NCPN 23rd IMCWP contribution

Dear comrades,

On behalf of the New Communist Party of the Netherlands, I greet the 23rd International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties.

Comrades, the world situation is changing rapidly. The inter-imperialist competition is dragging all countries into a dangerous situation. The imperialist war in Ukraine, with the dominant Euro-Atlantic imperialist bloc competing with capitalist Russia at the expense of its people, has been raging on for almost a year and a half now. The situation in Africa is changing sharply due to a combination of resistance by the peoples of Africa to their centuries of oppression and exploitation and new "hijackers in waiting" such as Russian imperialism. In Asia, too, we see the contradictions between the US and China sharpening. Capitalism in its imperialist phase is proving itself time and again to be a rotten system but a very dangerous one that needs to be overthrown.

The situation of the working class in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands too, people are slowly beginning to face this truth. For the situation of the working class in the Netherlands has also been characterised by deterioration in recent years. What is the situation of the Dutch working class, against the image formed that the Netherlands is such a "rich" country? What does capitalist rule mean for workers?

900,000 people live in poverty in the Netherlands, including 221,000 children, according to bourgeois statistics. At the same time, there are more Dutch billionaires than ever before. It is estimated that the working class in the Netherlands lives some 15 years less in good health - more diseases such as heart attacks and diabetes occur. Chronic stress, anxiety, depression and other psychological complaints are 3 times more common among workers in the lowest income category, at 22%. 2.5 million Dutch people are also low-literate, a phenomenon linked to poorer health.

And what about in the workplace? The lack of labour for the capitalists leads, on the one hand, to workers trying to take advantage of the space that this creates for improving working conditions; on the other hand, the working class is insufficiently organised. The workload increases, the capitalists take an increasingly hostile and aggressive stance towards any attempt at power-building by the workers on the shop floor, the class struggle intensifies. The FNV, the largest trade union movement in the Netherlands, takes a more combative stance, but continues to preach class peace, or, in their own words, the "balance between labour and capital".

The political representatives of capital in the Netherlands cannot ignore these developments either. On the one hand, there is a need for a "tighter" fiscal policy, especially promoted by the employers' organisations; on the other, the bourgeoisie is trying to boost purchasing power by legally increasing the minimum wage and benefits. The new government that will come to power in November will continue the policy of dismantling social services, despite the few crumbs sometimes handed out to the working class.

A dangerous development remains the proliferation of reactionary political parties and movements trying to capitalise on the growing discontent among the Dutch population. Parties with racist and chauvinist ideas backed by sections of big business are gaining support among dissatisfied sections of the population.

At the same time, social democracy is trying to reinvent itself. In this context, the traditional social democracy, the Labour Party (PvdA) and the Greens, Green Left, have presented 1 list ahead of the elections. With a "social" and "sustainable" sauce, they are trying to harness the working class to the cause of "green" capital, backed by the EU.

Also very dangerous is the leading role played by the Dutch bourgeoisie in the imperialist war in Ukraine. The Dutch government openly supports the reactionary, anti-communist Ukrainian regime with large-scale arms supplies and propaganda campaigns. The NCPN was the only party to protest at the Ukrainian embassy back in 2016, against the attacks on communists by the Ukrainian government, and will continue to express its solidarity with the persecuted Ukrainian communists. The NCPN also opposes the arms supplies and the oil thrown on the fire by our bourgeoisie in this imperialist conflict. We are fighting against NATO and the EU, and for the Netherlands' exit from these imperialist alliances.

The growing discontent not only of the Dutch working class, but also of other sections of the population such as part of the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie provided opportunities for the NCPN to continue its intervention, to expose these parties, in the struggle for socialism-communism in the Netherlands.

The party's situation

The NCPN has experienced a major rejuvenation in recent years. This has been the result of the party's conscious decision to build the CJB. The increased misery for many young workers, school goers and students, provided fertile ground for the growth and intervention of the CJB.

The NCPN's influence within the Dutch labour movement is steadily growing. Although we still have a very long way to go, we are trying to take leading positions wherever possible in the growing resistance of the Dutch working class to capitalist exploitation. The CJB is also successfully succeeding in participating in the struggle among students.

Additionally, new elections will take place in the Netherlands in November. The NCPN has chosen to strengthen our departments and our work in neighbourhoods and workplaces and not to participate in the elections this time.

The international situation

Comrades,

We see that the contradictions in our own movement are increasing. This manifests itself, among others, in the creation of the reactionary, opportunistic World Anti-Imperialist Platform, whose aim is to use the communist movement for the purposes of Russian capital, among others. What does this so-called "anti-imperialism" lead to? It leads to supporting governments that persecute comrades of parties present today. Governments like Venezuela's, which have practically worked the PCV into illegality. Or the dark, reactionary theocracy of Iran, which tortured and hanged thousands of comrades of the Tudeh Party back in 1988, and continues this repression to this day. Comrades, support for this kind of government under the guise of "anti-imperialism" we cannot tolerate as communists.

We must put our faith once again in the working class, and not in the Wagner group or in the army of the Russian Federation. We must take advantage of inter-imperialist contradictions, but under no circumstances side with any imperialist bloc. So-called "multipolarism" leads to the dead end of "stages" towards socialism. It is the working class among whom we communists must continue to work, among whom we must spread revolutionary principles. The revolutionary principles for the radical break with capitalism, for its overthrow, for the establishment of workers' power.