12th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties

«The deepening systemic crisis of capitalism. The tasks of Communists in defense of sovereignty, deepening social alliances, strengthening the anti-imperialist front in the struggle for peace, progress and Socialism».

South Africa, Johannesburg

December 3, 4 and 5, 2010

Contribution by the New Communist Party of the Netherlands NCPN,

Mr Chairman, delegates,

The NCPN is grateful for the possibility to participate in the 12 ^th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties and gives its thanks to the SACP for its organisation

Comrades,

The deepening crisis of the imperialist system now confronts the world with a shrinking economy and the collapse of the global economic and financial relations, which for more than 60 years depended on a continuous growth of the economy in the economic developed countries, especially North America and Western Europe. The emerging economies are largely dependent on these markets and therefore also affected.

Governments of the imperialist states have no other solutions, without undermining the profits than to 'socialize' the losses. The state's shortfall grows quickly.

Greece and Ireland are just some prominent examples.

Significant cuts in public spending take place or are underway in many other countries mainly at the expense of the living standards of the working class and increasingly growing in parts of the middle classes. Affecting culture, care, employment, benefits and pensions. Under the guise of first cutting in their own flesh administration is reduced and privatization of public functions accelerated.

This crisis is paid by working people, not by those who are responsible for the crisis: the banks and multinationals.

The coming period will be very dangerous for the global economic and financial system. During the last meeting of global central bankers last August in Jackson Hole, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve said very diplomatic: now that the policy of the U.S. failed to recover the economy, the rest of the world really has no choice but to continue to fund the U.S. deficits in the hope to prevent the collapse of the global economic system.

The U.S. now solves its debt with freshly printed money and makes worthless the dollar-stocks and U.S. treasuries held by the rest of the world. The insurance of the Federal Reserve and Obama that they had fully understood the nature of the crisis and the means to control it, became pure arrogance.

These factors will lead to further deepening and widening of the chaos in financial and monetary markets. The biggest domestic economic and social shock since the year 1930 will take place. This may lead to protectionism and trade wars that makes the danger of a global military conflict come closer. And makes even more eminent our support for peaceful sovereign development like the ALBA project and our call for abolishment of NATO witch will continue to be the instrument to protect imperialist interests in the world at the cost of non aligned nations.

It will become in practice increasingly apparent for the working class even in Western Europe .

This economic system has no stable development of mankind to offer.

Ideologically however, this insight is not guaranteed without a battle of ideas.

The role of the media should not be underestimated. The Americanisation of politics is getting ever clearer forms. Politics is mostly presented as a play, meant to distract the public from the real political choices and solutions to the major economic and social issues. Parliamentary democracy is reduced to a media spectacle and made subordinate. The right wing media shake the last vestiges of fairness and objectivity, taking the lead in the coarsening and hardening of manners and aligning themselves with the same mass and one-sided news coverage.

Objective news, if present, is marginalized. Information and research are no longer a guiding principle, Only focused on impact and profit. The ratings determine what is important. In Western countries the peoples are confronted with extreme individualism. The ruling class and its media have managed to get accepted their ideological message of each one for itself through advertising and other communications media.

Everywhere in Europe parties arise that address the fears of the population for the adverse effects of globalization and trying to channel the sense of unease by poking up groups of the working class against each other, for example in the Netherlands in particular against Muslim immigrants. For the breakdown of the capitalist welfare state, the migrants are blamed. A widespread sentiment of abuse of social services made by migrants has become part of the attacks on the working class. Also young and old are made each others enemy in the debate for a sustainable pension system. These attacks are accompanied by praises of private property and entrepreneurship.

Comrades,

Communist and workers parties in Europe and elsewhere should take steps, more than ever, to realize a common ideological basis, based on collective action and society-wide coalitions of

resistance to the dismantling of the welfare state and for building an inclusive, prosperous and peaceful society While maintaining to discuss the different ideological premises, wherever possible and useful new broad coalitions are necessary. Whether that is possible or not and how coalitions may take shape wil depend on local, national historical circumstances.. Thereby we must place one single alternative central for the peoples of Europe: the necessity of struggle for socialism and the possibility of the establishment of Socialism.

A struggle that has to be linked and coordinated on an European level. Although the battle ultimately has a national character we have to fight united the coordinated action of European big business and often the same multinational companies and their representatives in parliament. Improved cooperation between the Communists in Europe and a joint response to the social democratic and bourgeois leftist strategies is needed to combat the ideological confusion among the workers effectively. Fighting for socialism in the near future also means that we must continue to struggle for the imminent decline of opportunities to slow down the present attacks.

The trade union movement has a central role to play in this struggle. In tackling the crisis at its source, in refuting the logic of capitalist enriched individuals, and building a better, more social society. However the union struggle without communist participation can not get beyond the enforcement of some concessions from the ruling class . For the overthrow of its political society is a political struggle, the struggle for socialism. Communists always fight for progress, even if the decline has already begun. The struggle for progress now is for sure also the struggle to stop further deterioration. And it is not just about benefits and wages. It's also and maybe even more to maintain and strengthen the organizations of the working class. If current trends of degradation and ideological confusion will not be stopped, over time, trade unions for instance will have no more possibility to exist in the Netherlands.

Since the eighties of the last century a process is underway in the Netherlands to build up trade

unions to advocate on an individual level only, where the fight for collective interests have come under increasing pressure. However, there are more and more union members who spoke out against this tendency in the trade unions and want to resist and fight back a militant organization for the struggle for collective interests of workers, ruled by the members themselves. Their efforts are often frustrated by the social democrats in the boards of the trade unions. For the NCPN the practical and ideological support of the rising opposition within the union movement has become currently the highest priority.

It is through practical class struggle and Marxist-Leninist education that understanding of the evolution of society is developed. It is the communists who see the necessity of class struggle to be successful. This understanding is what we are trying to teach step by step among the working population.

Although the national problems are big and becoming bigger and most parties are involved in national struggles international proletarian cooperation is necessary. The NCPN calls for more concrete forms of cooperation between communist and workers parties in Europe and supports the search for better international coordination, unity and joint action.

Thank you for your attention.

Long live the national class struggle.

Long live international solidarity.