By Chris Butters
“Communist Parties around the world
are gaining a second wind and are deeply involved in working-class struggles in
their respective countries,” Rossana Cambron, the Communist Party USA delegate
told representatives at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers
Parties (IMCWP), held in Athens in November.
The international communist
conference was the 20th installment of a meeting held every year since 1998.
These seminal meetings have become the world’s most comprehensive gatherings of
Communist and workers’ parties. Some 91 parties participated in this year’s
deliberations.
Speaking on behalf of the CPUSA,
Cambron described the Trump administration as representing the most reactionary
sections of big business. “The coming to power of political forces promoting
unbridled racism, anti-Semitism, and right-wing nationalism represents a grave
danger throughout the world,” Cambron argued.
The meeting was opened by Dimitris
Koutsoumpas, general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece, which hosted
the conference. Referring to bourgeois “end-of-history” ideologues, Koutsoumpas
declared that “developments have proven them wrong.” The Greek party leader
cited “capitalism’s deepening crisis, recent upsurges, and the continued
burning relevance of revolutionary Marxism.”
The delegate from the Communist
Party of India Pallab Sengupta mentioned of the movement of the farmers and the
Workers under the left parties challenging the policies of the rightwing
Narendra Modi Government.
The much-awaited recovery from the
Wall Street crash of 2008 has still not happened, the delegate from the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) pointed out, asserting that the capitalist
economy is no longer capable of growth with only the occasional recession to
upset things. Now, it can only produce stagnation with occasional changes that
leave diminishing prospects.
The Portuguese Communist Party noted
the revolutionary potential of the period, but also recognized that “the more
reactionary and aggressive sectors of capitalism are increasingly betting on
war and fascism as a way out of the deepening structural crisis.” This, they
concluded, makes it all the more important that popular mobilizations be
strengthened.
The CP of Britain criticized the
anti-labor policies of the European Union, pointing to the necessity “of
defeating the populist and racist right, those who seek to exploit fear and
poverty in the interests of big capital.”
Parties from the Balkans and Eastern
Europe condemned the privatization, mass unemployment, and militarist policies
of the EU. They described the devastating impact of privatization,
deindustrialization, and attacks on democratic rights by post-Soviet right-wing
governments. They condemned attempts to outlaw Communist Parties in countries
that had formerly been socialist.
The danger of rising xenophobia and
nationalism was underlined by the French CP: “In Europe, the current political,
democratic, social, and economic crisis…favors the emergence of an
authoritarian line of ultra-nationalist and xenophobic forces.”
The CP of the Russian Federation
shared these anti-NATO, anti-EU positions, but also pointed to the erosion of
democratic rights, incomes, and living standards under the austerity regime of
President Vladimir Putin.
The participation of the Communist
Party of China in the international working group which prepares the
conferences was an important new factor this year. The CPC reported
achievements along the “Chinese Road to Socialism,” including lifting 800
million of the nation’s people out of poverty in recent years.
The International Meeting of
Communist and Workers Parties, stated the CPC representatives, has provided “an
important platform to conduct exchanges and dialogues over the past two
decades.” The Chinese party’s goal, they continued, is to “strengthen
communication and expand cooperative ties in a new type of party-to-party
relationship that features common ground while preserving differences and
learning.”
The Cuban CP’s representative
addressed that party’s “determination to update the economic and social model
of socialist development that will enable us to have an independent, sovereign,
socialist, democratic, prosperous, and sustainable nation.”
Cuba pointed to the difficulties in
achieving this objective “in the face of the intractable U.S. policy of
aggression and its economic, financial, and commercial blockade, which has been
tightened by the present Trump administration, thus imposing a significant
reversal in relations between the two nations and a return to the hostile
language that characterized the Cold War years.”
The Middle East was an important
topic at the IMCWP. The CP of Israel condemned that country’s “brutal and ugly
oppression” of the Palestinian people and called for solidarity. They
reiterated their party’s commitment to uniting and organizing workers of every
nationality and securing a two-state solution in accordance with international
law.
The South African Communist Party
pointed to the need to grapple with and understand the roots of right-wing
populism. “The rise of right-wing politics has its origins in the decaying of
the politics of, amongst others, center parties and social democracy. These are
dangerous times for democracy.” They continued, “For those worried about Trump
and about populism, it is not enough to mobilize and protest and resist, it is
also necessary to engage in the politics of persuasion that must begin by
understanding the discontent that is roiling politics.”
The parties present did not see
eye-to-eye on every question. Some called for a direct road to socialism,
downplaying stages and participation in capitalist governments. Others spoke to
the complexity of the revolutionary process. The British CP, for instance,
cited the necessity of building broad fronts around a “People’s Brexit” in their
country. The defense of democratic rights was a major focus for the parties
that come from countries which make up the former Soviet Union. Opposition to
fascism and racism in the U.S. was a key topic of discussion, and electoral
campaigns against religious sectarianism in Iraq, India, and other countries
were also on the agenda.
The final appeal adopted by the
IMCWP reflected broad agreement on a number of issues. It called for the
development of common and joint actions on issues including opposition to
imperialist war, intervention and militarism. (IPA Service)
Courtesy: People’s World
The post Communist Parties Around The World Are On The Rebound appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
