Syrian Communist Party
by Ammar Bagdash

Dear comrades,

On behalf of the Central Committee of the Syrian Communist
Party and all Syrian communists, I would first of all
express deep gratitude to the admirable Communist Party of
Greece for its tireless and constant initiatives as regards
the strengthening and consolidation of the international
communist movement. The Athens meetings are gradually
becoming a good and useful tradition for us communists of
all countries of the world.

The strengthening, consolidation and reinforcement of
coordination amongst communists on the global and regional
levels constitute an immediate task. Workers of the world
are confronting the threats of the most barbaric, deadly
and inhuman power ever known to mankind: world imperialism.
Genocide, to which whole peoples are subjected, through
outright warfare or by so-called "peaceful" means, is just
the preview of what awaits all humanity. For the "new world
order" there is only one basic value: profit, to increase
which monopoly capital is ready for any crime even to the
point of annihilating entire peoples. There is a return to
the law of the jungle, but based on all the achievements of
scientific and technological progress. The symbol of
contemporary capitalism is the dinosaur armed with the
atomic bomb and equipped with the computer. And if this
dinosaur is not annihilated, it will destroy the world.

After the overthrow of the socialist system in the Soviet
Union and in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe,
the world revolutionary movement - regardless of its great
loss - did not fall into a state of long prostration, as
our enemy had hoped. The resistance of the peoples and
progressive forces continued and at present we, without
false optimism, can claim that the revolutionary movement
is in a phase of revival and in some places even an
upsurge. A vivid example of this were the mass
anti-capitalist demonstrations that have taken place in a
number of European countries, as well as in Seattle and
then Washington. The expulsion of the troops of Zionist
Israel from south Lebanon, resulting from the heroic
struggle of the Lebanese national resistance with the
all-round support of Syria also constitutes an important
contribution to the struggle of the international
revolutionary movement. We likewise highly esteem the
achievements of fraternal marxist-leninist parties in
various corners of the world, both in the organising of
popular demonstrations as well as on the parliamentary
level.

Our party, like a number of fraternal communist parties, is
in favour of the establishment of a united anti-imperialist
front on both the regional and global scale.

In Syria since 1972 a National-Progressive Front has been
functioning, in the establishing of which our party took
part. Within the framework of this front there has been
cooperation between the Syrian Communist Party and the Ba'
th Arab Socialist Renaissance party, as well as with a
number of other patriotic and progressive parties.
Altogether seven parties are represented in the
National-Progressive Front. In our common policy, the SCP
bases itself on three fundamental principles:

Cooperation with all progressive and patriotic forces.
The preservation of the independent identity of the party
as regards principles and basic political issues.
A tireless and constant struggle to safeguard the interests
of the working class and all working people.

Today Syria constitutes a fundamental stronghold resisting
the hegemonistic and expansionist plans of American
imperialism and Zionist Israel in the Arab world. And one
of the basic factors in this anti-imperialist position of
Syria is cooperation and allied relations amongst the
country's progressive and patriotic forces, particularly
between Ba' thists and communists.

Comrades! It is our deep conviction that the whole class
struggle dialectic on the global level demands that
solidarity and cooperation amongst communist parties be
strengthened. Now the whole significance of the principles
of proletarian internationalism is more obvious than ever
before. Without real implementation of these principles,
victory over the common enemy - world capitalism - cannot
be achieved. Real proletarian solidarity will also help
each of our parties in the fight for the rights of the
working people on the national level.

Comrades! We determine our relations with any political
force based on its position regarding its attitude to
imperialism. And in this regard, one cannot but observe
that all the main social-democratic parties, especially in
the west, constitute faithful and consistent bearers of
imperialist policy, particularly that of American
imperialism. They have renounced even the rest of the
reformist platform and deservedly took the place in the
imperialist camp that was earlier occupied by the liberals.
That is why we have no illusions as regards the social
democrats. They constitute one of the factions of
international imperialism.

At the same time, one must note that a number of parties
which still call themselves communist are gradually sliding
or have already slid into the position earlier occupied by
the social democrats. That is, under the cover of the
slogans of social demagogy, they are introducing capitalist
influence into the ranks of the working class. Some of
these parties participate in imperialist governments, even
when the latter wage aggressive wars against other peoples.
And how sharply this amoral policy differs from the noble
position taken by western European communists during the
wars in Indochina and Algeria. But it seems that the bog of
opportunism is bottomless. The further one goes, the worse
it is.

We frankly declare that those who strive to overthrow
capitalism, to destroy it as a socio-economic structure,
are our brothers in ideals and companions-in-arms in the
struggle, and not those who make every effort to "improve"
or "enhance" it.

Daily practice proves the correctness of the leninist
conclusion that the struggle against imperialism can be
successful only when it is interwoven with the fight
against opportunism and revisionism.