Contribution of CP in Denmark[En]

Dear Comrades,

First of all our thanks to the Communist Party of Vietnam for hosting our annual meeting.

As you know, Denmark is a small country and the Communist Party in Denmark is a small party, but this does not mean that what we do is not important.

In 1972, a population majority voted to join the European Economic Community or the EEC that was later to be called the European Union, the EU. But this does not at all mean that the Danes are happy with being part of the EU system. Since 1972, our EU enthusiastic rulers have been defeated in several referendums on EU matters. In the latest referendum on December 3rd last year, the majority of the population voted NO to allowing the EU to expand its power over the Danish justice and home affairs legislation.

To a large degree, it is thanks to the nonpartisan People's Movement Against the EU that the popular scepticism towards the whole EU project has been kept alive. Our party is an active participant in this movement both nationwide and locally – we have representation in the top leadership and party members play a large role in many of the local district committees. Because of this continued work the Danes are among those European peoples who are best informed about EU matters and they have preserved a healthy scepticism and resistance to further concessions to the EU of Capital.

As of right now, the fight against the TTIP free trade agreement is an important matter for the EU resistance in both Denmark and the rest of the EU. The People's Movement Against the EU represents a broad political spectrum, and this means that its members have many different reasons to oppose the EU. The membership ranges from bourgeois nationalists to communists. The nationalists base their resistance on the fact that the EU membership nullifies much of Denmark's sovereignty, whereas the communists naturally consider the EU an instrument for Big Capital to further exploit the peoples inside and outside of the EU borders. To the communists, a break with the EU will be a major step towards our goal: to carry out the socialist revolution and begin the building of socialism and communism.

The struggle for peace is extremely important, but with some shame we have to recognize that at present the peace movement in Denmark is rather weak. This is all the more sad because Denmark has for now many years now been leading what our country's rulers call ”an activist foreign policy”. A result of this policy has been that our country has participated in wars in the former Yugoslavia, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya, in Syria and other places. As a matter of fact, for the past decades Denmark has been among the first to go to war when the United States, NATO or the EU have asked us to. As communists we of course hold the clear conviction that war and military build-up do not strengthen peace – quite the contrary!

Within the sphere of the peace question the Arctic Region calls for particular consideration. Greenland, the world's largest island, is part of the Danish so-called ”Unity of the Realm” (as are the Faroe Islands and Denmark proper). This means that Denmark has a special role to play to ensure that the Arctic will not be militarized, that the environment will be protected, and that climate change is brought to a stop before all of Greenland's ice cap has melted away. There is an ongoing international cooperation on this matter between the communist parties of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, the United States, and Canada.

At present, Denmark is ruled by a deeply reactionary bourgeois minority government which – if it can muster the power to pursue its intention – will initiate a drastic demolishment of the welfare system for which Denmark's working class has fought for more than a hundred years. There are two principal sides to the government's policy: first of all, the public sector is to be downsized which will affect schools, child care institutions, public health service and so on. Secondly, benefits for the weakest and most needy in the country are to be eroded. Recently the social assistance and the special benefits for immigrants were severely hit. On the other hand, businesses and the country's richest will enjoy tax cuts.

On this background it was encouraging to witness large demonstrations against the government's austerity measures a short while ago. At about 100 town and city halls around the country demonstrations were staged by trade unions, political parties and various other organisations.

Unfortunately, one particular question has brought Denmark into the international limelight. Whereas Denmark earlier has played a significant role in for instance the United Nations with regard to assisting peoples in distress, the situation has now been reversed: among the European countries, Denmark now stands out as one of those with the most restrictive policy towards refugees! The stated objective of this policy is this: if we can make life in Denmark sufficiently miserable for refugees, they will hopefully stay away and look for shelter and security in more hospitable countries. The driving forces behind this distasteful policy are the present government and the extreme right-wing and xenophobic Danish People's Party, but also the Social Democrats who are in constant competition with the extreme Right to pinpoint new cutbacks and reductions in the refugee field.

Fortunately these inhuman viewpoints are not shared by everybody. When the rush of refugees was at its highest a great many Danes spontaneously reached out to help the refugees in various ways, even if they were fined for their help efforts. In the municipalities the authorities cannot shut their eyes to the problems. With the recent cuts in benefits, refugees will be unable to find accommodation they can afford – and then the municipal authorities must then step in with further assistance.

Sadly, our party is a small one, but we do our best to participate in the various movements and organisations working for a better society. We always try to demonstrate that when the people is hurt by cutbacks or other measures, or when we take part in wars, the blame cannot be put on incompetent or evil government leaders and politicians alone. No, the whole monopoly capitalist system is to blame which in its quest for still higher profit pushes other people into poverty and misery.

In recent years we have witnessed a growth of anti-communism, not least in Eastern Europe. Communist parties and communist symbols are suppressed or outright banned. In official statements, the EU has put an equation sign between communism and Nazism although the two, of course, are absolute opposites. It is crucially important that we strengthen the struggle against anti-communism. The coming year will provide us with suitable opportunities to do so as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Great October Revolution in Russia in 1917.

Capitalism is the problem – socialism is the solution.