, equal and sustainable development path that places at the centre the core demands of the people and not private profit, i.e. a socialist world order with even greater opportunities to elaborate more concretely our alternative perspectives as the theme of the 11th International meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties compels us to do. The SACP has over the years, since the early signs of the deep crisis began to surface, made concrete analyzes of the crisis and our views and perspectives are also contained in our publications, journals and theoretical magazines and we would like to broach beyond the analyzes and flag what we believe could be a basis of further consolidation of working class struggles to roll back the dominance of imperialist capitalism in particular in the region we come from, since the consequences of the crisis are felt much more acutely there for a variety of reasons, not the least the low levels of development and domination of these economies by imperialists multi-national corporations.

CAPITALISM, serving as the chief engine of the empire, has been, in its global expansion outwards from the North Atlantic, a even the – key force in turning imperialist dreams into reality. At the turn of the 21st century, driving home the apparent logic of its overweening power, capitalism’s principal beneficiaries sought to transfigure this system, under the title of globalization, into a commonsense fact of life and to reinforce an unassailable form of quasi-colonialism upon the global South much of which had

only just, within the preceding 40 or so years, cast off the shackles of the most overt and direct kind of colonialism. The South African economy like much of the African continent continues to reproduce inequalities even post-independence and is dominated by stubborn colonial features, which hamper the realization of the goals of incumbent former national liberation movements. Systemic problems of the South African economy (huge inequalities, spatial marginalization of at least half the population and crisis-levels of unemployment) persist and are even actively reproduced in the midst of the 5% growth experienced in the past decade. The capitalist path in SA continues to be dominated by features of what can be termed colonialism of the special type (CST). The economy is excessively exportorientated, with this excessive orientation dominated by primary product exports. This particular dependent-development path is reproduced by the domination of the commanding heights of the economy by the mineral-energy-finance monopoly capitalist class. It is a domination that further skews the economy in terms of logistics and spatial policy and natural resources policy, and in terms of the underdevelopment of the manufacturing and small and medium-sized capital sectors. Our CST accumulation path is also excessively import-dependent for capital and luxury goods and contributes towards the predatory role of South African capital in our wider region. Much of the continent, like SA itself, is a net exporter πB - 1/2010 South African communist party

of primary commodities and a net importer of more expensive capital goods. We raise these matters in the context of the elaboration in our view and understanding, of a strategic and programmatic approach this meeting needs to develop under the theme ‘… workers’ and peoples’ struggles, the alternatives, alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement’. The present conditions in Africa are perhaps the greatest indictment of modern capitalism. Consider the points made in a recent World Bank report: The total income of all 48 sub-Saharan

African countries is now roughly equal to that tiny Belgium. Each country on average has an income of about $2 billion a year – roughly the same as a small town in the West with a population of 60 000. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of this vast continent is less than 1% of world GDP. Social conditions have deteriorated since the minor gains that were made immediately after independence in the 1960s. If South Africa is excluded, there are fewer roads in the whole of Africa than in Poland, and there are only 5 million telephones. One can assume that no exaggeration being made in these appalling statistics, given that the World Bank has to admit to at least some responsibility for what has happened.

As the consequences and realities of the capitalist crisis further crystallize in the coming months, the working class, the rural peasantry and the poor in Africa, and in other ‘developing countries’ will be further exposed to even more precariousness as their quality of life is further eroded and deterioration of the livelihoods is experienced all-round.

A FEW WEEKS AGO, the SACP celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theoretical journal – African Communist! The theoretical journal, it was remembered, was named the African Communist for, amongst others, the very reason that the journal anticipated that it would become a theoretical journal for all African communists and therefore be the platform for debate, exchange and discussion and agitation around a Marxist-Leninist praxis and application for the entire continent. This challenge, the Party believes is still valid today. Therefore, we understand the proposal of the 11th International Communist and Workers Parties to host the 12th meeting in South Africa as an honour and contribution towards this task, which underscores the very endeavours of the Party’s analysis of the prospects for progressive development on the continent. We are indeed, deeply honoured at the proposal and consideration to convene the next meeting on the African continent and perceive this to be an important statement and expression of confidence and solidarity with the struggles of working people and the poor on the continent. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

137

138

The SACP will, if you are agreeable to allow it to organize the 12th International meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, organize it as an African meeting! By that means, we believe we would be in a position to further contribute towards the reaffirmation of the endeavours undertaken by many progressives on the continent in very difficult and precarious situations. The 12th meeting happening on the African continent will not only complete the rotational targets of the meeting, but will be an important political expression of confidence and reaffirmation of the struggles of a continent and people who have borne the brunt of the imperialists rivalries, the ravages of war stoked by the insatiable greed of monopoly capitalists and the ‘re-colonialization’, that has been characterized by the blunting and hollowing-out of the achievements of independence. The SACP has discussed the matter and is in full agreement with the proposal and places it on record that, if you so decide – it will be indeed a great honour to host the 12th International Communist and Workers Parties meeting in South Africa in 2010! As we say – Socialism is the future! Build it now with and for the workers and poor! Amandla!

πB - 1/2010 South African communist party

THE CURRENT CRISIS OF CAPITALISM is a

Communist Party of Peoples of Spain TERESA PANTOJA

structural one, it increases the organic composition of capital in a more accelerated way and the law of the tendency of the profit rate to fall is developing steadfastly. The privatization of the advanced technologies, a consequence of scientific and technical development, has progressively reduced the participation of the labour force in the commodities production and thus the possibility of the generation and appropriation of surplus value by the capitalist. The immediate consequence for the working class is that capital is looking for a cheaper labour force, the relocation of companies, creating flows of working masses towards the capitalist centres. The working class is losing buying power, they are forced to increase the working hours, is suffering abandonment by states and the bourgeois organizations and institutions, unemployment rises to tragic numbers, reaching more than 20% in some so-called central countries, like Spain. At the same time, capitalism is using fictitious protectionism, which in a biased discourse of social protection of the workers in the central countries, “us” before “them”, unleashes xenophobia against immigrant workers and, added to the institutional order, the immigrant population does not only bear xenophobia, but they are also victims of the directives and laws attacking the human being. Capitalism is responding to the reduction in profitability in the productive field by directing capital towards the unproductive and speculative areas. In speculation, capitalism finds a higher profit in less time than in the productive field, also increasing the corruption which is intrinsic to capitalism, as has been proved by many cases appearing in the last months in Spain.

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

139

140

Financial and speculative capital has played the leading role in the last decades in the process of capital accumulation. The financialization of the capitalist economy, the highest representative of the parasitism of the imperialist stage, has been the basis of the financial speculation, reducing accumulation through commodities production to a percentage that is being reduced day after day in the world capitalist economy. Today, production and distribution of commodities is a minimum part of the capitalist economy. The financial crisis is only a link in the chain, it can not be analysed as the only factor, forgetting the historical and social factor of a way of development of the human species. In the framework of the capitalist crisis, the energy crisis is a part of the speculative processes, increasing the prices and becoming a burden for the economies of central capitalism, especially those who have a limited capacity of self supply. The failure, at least at this moment, in the production of biofuel, increases the tendency of capital to appropriate the natural reserves placed in Latin America, Africa, Middle East and some parts of post-Soviet Russia. The logical need of capitalism to control the natural resources develops an international policy of military interventions, leads to wars against Iraq and Afghanistan and aggression against Latin American countries, who are threatened with war with the deployment of the 4th Fleet, the installation of US bases in Colombia or the coup in Honduras, and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;non-mediaticâ&#x20AC;? wars in the African continent.

The state of permanent war helps arms development, forcing other countries to have an effective need for the final product and passing the unproductive cost of war to other nations. In this picture, capitalism has no other possibility than making war an essential tool to sustain the process of capital accumulation.

IN EUROPE, THE LISBON TREATY underpins the military aspect with the obligation of the member states to increase military expenditure and the acknowledgement of the idea of preventive war. The food crisis affects more than 1.000 million people who already suffer from extreme famine. The destruction of productive capacity by the capitalism of the central countries puts the harvests in a market out of control where the production of food does not respond to the need of supply, but to the dictates of capital. Capital, in its speculative logic, makes the price of food swing, thus affecting the population that is economically weaker. It is possible today to solve the problem of famine in the world. The technologies of agricultural and farming production allow the production of food for the whole of mankind. The mass-media of capitalism accomplish their role perfectly, being the ideological apparatus of the bourgeoisie. Their fragmenting analysis of reality satisfies the goal of lulling the working class to sleep, preparing the acceptance of the consequences of a capitalist practice under the slogan of terror against any protest or activity of the opĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of peoples of Spain

pressed class. The psychology of terror is promoted so fear is the main constant element in the life of the peoples. They create and improve the repressive instruments that are coordinated at all possible levels, and complete the picture with the criminalization of the revolutionary options, the elimination of protests. In the face of this, capitalism proposes “political and social consensus” for overcoming the crisis, transmitting the idea that this is the only possible choice. There is no place for intermediate solutions, there are no reforms that could eliminate capital, the socialization of capitalism is the proposal of political opportunism, the social unity so much defended from socialdemocratic positions is hiding the goal of saving the economic order of capital, even though the cost is to increase social inequality and exploitation. Socialism is the alternative for mankind, it is time to overcome doubts about the arrival of socialism, we must advance to the organizational stage of struggle that has to promote the process as a real option. The Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain proposes the elaboration of the tactical stages of this period, which have to be realised in a potent process of the accumulation of forces:

the revolutionary and progressive forces, with a minimum programme. While these general coordinations – communist and anti-imperialist - advance and come to reality, let us promote unity of actions in some concrete issues in face of the attacks of the imperialist system, the actions could be regional or worldwide. Some examples: Actions against the famines of 1.000

million people. Actions against war in Afghanistan. World Day in solidarity with Palestine and other peoples in struggle. World action against the destruction of the Amazon.

The advancement and consolidation of

the coordination for the international communist movement, with a common programme. Creation of a working committee with the task of advancing in this field. Promoting the creation of the World Anti-imperialist Front as an alliance of all πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

141

THE

142

Communist Party of Sweden PETER COHEN

CONTINUING CRISIS AND THE ADVANCE OF THE NEW FASCISM. The socioeconomic crisis that supposedly began with the financial meltdown in 2008 continues to intensify. Last year we pointed out that the crisis is rooted in the exploitation of the working class, and has been intensifying over the past 45 years. We also pointed out that one of the main characteristics of Fascism is an intensified and widespread integration of the State with monopoly capital, often in the form of joint committees that make vital decisions and formulate strategy. This has been dramatically demonstrated by the enormous program for the purported rescue of banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies and other financial institutions, through cash injections and guarantees from the public treasury. In the US alone, more than 23 trillion dollars has been committed to the financial sector. In Sweden, the government recently confirmed that its commitment amounts to half the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gross Domestic Product, and that no time limit is in sight. Among other things, the commitment is being used to save two large Swedish banks that since the mid-1990s have dominated the economies of the Baltic countries, where they have generated huge speculative bubbles. The Swedish government has not announced a similar commitment for securing pensions, unemployment compensation, sickness benefits or health-care facilities. In a capitalist society, a provider of crucial financial aid normally demands at least majority ownership or control in the company being rescued. But in virtually all cases where State funds have been or are being injected into privately owned institutions, the government has abstained from assuming the role of owner. Private properĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 communist party of Sweden

ty is indeed sacred. The State and monopoly finance capital are now entwined like two snakes in the act of copulation - in full view of the public. Occasional complaints arise about the banks being rewarded for irresponsible speculative activities. The standard response is a solemn assurance that regulatory action is being studied, and new rules will be established to avoid another unforeseen financial earthquake. Meanwhile, everyone should lean back and relax, because the State’s strenuous exertions have restored the financial sector to health and vigor, and the capitalist system has once again shown its amazing ability to recover from a crisis. Repeated insistence on the strength and flexibility of the capitalist system is a major weapon in the ideological arsenal of the bourgeoisie. It is the obverse of the equally repeated insistence that the socialist economy in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was a failure, and collapsed of its own weight. Signs of recovery are said to include stock-market rallies in many OECD countries. In reality, this is simply another speculative bubble that will burst in the not-toodistant future. It mirrors the pattern after the stock-market crash in 1929, when a collapse in prices was followed by an upswing that lasted about a year before the market collapsed again in 1930. In general, share prices did not return to 1929 levels until the early 1950s. Small monthly increases in Gross Domestic Product have been greeted with cries of enthusiasm and relief. When the German GDP showed a monthly rise of

0.3% during the summer, the mass media announced that the so-called recession was finally over.

SIGNS THAT ALL IS NOT WELL. The treatment of the crisis in the mass media has the objective function of obscuring its true nature in several ways. It is explicitly assumed that the health of the financial sector is a measure of the health of the economy. In effect, a schizophrenic virtual world has been created that consists of two economies – one is finance, the other is the production of goods and non-financial services. For example, about six weeks ago one of Sweden’s leading dailies printed two articles side-by-side. The headline on one was “Central bank chief is cautiously optimistic”. The other headline announced that 400 employees had just been fired by the management of the Swedish Agricultural Federation. No indication was given as to the degree of optimism among the newly unemployed. The contradiction between the so-called recovery and the dysfunctional real economy is difficult to ignore, even for bourgeois propagandists. In the summer of this year, an ingenious argument was devised to explain the discrepancy. The term “jobless recovery” was coined to explain that the creation of new employment opportunities normally lags behind economic recovery. The unemployed have only to wait, and when the recovery gathers steam at an unspecified future date they will be offered well-paid jobs This will undoubtedly comfort the members of the 3 million British households in πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

143

144

which no one has a job, as reported by the UK’s Office for National Statistics. The financial sector shows a number of signs which indicate that all is not well, to say the least. A significant portion of the assets reported by banks are virtually worthless, since they consist of loans which can never be repaid. These include large loans by Western European banks to the former socialist countries. Nevertheless, the big banks are allowed to include these assets at face value in their balance sheets, in order to avoid declaring themselves bankrupt. Since the autumn of 2008 the mass media have been broadcasting the message that money must be pumped into the banks so that they can provide credit to privately owned companies, Helping the banks will enable them to start lending again. The problem according to the experts was liquidity, not solvency. But the banks have not started lending again, despite all the money they have received. The reason is that the problem is not liquidity – it is solvency. The banks are bankrupt. They are hoarding money in an attempt to bolster their balance sheets. They are not interested in lending money to other banks which in all probability will not be able to repay it, or to companies which are themselves facing bankruptcy. Last year we pointed out that the speculation which has been rampant in the capitalist system since the early 1980s has been fuelled by the profits extracted from the working class, and the accompanying development of fictitious capital. The derivatives market is the emblem of speculation and the prime example of fictitious capital.

It has grown exponentially, and dwarfs everything else in sight. It is in imminent danger of collapse. The size of the global derivatives market may appear difficult to grasp, but we can put it in perspective. The nominal value of this market is estimated at 1.5 quadrillion dollars, i.e. 1.5 thousand trillion dollars. By way of comparison, the GDP of the US is about USD 14 trillion, or less than 1/10 of 1% of the derivatives market. The GDP of the entire world is about USD 50 trillion, or 3.3%. The real estate of the entire world is valued at about USD 20 trillion, or 1.3%. The world’s stock and bond markets are valued at about USD 100 trillion, or 6.6%. The big secret is that the major financial institutions do not report the value of their derivative commitments in their balance sheets. If they did, they would be immediately declared insolvent. The Western banking system is in fact bankrupt.

DARK CLOUDS OVER THE REAL ECONOMY. In the real economy, there is no reason to rejoice. Despite the claims of recovery, all the indicators are negative. The persistent problems of debt and insufficient purchasing power have not been solved, primarily because they cannot be solved. Unemployment is at record highs, and rising. Personal bankruptcies and evictions from dispossessed homes continue to rise to record levels. Poverty is increasing globally. The number of starving people world-wide has risen to more than one billion for the first time. Another, less well-known indicator also shows that economic activity is not on the increase. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) measπB - 1/2010 communist party of Sweden

ures shipping rates for large bulk carriers that transport commodities such as coal, various types of crucial metallic ores, cement, cocoa, grains, phosphates, fertilizers, and animal feed. As a measure, it is immune to speculation and is an accurate reflector of industrial activity world-wide. In contrast to many other types of important economic data, it is updated every day. From June to December 2008 the BDI declined by 94%, because of a steep drop in demand for shipping. This in turn resulted from the global slowdown in economic activity as well as the unavailability of credit for the purchase of goods and payment of time charters on ships. The BDI recovered somewhat in the late spring and early summer of 2009, almost exclusively on the basis of a temporary increase in demand for imports in China. Since then the index has been very volatile, and is now at about 30% of the level in June 2008. A steep collapse in demand for container ships also reflects the decline in the real economy. Earlier this year MoellerMaersk of Denmark, the world’s largest container-ship operator, laid up at least 25 big container vessels and announced that it expects lay-ups of container ships in the world market to increase by 66% by early 2010.

PREPARING TO CONTAIN REVOLT. At the more rarified levels of the ruling class there is evidence that a “return to normalcy” is not expected within the foreseeable future, and precautions are being taken to deal with the unrest that is anticipated. The prospects for generating substantial num-

bers of jobs are dim, and people without jobs, money or homes may become desperate. The reduction in public-sector spending that results from the so-called rescue of the financial sector is one of the factors that are expected to stimulate unrest. Expenditure for war is another. For example, the bulk of outlays by the Obama administration is for wars, rescuing the banks, and paying interest on the public debt. There is not much left over. In June the World Bank reported that about 1 trillion dollars will be drained from the economies of the world’s poorest countries this year as a result of the financial collapse. Debt-ridden countries will be subject to IMF and World Bank schemes for even more austerity in labor markets and the public sector. Early this year IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn predicted increasing unrest, saying it could happen “almost everywhere. It may worsen in the coming months.” He was presumably upset by the widespread protests in the Baltics and former Eastern European socialist countries, as well as in Russia. The Royal Bank of Canada warned of “regime collapse and sudden movements to the left” in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In April the British police sealed off a large portion of London in order to protect the members of the G-20 group from angry protesters, many of whom were identified as middleclass by the police commissioner who is responsible for what is called “public safety”. Violent protests have occurred repeatedly in other Western European countries since the start of the year. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

145

146

In February Dennis C. Blair, the US Director of National Intelligence, presented his annual report, which identified the global economic crisis as the greatest threat to America’s security. He said that the longer the crisis drags on, the greater the threat it will pose to political stability. “Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period. And instability can loosen the hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.” Blair referred to “violent extremism” in Europe during the depression of the 1930s and warned that “about 25% of all countries have already experienced low-level instability”, mostly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and that if the crisis continues there is a risk of regime change. He said this would make it more difficult to open national markets to international capital. Blair’s warnings are reflected by the recall of at least two US army brigades from Iraq to the continental US, According to the newspaper Army Times, their task is to deal with emergencies traceable to natural or human causes, such as “civil unrest” and demonstrations. According to a report by the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College, in case of state- or nation-wide “dislocation of the social order” the Department of Defense will have to become an “enabling hub” to ensure authority. In other words, a military dictatorship would have to be established in Washington.

In Western Europe, special-forces units have received training in urban street fighting to combat “civil unrest” in a number of countries, including Sweden and France. The ultimate guarantor for the existing European social order is of course NATO. We pointed out in the early 1990s that NATO has two main tasks – to combat a possible resurgence of the Communist movement in the East, and a working-class revolt in the West. At a previous conference we stated that the annulment of traditional bourgeois democracy is one of the prime characteristics of Fascism. The framework for the repressive measures that will be required to maintain the capitalist system exists already. The basic structure of the EU is a de jure refutation of traditional bourgeois democracy. The ratification of the Lisbon agreement is a major step toward even more authoritarian rule. In the US, representative democracy at the national level has been shredded to the point where it is unrecognizable. Another prime component of Fascism involves continuous physical and legal attacks on labor unions. A recent report on trade union membership in the OECD countries 1960-2006 shows a considerable decline, with few exceptions. The report is available at www.oecd.org/dataoecd/25/42/3989 1561.xls In conclusion I would like to cite one of the two best books I know of on Fascism: Behemoth, by Franz Neumann, written in English in 1944. The other book is Fascism and Dictatorship, by Nicos Poulantzas, first published in 1968. πB - 1/2010 communist party of Sweden

Neumann wrote that “The fundamental goal of National Socialism is the resolution by imperialistic war of the discrepancy between the potentialities of Germany’s industrial apparatus and the actuality that existed and continues to exist”, i.e. the potential for profit. Neumann described the structure of German Fascist society as “A small group of powerful industrial, financial and agrarian monopolists tending to coalesce with a group of party hierarchs into a single bloc disposing of the means of production and the means of violence”, and “A large mass of workers and salaried employees without any kind of organization and without any means of articulating their views and sentiments.” This is the future that awaits the world unless Communist and Workers’ parties can mobilize the working class – as fast as possible.

147

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

Before starting, I would like to ask a ques-

148

Communist Party of Turkey MEHMET KUZULUGIL

tion. Have any of you comrades, heard about the American soldiers in Turkey? I mean their visit to Izmir last week. Have any of you noticed that in the news? I will tell you why I am mentioning this point. 3500 soldiers, who have been killing and getting killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, were in Izmir for 3 days last week; to get a rest, to visit the bars, to drink, to bargain with the pimps. And our comrades in Izmir marched against this visit, when, in front of a bar, we came upon some soldiers just at the very moment we were shouting “Yankee go home”. Turkish police were there to guard the U.S. soldiers. Our comrades threw rotten eggs. Comrades, it is a great shame for us that the soldiers who killed thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan can come to our country and have a vacation, and feel themselves at home. And in the name of our dignity, our communist honor, we taught them that they should not! Comrades, please allow me to highlight a point. During the Bush period, soldiers had hardly had the opportunity to take rests. They were utterly busy killing and getting killed for a long time. Now this is the Obama way. They are killing and having some rest. This is the Obama style: kill and have some rest. Kill and have some rest... Dear comrades, Please allow me to offer you the greetings from Turkey. We will also thank the comrades from the CPI and CPI(M) for successfully organizing this meeting and for their hospitality.

THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM is going through one of the deepest crisis it has witnessed since 1929. For sure, as Marxist-Leninists, we all emphasized that although the crisis was initiated by the collapse in the financial πB - 1/2010 communist party of Turkey

markets of the imperialist countries, this does not imply that it is a “financial crisis”. The crisis is an outcome of the contradictions inherent to the capitalist mode of production, the pattern of capital accumulation and income distribution that has been imposed on toiling masses since the early 1980s, the parasitism and decay of capitalism at its imperialist stage, and the rivalries and contradictions ongoing among the imperialist powers. The crisis in which we live today is an extension of the crises that have manifested themselves at different parts of the world for the last two decades. The severity and depth of the crisis have led many, not only communists but also some bourgeois ideologists, to assert that the world capitalist system cannot continue its way as it used to. Since Marx, we have known that crises are inherent to the capitalist mode of production, and each crisis leads to various changes at various depths in the balance of forces between social classes and the capitalist system endeavors to restore itself through these changes. Yet again, we know that whatever change is initiated, the capitalist mode of production cannot manage to maintain stability for a long time; it always generates new crises. Therefore, the emphasis put on the notion of “change” and the expectations generated thereof shall be taken with a grain of salt. Of course, there will be changes, but the concentration and centralization of capital, the monopolistic tendencies of conquering and re-conquering the world, the escape from material production and the quest for speculation, the instability caused by capital movements, the over-inflation of

the service sector, the commoditization of all aspects of social life, the liquidation of the public sphere etc.; all of these are maintained. These will be maintained by the capitalist class, because they are not only the fundamental factors that lie at the root of the crisis, but they are also the irrevocable elements of the class response that the capitalist-imperialist system resorts to in order to find a way out of the crisis on their own behalf. Comrades, at this point we should address several issues of discussion, various positions which may find reflection also on our ranks now and then. One of these issues is the potential of change within the imperialist hierarchy or rather the position of the U.S. imperialism in near future. It is certain that the monopoly of the U.S. power over the world capitalist system is getting weaker, especially in the economic sphere. For instance, the financial architecture based on the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency is at stake, and this will have further repercussions on the pattern of capital flows in the capitalist world economy. The funds transferred to the U.S. economy due to the position of the U.S. currency would decline, which implies the end of the over-consumption of U.S. citizens buttressed by financial speculation and rent-seeking and the hegemonic position of the U.S. dollar. However, this also means the sharpening of class conflict in this country, as we have been witnessing since the beginning of the crisis, in the United States as well as in other imperialist countries, the economic policies to transfer wealth to the capitalist class have been put into practice at all costs. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

149

150

Without a moment’s delay, bail out programs have been implemented although such policies undermine the fundamentalist pro-market ideology that has been preached for the last three decades. Despite all these, despite the apparent factors which shake the hegemony of the United States, we are still living in an era in which the U.S. hegemony in international politics and military issues are not challenged at a significant level. Furthermore, threats to U.S. hegemony in the economic sphere render this imperialist power more aggressive in other fields. It would be a grave mistake to assume that the Obama administration is seeking to develop diplomatic channels and trying to avoid the use of military means. The United States simply cannot give up the use of military threat; neither can it abandon the ground it has created for the last two decades in many regions, especially in the Middle East. The diplomatic audacity of the Obama administration serves nothing but to increase the options of U.S. imperialism, which has found itself at a deadlock in the former period for instance with the rising anti-imperialist struggles of the Latin American people or with the powerful resistance of the Iraqi people against invasion. Increasing the options through diplomacy does not rule out military threat and aggression, but on the contrary, it includes these as well as trying to impose U.S. interests through “negotiation” with several actors in various regions. This point also relates to the new perspectives of our ruling class in Turkey. We strongly argue that the so called new Ottoman vision of the Turkish bourgeoisie is a

part of the efforts by the imperialists to strengthen -and restore in some points, the imperialist hegemony of the US. In conclusion, although the position of the United States within the imperialist hierarchy is run down further by the crisis, we are not yet in a position to say that U.S. hegemony will collapse in the near future. Rather we can see that imperialism in general and U.S. imperialism in particular is becoming more aggressive in all senses of the word. The only actual force to stop this aggression is the resistance and the struggle of the working class in all countries. However, despite issues such as the acceleration of unemployment, rapid increase in poverty, transfer of wealth, especially public funds, to the capitalists etc., we cannot say that the working class resistance to the attacks of the capitalist class for the last two years has increased to a great extent. Of course, this is not surprising, because we all know that the reactions of the working class during crises do not ascend with a linear trend. Yet, we should address another factor that is of importance today. In the two previous great depressions of the capitalist-imperialist system, the crisis in late 19th century and the crash of 1929, the rise of the working class movement was enhanced by the fact that the militancy of the toiling masses prior to these crises was greater. The experiences gained by the working class within class struggle beforehand had facilitated it to confront the crisis in a more militant way. Yet, the militancy of the working class in major capitalist countries could not succeed in stopping great catastrophes, πB - 1/2010 communist party of Turkey

and we know that the decisive moments when the communists could intervene had not been the beginning of the crises particularly, but these moments of catastrophe. Unlike the two previous great crises of the capitalist world economy, the current crisis was born in a counter-revolutionary era, which implies that the militant experience of the working class is relatively weak. This factor leads to certain repercussions on the rise of class struggle and the development of class consciousness within the course of the crisis. This leaves greater room for the capitalist class to manipulate the toiling masses by ideological and political means. Allow me to give an example from my country, Turkey. While the official unemployment rate is around 15 percent and the real unemployment rate is around 25 percent, the reactionary Justice and Development Party government is trying to cut social security benefits to a great extent. While the bourgeois government is carrying out this anti-labor policy in a country which is one of the most deeply affected by the global crisis, they endeavor to substitute the notion of public interest with the “charity” of Islamic communities that is facilitated and empowered by government resources. Hence, many unemployed, poor people beg for charity and are ideologically becoming committed to these reactionary practices. Although the current crisis is born in a counter-revolutionary era and the militancy of the working class is low with respect to the early 20th century, we also said that the class struggles in each crisis do not have a

linear development trend. As we can determine that greater catastrophes are yet to come, we are also saying that we have not reached the critical moment yet. It would be absurd to understate the intensity of the current crisis and its effects on the toiling masses. But taking the crisis seriously does not imply expecting a linear rise in the working class movement; we have to take into account that each and every crisis has periods of contraction and expansion, hence we need to consider the internal fluctuations of the process. Communists must take account of these fluctuations in order to be able to lead the working class to socialist revolution when the critical moment arrives. In other words, it would be misleading to assume that displaying the very nature of the capitalist mode of production that it is the system itself which leads to these outcomes would be enough to raise the class consciousness of the workers. We have to emphasize this fact while we also challenge the ideological and political endeavors to legitimize the system.

TO THIS END, the communist and workers’ parties must increase the cooperation and political discussion among them. We have to learn from the experiences of our comrades, and we have to discuss with each other about the stance of our parties in the struggles we wage against the capitalistimperialist system. This is not only “wishful thinking”, but joint political action, cooperation and more intense discussion are requirements for us to overcome capitalist dictatorship. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

151

Dear comrades, it’s great to be here in Del-

152

Communist Party USA SCOTT MARSHALL

hi at this important gathering of communist and workers’ parties and to see all of you face-to-face. We want to express our deepest appreciation for the organizers of this conference and especially to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India for hosting this important meeting. I am pleased to bring you the warmest greetings of our party’s national committee and leadership.

IN THIS TERRIBLE TIME of global economic crisis it is most timely that we seek ways to expand and broaden our slogan “workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite.” While our slogan has been around for many generations, today it has more meaning than ever. Today global economic integration has reached new incredible levels. Today global finance capital roams the world pillaging and profiteering on a scale unimaginable in Marx’s day. First let me say a few words about how the crisis is affecting working people in the United States. Just this month the percentage of workers in our country who are longterm unemployed has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the early stages of this crisis we were losing 700,000 jobs or more a month. Today, when some mainstream economists are declaring the recession over, when obscene banking profits are on the rise again, when the stock market is rising again, when finance capital is returning to its unregulated predatory ways with a vengeance, we are still losing around 200,000 jobs a month. Among young people in the US the unemployed figures are staggering. In the age group of 16 to 24 only about 45% have jobs. And that number is much worse for African-American, Latino and other racially πB - 1/2010 communist party USA

and nationally oppressed youth. Racism in the US takes an even more terrible toll in this kind of an economic crisis. In the communities of the racially and nationally oppressed the crisis strikes with a particular violence and vengeance. At the same time, experts who follow the housing markets, say that 2010 will see a whole new rash of home foreclosures with workers and their families being evicted and thrown into the streets. 40 million people are without health care and every month that number rises because in the US many people get their health care through their employer. In what is supposed to be the richest country in the world, because so much of the world’s finance capital is centered there, hundreds of thousands of children go to school hungry every day. In many hard hit working class communities, the schools and medical clinics are crumbling and closing. The streets and bridges, the sewage and water systems, the basic infrastructures are neglected and decaying. And vital public services at all levels of government are being cut back and stopped. The list of capitalism’s failures in this crisis is very long. And of course we know that the crisis hits many in the developing world much harder than it hits the developed countries. There are always two sides to the class struggle. Two major events are now turning the tide of working class struggle in a more militant and fighting direction in my country. The first is the rise of the movement that defeated the ultra-right Republican Party in the 2008 election and elected Barack Obama. That same movement also defeated

many ultra-right members of the U.S. Congress. I know that internationally there are some mixed feelings about the role of president Barack Obama. Let me be clear, he is not a communist, he is not a socialist, and on some issues he is quite a moderate liberal. At the same time, after eight years of George Bush, the worst warmongering president and administration in US history, the election of Barack Obama opens a whole new terrain of struggle for the working class in the US and in the world. And after 30 years of vicious neoliberal attack on the US labor movement, on the working class and on the People’s movements in the US, the election of Barack Obama opens the door for a whole new fight for economic justice, peace and equality. Barack Obama, as I said, is no revolutionary – it’s true. But he doesn’t have to be a revolutionary to do some pretty important things to support labor and the working class. I won’t go into a whole domestic list but it is significant for those of us who work for a living in the US. He did inspire a movement and mobilize the democratic (small “d”) forces to defeat Bush and the ultra right. And, more importantly for our meeting here – he has taken some steps to curb some of the worst features of the international policies that he inherited from the previous administration. As on the domestic scene, in international affairs it will be the mobilization of the people’s forces and labor that will be decisive in shifting US policy even more – the left and the people’s forces had very little effect on the Bush administration – we can help move the Obama administration in a better direction. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

153

154

The movement that elected Obama was, and continues to be, a broad coalition of social forces including even some sectors of capital. But at its heart is what we like to call the core social forces, the working class and its organized sector the labor movement, the racially and nationally oppressed, women, youth, and the gay rights movement. The other major event that is helping to turn the tide was the September 2009 convention of the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in our country. I believe history will record that convention as a major turning point for our working class. This convention was the culmination of changes and developments that began in the mid1990s. The AFL-CIO convention in 1995 was a major break with some of the worst features of class collaboration and the Cold War that began with the anti-Communist witchhunts of the early 1950s. In the mid ‘90’s the labor movement began to develop a more class struggle approach. After the ‘95 convention US labor began to develop its own independent political apparatus. It became more militant in the economic struggle. It increasingly began to see the global nature of capitalism. Further it even began to understand that the labor movement had to be more than just the defender of its own members, it had to become the voice and movement of the whole working class.

THE 2009 CONVENTION of the AFL-CIO, which I attended, deepened these trends and was remarkable in many ways. It elected a new leadership, more militant and

more rooted in the fighting industrial union traditions of my country. Richard Trumka the new president comes out of the militant traditions of the mine workers union. On the day after his election at the convention he went straight to Wall Street and blasted the banking and insurance industries for causing the economic crisis both at home and abroad. He called for strong new regulatory steps to curb their reckless speculation and for breaking up those banks deemed “too big to fail.” The federation has vigorously pursued a “break up the big banks” policy and mobilized its member unions to fight for sharp new limits on finance capital. In another first for our labor movement the convention also elected two women, one African-American, to the other two top leadership positions of the AFL-CIO. There are way too many examples of labor’s new policies for me to list now but I would like to mention one that I think is important to our international movement and illustrates a new direction and new possibilities for international labor solidarity. I have with me a letter, well publicized in the labor press in the US from Richard Trumka to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In it he says that the AFL-CIO believes that the coup government in Honduras to be totally illegitimate. The letter says the coup’s repression of the trade unions and democratic movements in Honduras make it impossible for there to be free and fair elections this November. And the letter strongly calls on the US State Department to stop all aid to Honduras until the coup is overturned and President Zelaya is returned to power. πB - 1/2010 communist party USA

The letter also says that the position of the AFL-CIO was taken in consultation with the Honduran labor unions. This is but one dramatic example of the new thinking in US labor on international questions. US labor also strongly opposes the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (And I should mention here that labor has unprecedented access to President Obama and can be a significant voice in helping to move him.) These are examples of US labor breaking with the US State Department and US imperialism on international issues for the first time since the cold war began after WWII. We think this opens a whole new world of possibility for rebuilding and strengthening world labor and working class solidarity. And we think that Communist and Workers’ parties have a critical role to play in helping to take advantage of the new possibilities. It is really time for labor, on all sides of the old cold war political divide to reconsider and rethink labor unity. Comrades, in our opinion the global economic crisis continues unabated. According to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund the world’s nations produce somewhere in the neighborhood of $65 trillion in goods and services each year. At the same time, according to the International Bank of Settlements, over $515 trillion is speculated in derivatives, credit default swaps and similar forms of exotic finance schemes. Think of it – such incredible imbalance. It’s staggering – think of the stolen surplus value represented in this deadest of all parasitic finance capital. Think of the problems of the

world’s people that could be solved with that kind of money. We think it is also important to look at the splits in capital in this period. In the US there is growing evidence of splits between manufacturing capital and banking capital. This is not just splits between big and small business and may open up serious lines of attack for regulating and reigning in some of the most predatory practices of speculative finance capital around the world. We have much to discuss and think about. But I would like to end with a paraphrase of something Fredrick Engels once said, “an ounce of actions is worth a pound of theory,” something to that effect. We are most interested in how our parties can play a concrete role in helping to bring about real organized struggle along the lines of “workers of the world unite.” This needs to begin with what we can do to help unite and broaden the global labor movement. Marx and Engels did not say, “Workers of the World – unite to share information.” It was clear that they meant workers of the world unite for struggle. How can we make that a reality in today’s real world. What are our first concrete steps. We hope our meeting and deliberations can move us closer to making it happen. Thank you comrades for your kind attention.

πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

155

First of all, on behalf of the Delegation of the

156

Communist Party of Vietnam NGUYEN MANH HUNG

Communist Party of the Vietnam, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India for their efforts and good preparation for this important Meeting. I would also like to send my warm and fraternal greetings of solidarity to all the delegates.

OVER THE PAST YEAR, the world has been faced with a serious crisis originating in the United States that rapidly spread worldwide. It is not only a monetary-financial crisis but also a comprehensive crisis of finance, manufacturing, trade, services, but a crisis of a model of development, a constitution of development and a theory of development as well. Given the strong development of globalization, it has occurred simultaneously with a crisis of energy, food, bio-geography and climate change. The current crisis shows that the economic globalization has taken long strides and basically formed the global economy in which economic interdependence is further tightened. Nowadays, instability and economic crisis in one country would rapidly impact upon others; instability and crisis in economic centers will result in global instability and crisis. Economic interdependence among nations has become a prominent feature of international relations and relations among the big powers. The joint-efforts to cope with the crisis made by countries, regions and the international community during this period have prevented the collapse of the world as well as regional and national monetary financial systems. Thanks to these efforts, the economic situation has shown optimistic signs of recovery. However, these implemented measures are temporary and short-term. The most important thing is that the globalĎ&#x20AC;B - 1/2009 communist party of Vietnam

ization process is controlled by developed countries and trans-national corporations, with its inherent contradictions, inequalities and injustice. Profits have been privatized while risks have been socialized, putting the burden on the shoulders of workers and depriving the poor and developing countries further. The world needs a change. We assert that the international financial system must be reformed fundamentally with tightened regulations, effective and suitable supervision and a monitoring mechanism for the global financial market, and with the participation of not only G8 or G20 members but all the countries in the world. It is essential to establish a just, mutually beneficial international economic order and to strengthen the participation of developing countries in the process of reviewing and making decisions on international issues. In the current situation, it is necessary to push the Doha Talks in the direction of ensuring benefits to all countries, especially developing ones. Simultaneously, it is necessary to promote further proactive cooperation to prevent and resolve global risks such as climate change, the exhaustion of natural resources, the crisis of energy and food, poverty, natural disasters, epidemics, population and other social issues. In this regard, I think that it is essential to intensify and bring into full play the important role of the United Nations in taking measures and issuing guidelines as a means of coordinating action among countries.

DURING THE PAST NEARLY 25 YEARS, the Vietnamese people has consistently pur-

sued a renewal process and national development to socialism under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and has gained great and historical achievements. Our country has escaped from under-developed status. Our socio-politics is stable. The annual average GDP growth rate is sustained at 7.5%. One and a half million jobs are created annually. The rate of poor households has reduced from 58% in 1993 to 12% in 2009. The living standards of the people have been significantly improved. Our Party has defined economic development as the central task; party building is a core task and cultural building forms the spiritual basis of society. In socio-economic development, we apply the socialist-oriented market economy driven by the State, in which the state economic sector plays the key role, with special attention paid to social progress and justice in each development policy and each stage of development. However, the monetary financial crisis and world economic recession also creates negative effects and challenges for Vietnamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s socio-economic performance. Manufacturing, exports, investment, employment and budget revenue have been slowed down and are faced with numerous difficulties. In this situation, we have carried out a number of measures and policies to protect the economy from the bad effects, to curb inflation and to ensure social welfare. Due to that effort, the macro-economy has been stabilized; the economic growth rate in the first nine months reached 4.6% (the third quarter was 5.7%) and it is estimated that the growth rate in 2009 can be Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

157

158

over 5%. We are aware that difficulties and challenges still remain and highly concentrated efforts are needed to hinder economic slowdown and maintain sustainable and suitable economic growth, to ensuring the stability of the macro-economy and proactively prevent inflation, to ensure social welfare... During 2010, our Party at all levels urgently prepares for our party congress, the 11th National Party Congress in early January 2011. At the 11th Congress, our Party will review 20 years of the implementation, supplement and development of the Program on national construction in the period of transition towards socialism and the socio-economic development strategy for the 10 years 2001-2010, and map out the socio-economic development strategy for the next 10 years (2011- 2020) with the targets of becoming a modern-industrial country by 2020 and strongly progressing to socialism in which the people is wealthy; the country is strong; our society is equal, democratic and civilized. Solidarity is strength. During the process of socialist construction and national preservation, we have been inspired by the strength of solidarity and precious assistance and support from international communists and friends worldwide. We believe that, by exchange views and experience among the communists and workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; parties in fora like this Meeting, communist unity and solidarity can be consolidated for our revolutionary course.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2009 communist party of Vietnam

DELHI DECLARATION 11th International Meeting of the This Communist and Workers’ Parties, held in New Delhi, 20-22 November 2009 to discuss on “The international capitalist crisis, the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement”: ■

■

reiterates that the current global recession is a systemic crisis of capitalism demonstrating its historic limits and the need for its revolutionary overthrow. It demonstrates the sharpening of the main contradiction of capitalism between its social nature of production and individual capitalist appropriation. The political representatives of Capital try to conceal this unresolvable contradiction between capital and labour that lies at the heart of the crisis. This crisis intensifies rivalries between imperialist powers who along with the international institutions-the IMF World Bank WTO and others- are implementing their ‘solutions’ which essentially aim to intensify capitalist exploitation. Military and political ‘solutions’ are aggressively pursued globally by imperialism. The NATO is promoting a new aggressive strategy. The political systems are becoming more reactionary curtailing democratic and civil liberties, trade union rights etc. This crisis is further deepening the structural corruption under capitalism which is being institutionalised. reaffirms that the current crisis, probably the most acute and all encompassing since the Great Depression of 1929, has left no field untouched. Hundreds of thousands of factories are closed. Agrarian and rural economies are under distress intensifying misery and poverty of

millions of cultivators and farm workers globally. Millions of people are left jobless and homeless. Unemployment is growing to unprecedented levels (estimated at 190 million in 2008) and under the current recession it is officially expected to breach the 50 million mark. Inequalities are increasing across the globe – the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. More than one billion people, that is one-sixth of humanity go hungry. Youth, women and immigrants are the first victims. True to their class nature, the response of the respective capitalist governments to overcome this crisis fails to address these basic concerns. All the neo-liberal votaries and social democratic managers of capitalism, who had so far decried the State are now utilising the state for rescuing them, thus underlining a basic fact that the capitalist state has always defended and enlarged avenues for super profits. While the costs of the rescue packages and bailouts are at public expense, the benefits accrue to few. The bailout packages announced, are addressed first to rescue and then enlarge profit making avenues. Banks and financial corporates are now back in business and making profits. Growing unemployment and the depression of real wages is the burden for the working people as against the gift of huge bailout packages for the corporations. ■ realises that this crisis is no aberration based on the greed of a few or lack of effective regulatory mechanisms. Profit maximisation, the raison d’ etre of capitalism, has sharply widened economic inequalities both between countries and within countries in these decades of ‘globalisation’. The natural consequence was a decline in the purchasing πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

159

160

■

power of the vast majority of world population. The present crisis is thus a systemic crisis. This once again vindicates the Marxist analysis that the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden. Capital, in its quest for profits, traverses boundaries and tramples upon anything and everything. In the process it intensifies exploitation of the working class and other strata of working people, imposing greater hardships. Capitalism in fact requires to maintain a reserve army of labour. The liberation from such capitalist barbarity can come only with the establishment of the real alternative, socialism. This requires the strengthening of anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly struggles. Our struggle for an alternative is thus a struggle against the capitalist system. Our struggle for an alternative is for a system where there is no exploitation of people by people and nation by nation. It is a struggle for another world, a just world, a socialist world. conscious of the fact that the dominant imperialist powers would seek their way out of the crisis by putting greater burdens on the working people, by seeking to penetrate and dominate the markets of countries with medium and lower level of capitalist development, commonly called developing countries. This they are trying to achieve firstly, through the WTO Doha round of trade talks, which reflect the unequal economic agreements at the expense of the peoples of these countries particularly with reference to agricultural standards and Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA).

Secondly, capitalism, which in the first place is responsible for the destruction of the environment, is trying to transfer the entire burden of safeguarding the planet from climate change, which in the first place they had caused, onto the shoulders of the working class and working people. Capitalism’s proposal for restructuring in the name of climate change has little relation to the protection of the environment. Corporate inspired ‘Green development’ and ‘green economy’ are sought to be used to impose new state monopoly regulations which support profit maximisation and impose new hardships on the people. Profit maximisation under capitalism is thus not compatible with environmental protection and peoples’ rights. ■ notes that the only way out of this capitalist crisis for the working class and the common people is to intensify struggles against the rule of capital. It is the experience of the working class that when it mobilises its strength and resists these attempts it can be successful in protecting its rights. Industry sit-ins, factory occupations and such militant working class actions have forced the ruling classes to consider the demands of the workers. Latin America, the current theatre of popular mobilisations and working class actions, has shown how rights can be protected and won through struggle. In these times of crisis, once again the working class is seething with discontent. Many countries have witnessed and are witnessing huge working class actions, demanding amelioration. These working class actions need to be further strengthened by mobilising the vast mass of suffering people, not πB - 1/2010 Delhi declaration

just for immediate alleviation but for a long-term solution to their plight. Imperialism, buoyed by the demise of the Soviet Union and the periods of boom preceding this crisis had carried out unprecedented attacks on the rights of the working class and the people. This has been accompanied by frenzied anti-communist propaganda not only in individual countries but at global and inter-state forums (EU, OSCE, Council of Europe). However much they may try, the achievements and contributions of socialism in defining the contours of modern civilisation remain inerasable. Faced with these relentless attacks, our struggles thus far had been mainly, defensive struggles, struggles to protect the rights that we had won earlier. Today’s conjuncture warrants the launch of an offensive, not just to protect our rights but win new rights. Not for winning few rights but for dismantling the entire capitalist edifice – for an onslaught on the rule of capital, for a political alternative – socialism. ■ resolves that under these conditions, the communist and workers parties shall actively work to rally and mobilise the widest possible sections of the popular forces in the struggle for full time stable employment, exclusively public and free for all health, education and social welfare, against gender inequality and racism, and for the protection of the rights of all sections of the working people including the youth, women, migrant workers and those from ethnic and national minorities. ■ calls upon the communist and workers parties to undertake this task in their re-

spective countries and launch broad struggles for the rights of the people and against the capitalist system. Though the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden, it does not collapse automatically. The absence of a communist-led counterattack, engenders the danger of rise of reactionary forces. The ruling classes launch an all out attack to prevent the growth of the communists and the workers’ parties to protect their status quo. Social democracy continues to spread illusions about the real character of capitalism, advancing slogans such as ‘humanisation of capitalism’, ‘regulation’, ‘global governance’ etc. These in fact support the strategy of capital by denying class struggle and buttressing the pursuit of anti-popular policies. No amount of reform can eliminate exploitation under capitalism. Capitalism has to be overthrown. This requires the intensification of ideological and political working class led popular struggles. All sorts of theories like ‘there is no alternative’ to imperialist globalisation are propagated. Countering them, our response is ‘socialism is the alternative’. We, the communist and workers’ parties coming from all parts of the globe and representing the interests of the working class and all other toiling sections of society (the vast majority of global population) underlining the irreplaceable role of the communist parties call upon the people to join us in strengthening the struggles to declare that socialism is the only real alternative for the future of humankind and that the future is ours. πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

161

Press release ISSUED BY THE 11TH IMCWP 162

participants representing 57 com 89 munist and workers’ parties and 48 countries participated in the 11th International meeting of the communist and workers’ parties held in New Delhi from 20-22 November 2009, on the theme “The international capitalist crisis, the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement”, hosted by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India. The meeting adopted the Delhi Declaration unanimously. The meeting decided to accept the request of the Workers’ Party of Bangladesh to be a part of these international meetings in the future. The meeting decided that the 12th international meeting would be held in the African continent, hosted by the South African Communist Party. The working group shall subsequently meet to finalise the theme, dates, venue and other details. The meeting expressed its unflinching solidarity with the worldwide struggles of the workers and people for peace, sovereignty, democracy and social justice. The meeting decided that concrete actions must be undertaken in all countries and coordinated globally on the following issues: ■ Against NATO and its global expansion; against renewed imperialist military aggressiveness, and against foreign military bases. ■ To observe 29 November as a day of solidarity with the Palestinians struggle, as

■ ■

per the decision of the extraordinary meeting held in Damascus in September 2009. To observe the year 2010 as the sixtyfifth anniversary of the defeat of fascism. To strengthen popular mobilisations in defence of workers rights in coordination with the trade unions. Intensify international solidarity for the release of the Cuban Five. To strengthen popular movements, pressing governments in respective countries, demanding the right to work in coordination with the youth organisations. November 22, 2009

πB - 1/2010 press release

Solidarity statements COMMEMORATE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY December 2-3, 2004, one of the On world’s biggest industrial disasters in the Indian city of Bhopal killed over 20,000 people and caused serious injuries to over 500,000 people. Repercussions continue to be felt today, even 25 years afterwards, in the endless suffering of surviving victims, scant provision of health care and neglect of proper rehabilitation. But equally important, particularly for preventing future such tragedies in India or other developing countries, larger issues raised by the Bhopal Gas Tragedy continue to haunt the world, especially under imperialist globalization and the neo-liberal economic policy framework that have since become predominant. The criminal culpability of the USbased MNC, Union Carbide Corporation or UCC, was clearly established by the absence of safety features and other technologies in the Bhopal plant compared with the factory run by the parent company in West Virginia, USA. UCC, since taken over by Dow Chemicals, has got away with paying out petty compensation amounting to around $1200 for each person killed and $550 for each injured victim through a settlement entered into between UCC and the Indian Government which was pressured into dropping criminal charges against UCC. Only continuous struggle by progressive forces and peoples organizations both in India and abroad forced the re-launching of prosecution in India. Yet Warren Anderson, then Chairman of UCC, continues to abscond from Indian courts despite having been declared a proclaimed offender and

the US continues to protect him from extradition. UCC continues to evade criminal liability and Dow Chemicals, which took it over, has ensured for itself immunity under various provisions of a spurious international legal framework designed to protect corporate interests against that of the wider public. Dissatisfied with even such mild penalties, and specifically quoting US experience in the Bhopal case, the US is today insisting on India signing a “limited liability” agreement for importation of nuclear power plants from the US in the eventuality of an accident! This entire chain of events, as well as the series of acts of collusion between the US-based MNC behemoth and governments of the USA and India, have thoroughly exposed the true face of global capitalism. Predatory MNCs based in the US, Europe or other countries of the global North today are running rampant in developing countries, in flagrant violation of domestic and international laws on industrial safety, hazardous and toxic materials and environmental pollution. Hazardous industries, sub-standard or obsolete technologies, banned or toxic materials, environmentally disastrous extractive industries, are all increasingly being thrust upon countries of the global South, even while the latter are prevented from developing their own self-reliant capabilities. Legal and regulatory frameworks in these countries are subverted by imposing neoliberal policies favouring foreign investment and MNCs, often aided by the IMF, World Bank and other multilateral agenπB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

163

164

cies that champion such policies. Multilateral trade agreements such as WTO and GATT are also being used by US imperialism and its allies to arm-twist developing countries into aligning their domestic policies with global corporate interests. The aftermath of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy has brought to the fore many issues relating to industrial licensing and regulation of hazardous industries, technological self-reliance, policy and regulatory frameworks for import of technologies, role of MNCs, legislation and enforcement of legal and regulatory frameworks of liability for environmental pollution and industrial accidents, industrial siting and urban development, policies on agriculture especially use of agro-chemicals etc. Communist Parties of the world call upon progressive forces all over the world to commemorate the 25th year of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and to focus national and international attention on the role of MNCs, on efforts by the global North to impose their technological on developing countries, and on the framework of neoliberal economic policies that characterize imperialist globalization today.

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 solidarity statements

RESOLUTION ON THE CYPRUS PROBLEM undersigned parties, participated in The the 11th International Meeting of Communist and Workerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parties held in New Delhi on the 20th - 22nd of November 2009 consider the continued division of the prosperity of all the people of Cyprus, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latines. The continuous division of Cyprus constitutes a threat for peace and security in the wider region of East Mediterranean. We condemn the occupation of 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus by Turkey, the influx of settlers from mainland Turkey, the destruction of cultural heritage and the usurpation of land and properties in the areas not under the control of the Republic since 1974. We believe that the appropriate way to reach a peaceful, just, mutually acceptable and viable solution of the Cyprus problem is through substantive and direct negotiations under the auspices of the UN, on the basis of the UN Security Council Resolutions, the HighLevel Agreements of 1977 and 1979, International Law as well as the values and fundamental principles on which the EU is founded. As a result of the policies and initiatives undertaken by the President of the Republic Cyprus, the beginning of substantive negotiations, between the leaders of the two communities of Cyprus on the 3rd of September 2008, was made possible. We welcome the revival of the negotiations under UN auspices. We urge the leaders of the two communities to work together in a constructive manner for a comprehensive settlement. Talking into account the negative experience of the recent past, suffocating timetables and arbitration should be avoided and the procedure should remain of Cypriot ownership. We believe that all efforts should be concentrated for reaching a solution as soon as possible. This can be achieved only if the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot side, will show in practice their readiness for a decent compro-

mise in the negotiation table, thus remaining in the agreed framework of the solution as defined by the two leaders before the commencement of the negotiation procedure. We underline that the settlement of the Cyprus problem must be based on the evolution of the Republic of Cyprus into an independent, bizonal, bicommunal federation with territorial integrity, a single sovereignty, single international personality single citizenship, political equality as provided by the relevant Security Council Resolutions. The solution must provide for the withdrawal of the Turkish occupation troops the lifting of the occupation and the termination of the illegal influx of settlers. The solution of the Cyprus problem should safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms of all citizens, in line with international law and the UN Charter, including the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties and the right of the families of missing persons in both Communities to be informed of the fate of their loved ones. We call on the international community to exercise their influence on Turkey and urge it to abandon its current policy towards Cyprus and and stop transferring settlers from Turkey to the occupied part of the island, give Varosia to its lawful owners in order to return back to their properties in this area as a Confidence Building Measure and adopt a constructive attitude that will help in the formulation of a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem as described above. We the communist and the workers parties we shall continue to support actively the efforts for a solution of the Cyprus problem along the lines described above, as the solution of the Cyprus problem will be a significant contribution to peace in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean and Cyprus will be a bridge of peace and cooperation between Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

165

Parties that participated 166

Communist Party of Argentina Communist Party of Australia Communist Party of Bangladesh Workers’ Party of Belgium Communist Party of Brazil Brazilian Communist Party Communist Party of Britain Communist Party of Canada Communist Party of China Communist Party of Cuba AKEL, Cyprus Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Workers’ Party of Korea Communist Party of Denmark Communist Party in Denmark Communist Party of Finland French Communist Party German Communist Party Communist Party of Greece Peoples Progressive Party, Guyana Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party Communist Party of India (Marxist) Communist Party of India Tudeh Party of Iran Communist Party of Iraq Communist Party of Ireland Communist Party of Israel Party of the Italian Communists Communist Refoundation Party Party of the Communists of Kyrgyzia Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Socialist Party of Latvia Lebanese Communist Party Communist Party of Luxembourg Communist Party of Mexico Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) New Communist Party of Netherlands Communist Party of Norway

Communist Party of Pakistan Palestinian Communist Party Palestinian People’s Party Peruvian Communist Party Portuguese Communist Party Communist Party of Russian Federation Communist Party of Soviet Union Communist Workers Party of RussiaRevolutionary Party of Communists (RKRP-RPC) New Communist Party of Yugoslavia South African Communist Party Communist Party of Peoples of Spain Communist Party of Spain Communist Party of Sri Lanka Communist Party of Sweden Syrian Communist Party Syrian Communist Party Communist Party of Turkey Communist Party of USA Communist Party of Vietnam

πB - 1/2010 parties that participated

ALBANIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ALBANIA Mail: artankristo@gmail.com, code:(+355) phone:382274111 fax:4251271 ALGERIA, ALGERIAN PARTY FOR DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM http://pads.ifrance.com/ Mail: michellien@wanadoo.fr code:(+331) phone:46637607, 46772082 fax:46772082, 46637607

Redlinks

ARGENTINA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ARGENTINA http://www.pca.org.ar Mail: relacionesinternacionales@pca.org.ar code:(+5411) phone:43040066/0068 fax:43040068 ARMENIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ARMENIA code:(+37410) phone:567933 fax:541917 AUSTRALIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA http://www.cpa.org.au Mail: cpa@cpa.org.au code:(+612) phone:9699 8844 fax:9699 9833 AUSTRIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRIA http://www.kpoe.at Mail: international@kpoe.at code:(+431) phone:5036580 fax:5036580499 AZERBAIDJAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF AZERBAIDJAN Mail: r.kobalt@mail.ru code:(+99412) phone:433-28-24, 4417533 fax:948937 BAHRAIN, DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE TRIBUNE http://www.altaqadomi.com/ Mail: almenber@almenber.com Mail: fa.almenbar@gmail.com code:(+973 17) phone:780007 fax:780006 BANGLADESH, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BANGLADESH http://www.cpb.org.bd/ Mail: cpbdhaka@aitlbd.net code:(+8802) phone:9558612, 7172845 fax:9552333 πB - 1/2009 www.solidnet.org

167

168

BANGLADESH, WORKERS’PARTY OF BANGLADESH Mail: wpartybd@bangla.net BELARUS, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BELARUS http://comparty.by/ Mail: karpenko@house.gov.by code:(+37517) phone:222 62 11 fax:222 43 79 (222 64 61) BELGIUM, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BELGIUM http://www.kp-online.be http://www.particommuniste.be/ Mail: parti.communiste@skynet.be Mail: kommunistische-partij@skynet.be code:(+322) phone:512 23 84 fax:512 23 84

BRAZIL, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRAZIL http://www.pcdob.org.br http://www.vermelho.org.br Mail: internacional@pcdob.org.br code:(+5511) phone:3054-1800, 30541822, 30541821 fax:3054 1848 BRITAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRITAIN http://www.communist-party.org.uk Mail: international@communist-party.org.uk Mail: office@communist-party.org.uk code:(+44) phone:2086861659 BRITAIN, NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRITAIN http://www.newworker.org Mail: party@ncp.clara.net code:(+44) phone:207 2234050/52 fax:207 2234057

BELGIUM, WORKERS’ PARTY OF BELGIUM http://www.ptb.be http://www.wpb.be Mail: wpb@wpb.be code:(+32) phone:25040139, 25040111 fax:25139831 , 25040141

BULGARIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BULGARIA http://comparty-bg.com Mail: comparty@abv.bg code:(+3592) phone: 9816093 fax:9816093

BOLIVIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOLIVIA http://www.pcbolivia.net/ Mail: marxmil@hotmail.com Mail: domich2001@hotmail.com code:(+591) phone: 2243252 fax:22770535

BULGARIA, PARTY OF BULGARIAN COMMUNISTS http://www.communist-bg.org/ Mail: bcp.gd@mail.bg code:(+359) phone:28621225 fax: 29744135

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, WORKERS’ COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA http://www.rkp-bih.cjb.net Mail: kontakt@rkp-bih.org Mail: kontakt@rkp-bih.cjb.net Mail: goran.rkpbih@gmail.com code:(+387) phone/fax: 55 240 973

CANADA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA http://www.communist-party.ca Mail: inter@cpc-pcc.ca code:(+1416) phone:4692446

BRAZIL, BRAZILIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcb.org.br Mail: pcb.partidocomunistabrasileiro@gmail.com Mail: pcb@pcb.org.br code:(+5521) phone/fax:22620855

CHILE, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHILE http://www.pcchile.cl/ Mail: internacional@pcchile.cl code:(+562) phone:6351601, 6347678,6349608, 6651654 fax:729 5714 CHINA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA http://www.idcpc.org.cn πB - 1/2010 redlinks

http://www.china.org.cn/english/index.htm Mail: info@idcpc.org.cn Mail: yuliagustavo@163.net code:(+8610) phone:83907267 fax:83907268 COLOMBIA, COLOMBIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pacocol.org Mail: pacocol@etb.net.co Mail: notipaco@pacocol.org code:(+571) phone:3203204, 2854188 fax:3384742 COLOMBIA, FARC-EP http://www.farc-ejercitodelpueblo.org/ Mail: news@farcep.org CROATIA, SOCIALIST WORKERS’ PARTY OF CROATIA Mail: vladimir.kapuralin@pu.t-com.hr Mail: Vladimir.kapuralin@pu.htnet.hr Mail: kapuralin@hotmail.com code: (+ 385) phone/fax:1 4835340 CUBA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CUBA http://www.pcc.cu/ Mail: marsan@cc.cu Mail: despacho@cc.cu code:(+537) phone:8605678 fax:8556836 CYPRUS, THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF THE WORKING PEOPLE - AKEL http://www.akel.org.cy Mail: InterBureau@akel.org.cy Phone: (+357) 22761121 Fax:22764725 CZECH REPUBLIC, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA http://www.kscm.cz Mail: vladimir.sedlacek@kscm.cz code:(+4202) phone:22897428/22897472 fax:22897449 DENMARK, COMMUNIST PARTY IN DENMARK http://www.kommunisterne.dk Mail: KPID@kommunisterne.dk

Mail: kommunist@kommunisterne.dk code:(+45) phone:38882833 fax:38882433 DENMARK, COMMUNIST PARTY OF DENMARK http://www.dkp.dk Mail: dkp@dkp.dk code:(+45) phone:33916644 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, FORCE OF THE REVOLUTION http://fuerzadelarevolucion.org Mail: fuerzadelarevolucion@latinmail.com Mail: frevolucion@latinmail.com code: (+809) phone:685-9362 fax:687-3423 EGYPT, COMMUNIST PARTY OF EGYPT http://www.cpegypt.tk http://www.rezgar.com/m.asp?i=268 Mail: cpegypt@gmail.com Mail: cpegypt@yahoo.com code:(+202) phone: 66 403946 EQUADOR, COMMUNIST PARTY OF EQUADOR http://pcecuador.org/ Mail: ccentral@pcecuador.org Mail: pce_ecu@hotmail.com Mail: g_yturralde@ecuabox.com code:(+593-2) phone:2671108 fax:2909454 (+593-4) phone:2401462 fax:2248643 ESTONIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ESTONIA Mail: narvaSRG@rambler.ru code:(+37) phone/fax: 23591174 FINLAND, COMMUNIST PARTY OF FINLAND http://www.skp.fi Mail: skp@skp.fi code:(+3589) phone:77438150 fax:77438160 FRANCE, FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcf.fr Mail: international@pcf.fr code:(+331) phone:40401293, 40401286 fax:42404027 πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

169

170

FYROM, COMMUNIST PARTY OF MACEDONIA Mail: cpmak@mail.net.mk code:(+389) phone:23177248 fax:23177248 GEORGIA, UNIFIED COMMUNIST PARTY OF GEORGIA Mail: yclgeo@yahoo.com Mail: cpgeo@narod.ru Mail: tpipia@rambler.ru code:(+99532) phone:743821, 766697, +(99593) 761363 fax:766697 GERMANY, GERMAN COMMUNIST PARTY (DKP) http://www.dkp.de Mail: dkp.pv@t-online.de Mail: vitrales_gp@yahoo.com code:(+49201) phone:1778890 fax:17788929 GREECE, COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE http://inter.kke.gr http://es.kke.gr http://ru.kke.gr http://fr.kke.gr http://ar.kke.gr http://de.kke.gr http://pt.kke.gr http://it.kke.gr Mail: cpg@int.kke.gr code:(+30) phone:210 2592111 fax:210 2592298

HUNGARY, HUNGARIAN COMMUNIST WORKERS’ PARTY http://www.munkaspart.hu Mail: mp200@t-online.hu code:(+36) phone:13342721 fax:13135423 INDIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA http://www.cpindia.org Mail: cpi@bol.net.in Mail: cpiofindia@gmail.com code:(+9111) phone:23235546, 23235099, 23235058 fax:23235543 INDIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST) http://www.cpim.org Mail: intl@cpim.org Mail: cc@cpim.org Mail: cpim@vsnl.com code:(+9111) phone: 23344918, 23747435, 23747436 23363692 fax:23747483 IRAN,TUDEH PARTY OF IRAN http://www.tudehpartyiran.org Mail: mardom@tudehpartyiran.org Mail: navid.shomali@btinternet.com code:(+44208) phone/fax:3922653 code:(+4930) phone: 2587411 fax:3241627

GUADELUPE, GUADELOUPEAN COMMUNIST PARTY Mail: DC500009@exchange.FRANCE.NCR.COM code:(+590) phone:821945 fax:836990

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

GUYANA, PEOPLE’S PROGRESSIVE PARTY http://www.ppp-civic.org Mail: ppp@guyana.net.gy Mail: pr@ppp-civic.org code: (+592) phone: 2272095, 2274301-3, 2278755, 2251479 fax: 2272096

IRAQ, COMMUNIST PARTY OF KURDISTAN-IRAQ http://www.kurdistancp.org/ Mail: maib55@hotmail.com Mail: kcp_ibrahim@kurdistancp.org Mail: kcp_kurdistan@hotmail.com code:(+4131) phone: 3719612 fax: 3719628 πB - 1/2010 redlinks

IRELAND, COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRELAND http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie Mail: cpoi@eircom.net code:(+3531) phone:6708707 IRELAND, THE WORKERS’PARTY OF IRELAND http://www.workerspartyireland.net/ Mail: wpi@indigo.ie code: (+3531) phone/fax:8561879 ISRAEL, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ISRAEL http://www.maki.org.il Mail: interelations@maki.org.il code: (+9723) phone: 6293944 fax:6297263 ITALY, PARTY OF THE COMMUNIST REFOUNDATION http://www.rifondazione.it/ Mail: esteri.prc@rifondazione.it Mail: internazionale@rifondazione.it code: (+3906) phone: 441821 fax:44182207 ITALY, PARTY OF THE ITALIAN COMMUNISTS http://www.comunisti-italiani.it Mail: internazionale@comunisti-italiani.org Mail: esteri@comunisti-italiani.org code: (+3906) phone: 68627210/11/23 fax: 68627231 JAPAN, JAPANESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.jcp.or.jp http://www.japan-press.co.jp/ Mail: intl@jcp.jp code: (+813) phone: 54748421 fax: 37460767 JORDAN, JORDANIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.jocp.org Mail: jcp@nets.com.jo code: (+9626) phone: 4624939 fax: 4624939 KAZAKHSTAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF KAZAKHSTAN http://www.compartykz.info/ Mail: narodkaz@mail.ru

Mail: abdildin@parlam.kz code: (+772) phone: 72911400 KYRGIZIA, PARTY OF COMMUNISTS OF KYRGYZSTAN Mail: mars40@list.ru code:(+996) phone:312 624999 fax:312 660401 DPR of KOREA, WORKERS PARTY OF KOREA http://www.kimsoft.com/dprk.htm Mail: wpkint@co.chesin.com Mail: ekodpr@alice.it code:(+3906) phone:54220749 fax:54210090 LAOS, PEOPLES’ REVOLUTIONARY PARTY Mail: CERCCP@laotel.com code:(+856) phone:21414041-42, 21414046 fax:21414043 LATVIA, SOCIALIST PARTY OF LATVIA http://www.latsocpartija.lv Mail: latsocpartija@inbox.lv code: (+3716) phone:7555535 fax:7555535 LEBANON, LEBANESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.lcparty.org Mail: lcparty@lcparty.org Mail: mariedebs@dm.net.lb code:(+9611) phone/fax:739615/6/7 LITHUANIA, SOCIALIST PARTY OF LITHUANIA http://www.lsp.w3.lt/ Mail: socialistupartija@gmail.com code:(+370) phone:69836756 fax:(+370)52606130 code:(+37041) phone:452037 fax:(+37048)52460698 LUXEMBOURG, COMMUNIST PARTY OF LUXEMBOURG http://www.kp-l.org Mail: kpl@zlv.lu Mail: zeiluvol@pt.lu Mail: aruckert@zlv.lu code:(+352) phone:446066 21 fax:44606666 πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

171

172

MALTA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF MALTA Mail: pkmalti@hotmail.co.uk Mail: communistpartymalta@yahoo.com code:(+356) phone: 21223537 fax:21223537 MADAGASCAR, PARTY OF THE CONGRESS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF MADAGASCAR (AKFM) Mail: akfm@netclub.mg Mail: akfm@wanadoo.mg code:(+261) phone/fax: 202227065, 202226828 MEXICO, POPULAR SOCIALIST PARTY, MEXICO http://www.pps.org.mx Mail: ppsprens@prodigy.net.mx code:(+5255) phone:330816-18 fax:330816-18, 257131 MEXICO, POPULAR SOCIALIST PARTY OF MEXICO http://www.ppsm.org.mx Mail: ppsm@ppsm.org.mx Mail: amezcua910@yahoo.com.mx code:(+525) phone: 5672-2057 fax:5609-1896 MEXICO, PARTY OF THE COMMUNISTS, MEXICO http://www.comunistas-mexicanos.org Mail: comunista@mexico.com Mail: comunista@prodigy.net.mx code:(+52 734) phone:3425838 fax:3435466, 86340766 MOLDOVA, PARTY OF COMMUNISTS OF REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA http://www.pcrm.md/ Mail: info@pcrm.md Mail: n.shidu@parlament.md code:(+3732) phone:2249441 fax:2233673 NEPAL, COMMUNIST PARTY OF NEPAL (UML) http://www.cpnuml.org Mail: umlcpn@gmail.com Mail: uml@ntc.net.np

code:(+977) phone: 14278081/82 fax:14278084 NETHERLANDS, NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE NETHERLANDS http://www.ncpn.nl Mail: manifest@wanadoo.nl code:(+3120) phone:6825019 fax:6828276 (+3170) phone:3603676 fax:3603676 NORWAY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF NORWAY http://www.nkp.no Mail: nkp@nkp.no code:(+4722) phone:716044 fax:717907 PAKISTAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF PAKISTAN http://www.cppak.org/ Mail: cppak2003@yahoo.com code:(+92) phone/fax:222654531 PALESTINE, PALESTINIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pallcp.ps Mail: Palestinian_cp_@hotmail.com code:(+97) phone/fax: 2267055, 22267644 PALESTINE, PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’S PARTY http://www.ppp.ps http://www.palpeople.org Mail: info@ppp.ps code:(+970) phone:22963593 fax:22963592, 22960104 PANAMA, PARTY OF THE PEOPLE http://www.elpartidodelpueblo.org Mail: elpartido@elpartidodelpueblo.org Mail: partidodelpueblopa@yahoo.com code: (+507) phone:2259025/2272194 PARAGUAY, PARAGUAYAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcparaguay.org/ Mail: inter@pcparaguay.org Mail: pcp@pcparaguay.org Mail: pcp@card.net.com code:(+59521) phone:225116 fax:225116 πB - 1/2010 redlinks

PERU, COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU (PATRIA ROJA) http://www.patriaroja.org.pe/ Mail: pcdelp@patriaroja.org.pe Mail: partidosec@yahoo.com Mail: amorenor@speedy.com.pe code:(+511) phone: 4262366/993869280

RUSSIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (CPRF) http://www.kprf.ru Mail: kprf@dol.ru Mail: zabirov@duma.gov.ru code:(+7495) phone:6927646 fax:6927646, 6925685

PERU, PERUAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcperuano.com Mail: unidad@ec-red.com Mail: pcperuano.rrii@gmail.com code:(+511) phone/fax:3306106

RUSSIA, COMMUNIST WORKERS PARTY OF RUSSIA- REVOLUTIONARY PARTY OF COMMUNISTS (RKRP-RPC) http://www.rkrp-rpk.ru/ Mail: rkrp-ck@yandex.ru Mail: rkrprpk@peterlink.ru code:(+7812) phone:2742772, 2748073 fax:2742818

PHILIPPINES, PHILIPPINE COMMUNIST PARTY PKP-1930 Mail: philcompar@yahoo.com Mail: parisantonio2001@yahoo.com phone:code:(+6344) 9242280 fax:(+632) 9395791 POLAND, COMMUNIST PARTY OF POLAND http://www.kompol.org Mail: kontakt@kompol.org Mail: kompol@o2.pl code:(+48) phone:228334288 fax:228334288 PORTUGAL, PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcp.pt http://international.pcp.pt/ Mail: internacional@pcp.pt code:(+35121) phone:7813800 fax:7969824 ROMANIA, ROMANIAN COMMUNIST PARTY Mail: infopcr@yahoo.com Mail: pantazipcr@yahoo.com code:(+4021) phone:6423615 fax: 642 3615 ROMANIA, SOCIALIST ALLIANCE PARTY http://www.pasro.ro Mail: pas@pasro.ro code:(+40) phone:212522887, 314057078, 314057077, phone/fax:214133354

RUSSIA, UNION OF COMMUNIST PARTIES-CPSU http://www.cprf.ru Mail: kprf@dol.ru Mail: zabirov@duma.gov.ru code:(+7495) phone:6927646, 6928736 fax:6925685 RUSSIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOVIET UNION http://www.shenin-kpss.ru Mail: sshenin@cea.ru code:(+7495) phone:7946541, 2024167 fax:2001208, 2017525 SERBIA, NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF YUGOSLAVIA http://www.nkpj.co.nr/ Mail: int_nkpj@yahoo.com code:(+38111) phone/fax:2642985 SERBIA, PARTY OF COMMUNISTS OF SERBIA http://komunistisrbije.110mb.com/ Mail: komsrb@nadlanu.com Mail: komsrb@gmail.com code:(+38111) phone/fax:3514-478 SLOVAKIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SLOVAKIA http://www.kss.sk πB - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org

173

174

Mail: sekr@kss.sk code:(+4212) phone:44644101, fax:44372540 SOUTH AFRICA, SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.sacp.org.za Mail: lucian@sacp.org.za code:(+2711) phone:3393621/2 fax:3394244 SPAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SPAIN http://www.pce.es Mail: internacionalpce@pce.es Mail: comitefederal@pce.es code:(+3491) phone:3004969 fax:3004744 SPAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PEOPLES OF SPAIN http://www.pcpe.es Mail: internacional@pcpe.es Mail: pcpeinternacional@gmail.com Mail: qboix@sct.ictnet.es code: (+34) phone: 915329187, 934585063 fax: 915329187 SPAIN, PARTY OF COMMUNISTS OF CATALUNA http://www.pcc.cat/ Mail: pcc@pcc.cat Mail: internacional@pcc.cat code:(+34 933) phone:184 282 fax: 180 011 SPAIN, UNITED LEFT SPAIN http://www.izquierda-unida.es/ Mail: iu.internacional@izquierda-unida.es code:(+3491) phone:7227500 fax:3880405 SRI-LANKA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SRI-LANKA Mail: pvtsec@constitution.gov.lk Mail: minister@constitution.gov.lk code:(+9411) phone:2375377, 2695328, 2865987 fax:2375378, 2691610 SUDAN, SUDANESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.midan.net Mail: cpsudan@gmail.com Mail: imanhamad@yahoo.com code:(+4202) phone:33555668 fax:33555668

SWEDEN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SWEDEN http://www.skp.se Mail: skp@skp.se code:(+468) phone:7358640 fax:7357902 SYRIA, SYRIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.syriancp.org Mail: scp-kb@mail.sy code:(+96311) phone:4455048 fax:4422716 SYRIA, SYRIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.syrcomparty.org/ http://www.an-nour.com Mail: scp@scs-net.org Mail: scp@syrcomparty.org Mail: annour@scs-net.org code:(+96311) phone:4410264, 4429503 fax:4422383 TADJIKISTAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF TADJIKISTAN http://www.kpt.freenet.tj Mail: communist_party@mail.ru Mail: t.karimova@mail.ru code:(+992372) phone:232953, 231853 fax:351482, 232292 TURKEY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY (TKP) http://www.tkp.org.tr http://int.tkp.org.tr/ Mail: int@tkp.org.tr code:(+90216) phone: 4185351, 4146504 fax:3461137 TURKEY, LABOUR PARTY (EMEP) http://www.emep.org Mail: international@emep.org code:(+90212) phone:3612508 fax:361 25 12 UKRAINE, COMMUNIST PARTY OF UKRAINE http://www.kpu.net.ua Mail: inter@kpu.kiev.ua code:(+380) phone:44 4255487 fax:44 4635714 Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 redlinks

UKRAINE, UNION OF COMMUNISTS OF UKRAINE http://marx-journal.org/ Mail: marx-journal@mail.ru code:(+38044) phone:2906225 fax:2806225

175

URUGUAY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF URUGUAY http://www.webpcu.org Mail: pcuinternacional@montevideo.com.uy Mail: cripcu@yahoo.com.ar code:(+5982) phone: 9242697, 929 1433 fax: 9242697 USA, COMMUNIST PARTY USA http://www.cpusa.org Mail: international@cpusa.org code:(+1) phone:212 989 4994 fax:(+1) 212 229 1713 VENEZUELA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF VENEZUELA http://www.pcv-venezuela.org Mail: pcv_internacional@yahoo.es Mail: pcv@pcv-venezuela.org Mail: internacionalpcv@gmail.com Mail: pcv_internacional@yahoo.com code:(+58) phone:2122566386, fax:2122566386 VIETNAM, COMMUNIST PARTY OF VIETNAM http://www.dangcongsan.vn Mail: perc@fpt.vn code:(+8443) phone:8436278, 8436274 fax:8234514

Ď&#x20AC;B - 1/2010 www.solidnet.org