Speech by Member of the Presidium of the CC CPRF Roman Kononenko at the XXIII International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties

Dear comrades,

First of all, allow me to convey to you greetings from all the participants in the VII Plenum of the CC CPRF which is being held in Moscow today, from the Chairman of the CC CPRF Gennady Zyuganov and wishes of success in solving extremely challenging questions of our joint struggle for the good of the peoples of all countries.

Comrades,

Our meeting is taking place at a time when a grave economic crisis has fallen on the shoulders of the working people, when shots are fired, rockets fly, bombs explode and people die in various parts of the world. The Middle East is ablaze again. Shelling continues in Ukraine.

We at this meeting should do all we can to work out a common approach to the events taking place in the world and in the communist movement, to understand one another and form concrete mechanisms for implementing our plans.

The Havana meeting held last year demonstrated to us that unfortunately communists are seriously divided over the issue of assessing the events in Ukraine. These critical differences may split the international communist movement, which is inadmissible in the light of the ongoing events in the world. In Havana the CPRF was on the receiving end of open accusations of supporting an imperialistic war in Ukraine, of opportunism and appeasement of bourgeois power. On all these issues we have provided a vast amount of information, articles and analytical materials, but unfortunately some parties have still not heard us.

So I will avail myself of this opportunity to again comment on our position regarding the special military operation of the Russian Army in Ukraine because it is on this issue that the most serious differences have arisen.

The CPRF has backed the special operation first and foremost because it has a national liberation and anti-Fascist character and meets the interests of the Russian-speaking population of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics and South Eastern Ukraine in their liberation struggle against undisguised genocide on the part of the pro-Western Kiev regime which they unleashed in 2014 after a government coup in Ukraine.

Russia’s political leadership, after numerous calls on the part of the CPRF, and taking into account the national interests of the vast majority of the Russian population, had to confront the utterly reactionary, neo-Fascist foreign policy of the USA which aims to destroy our country, something that has not been concealed in doctrinal American documents.

It is not the party that toed the line of power, but power met the demand of the party. I very much want you to understand the difference.

At the Havana meeting we presented numerous facts that attest to the correctness of the party’s decision, so it is not surprising that at the last meeting the majority of parties signed the statement proposed by the CPRF together with the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Russian Communist Workers’ Party, which also attests to the validity of our position.

Let us turn to history long past when a similar issue confronted the AUCP (B).  It was about the Soviet Union joining the anti-Hitler coalition with the USA and Great Britain which were fighting an imperialist war against Nazi Germany. Would anyone in this room deny that they were waging an imperialist war? The Soviet Union joined the coalition with them on grounds of fighting Fascism to a victorious end. To save itself, the US and British imperialism had to enter a military alliance with their class antipode, the USSR, without which they proved to be unable to defeat their main rival, German imperialism which was the most reactionary imperialism at the time.

Nationalistic, and today fascist Ukraine is being used by the West as a weapon against Russia, a subject of world history, and would not stop at destroying it. That is why Russophobia has been elevated by the powers that be in Ukraine and in the whole “civilized” West to the level of political and ethnic racism which surpasses that of Hitler’s Germany.

During the Great Patriotic War soldiers went into battle for the Soviet Motherland free of social injustice, of exploitation of man by man. And what of today? Our soldiers are fighting not sparing themselves not for a bourgeois Russia, but for Russian people. This is above why the CPRF has decided to back the Special Military Operation. To support not only by words, but by deeds. As of August 2023 more than 600 members of the CPRF and the Komsomol were fulfilling their military duty as recruits and half of them voluntarily. Forty-four of them died as heroes fighting for their Motherland, and nine have been decorated with the Order of Valor posthumously. The CPRF sent to Donbass several thousand tons of humanitarian aidgathered by members of the Communist Party and the Komsomol and supporters of our party.The Communist Party has organized a cultural and rehabilitation center for 14,000 children from Donbass at a sanatorium outside Moscow.

As for the question what kind of Russia is the CPSU fighting for at the front and in the rear, that question has long been answered: for a socialist Russia which alone can ensure social justice, as history has proved. The programmatic demands of the CPRF attest to this.

Victory over reactionary American imperialism, i.e. final victory over international Fascism, cannot be ensured without the demands of the CPRF being met. We, Russian Communists, come out for the liberation of the Ukrainian people from the Fascist riff-raff being aware that otherwise disgraceful enslavement is in store not only for the fraternal people, but for our multi-national Motherland. This is what is at stake and the only answer to this is complete victory. 

Comrades,

One of the items in The Draft Resolution of the 23d International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP)calls for invigoration of joint efforts in the struggle against imperialism, the strengthening of ideological and political struggle against the bourgeois media and imperialistic lies, the creation of alternative channels for the spread of truthful information and popularization of the ideas of socialism in the midst of the working class, the youth, women, and the intelligentsia to counteract imperialistic misinformation.

The questions of stepping up counter-propaganda and disseminating objective information among all the interested left-wing and anti-imperialist organizations has been raised in the IMCWP framework for several years, but no practical steps have been taken.

And yet today it is becoming extremely relevant because there is growing interest in fair information  and along with that the Western media are stepping up censorship and putting up barriers.

In order to win we must broaden our target audience, go beyond the IMCWP framework and constantly provide objective information on events taking place in the world with our communist assessment.

All the more so because there is a need for it among many left and left-patriotic parties and organizations across the world. This has been noted repeatedly by a number of parties, mainly from African and Asian countries which are not members of Solidnet and IMCWP.

I do not think that any of us would deny the need to expand the information field and the practical significance of our information resource Solidnet, but limiting activities to IMCWP significantly restricts our capacity to conduct information and educational work and attract new supporters to our ranks.

Therefore the CPRF proposes to discuss the creation of an information and communication center co-financed by all the interested parties. The task of this Center would not be to replace the existing Solidnet but to expand information impact on supporters and future allies. 

In conclusion I would like on behalf of the CPRF to express our solidarity with all the peoples in their just struggle against international imperialism, with the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban people, we demand an immediate end to the blockade imposed by the American imperialism and any interference in the internal affairs of Cuba.

We condemn the imperialist aggression of the criminal Israeli regime in the Gaza Strip supported by the USA, NATO and the EU and the genocide of the Palestinian people. We voice our solidarity with its just struggle.

We express gratitude to the Communist Party of Turkey for organizing this Meeting and the opportunity to once more discuss important issues of our struggle.