Athens Meeting 19-20 June 2003, Contribution by CP of
Canada
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From: SolidNet
http://www.communist-party.ca , mailto:inter@cpc-pcc.ca
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by Andr� Parizeau

FOR A NEW COORDINATING STRUCTURE

The gravity of the international situation caused by the
ever-increasing aggressiveness of US imperialism toward its
ever-growing list of "enemies", including large sections of
the population within the US itself, is of much concern to
people worldwide. In today's world, US imperialism is
without question the main bastion of reaction. More than
ever, its actions represent an imminent threat not only to
the peace, security and sovereignty of individual nations
and peoples. It is an imminent threat to the very future of
humanity itself.

This is especially true since the US-led "war on terrorism"
has spawned similar acts of aggression by most other
imperialist countries in the world, including those whose
governments may disassociate themselves, from time to time,
from particular US policies or actions.

This offensive one which has been steadily gaining
momentum since the downfall and dismantling of socialism in
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe still has the upper
hand, giving the impression of its "invincibility". It has,
of course, many component parts, the most critical of which
are:

Its socio-economic offensive to impose "free trade" deals
and other corporate "globalization" schemes on all national
economies, forcing some to integrate into one imperialist
cartel or another, while excluding others to the very
margins of the global economy;
unprecedented attacks on workers' rights and living
conditions through privatization, the destruction of public
programs and services, legislative attacks, and state
repression;
wholesale attacks on the democratic rights of the people,
especially their right to organize and dissent; and
the military-strategic offensive of U.S. imperialism and
its allies to crush resistance and impose its global
domination.

At the same time however, capitalism is having more and
more difficulties coping with its own intrinsic
contradictions, reflected in global "relative"
over-production, spiraling debt, widespread immiseration of
the masses, especially but not exclusively in Third World
countries, sluggish economic growth, environmental
degradation, and, not least, intensifying inter-imperialist
rivalry.

In such turbulent conditions, the danger of fascism is
rising up again in many countries, a dangerous development
which must not be underestimated.

On the positive side, large-scale opposition movements are
emerging in more and more countries, bringing new hope for
the development of a more coordinated fightback
internationally. The fact that the peace movement has been
able to regain so much momentum in such a short period of
time is a good example of how things can change rapidly.
It is of particular significance that the labour movement
is playing a more central role in the development of such a
movement in many countries.

In this new, critical situation, the International
Communist Movement has more than ever a special
responsibility to help strengthen and build, on a worldwide
basis, a massive, powerful movement aimed at countering the
current danger. We need to do so in such a way that this
movement will ultimately be able to reverse the current
tide and build a new wave of struggles aimed at ridding the
world of imperialist domination, and of abolishing
capitalism and establishing socialism.

The coming period will be quite challenging for our
movement. It will raise more sharply than ever the central
task of forging alliances with other progressive forces.
It will also impel us to build stronger forms of
cooperation among our own parties.

Making concrete advances in cooperation among communist and
workers' parties was a focal point of our intervention last
year in Athens and we would like to address it again now
because we consider it an issue of crucial importance.

We believe that increasing the active cooperation and
coordination of the Communist & Workers' parties is a vital
and determining condition for orienting and strengthening
the mass movements, coalitions and alliances which are
confronting imperialism today. Furthermore, the `unity in
action' of the communist and revolutionary forces will
become ever more urgent with each passing year. We feel
therefore that now is the time to act boldly in this
direction.

In recent years, various initiatives, including these
international meetings in Athens, have helped to promote
more regular exchange of information and analysis among our
parties. These efforts have been useful in improving mutual
understanding of the new conditions that have arisen and,
on that basis, to renew and rebuild our parties and
movements in our respective countries. But these
initiatives are clearly no longer enough.

As we have stated previously, cooperation within the
International Communist Movement and among our respective
parties must to based on very clear principles that would
incorporate both our long experience in terms of
internationalist work as well as our current needs. In our
view, such principles should include: 1) the complete
equality of all parties; 2) strict non-interference in the
internal affairs of parties; 3) mutual respect and
tolerance of differing views; 4) and voluntary
participation.

It follows therefore that participation of parties would be
strictly voluntary, and that all projects and initiatives
arising from such cooperation would be considered by
parties and organizations on the basis of the merit of each
proposal.

Various types and forms of coordination could be
envisioned, in our view, including:

maintaining and improving communications among all
participating parties and organizations, including those
parties that cannot participate in regional or
international forums on a regular basis;
organizing consultations among parties on specific regional
or global problems where appropriate;
preparing general statements on major issues confronting
the international working class and communist movement, and
circulating them to all parties and organizations for
endorsement;
developing proposals for international campaigns and
activities on specific issues as well as publicizing
available expertise and materials produced by individual
parties for the benefit of all other parties; such plans
could include organizing international tours by high
profile spokespersons.

In order to establish more elaborate forms of cooperation,
parties will need to consider and agree on some type of new
coordinating structure. More discussions will be needed in
order to develop some consensus on organizational details
related to that new structure. Our party would like to
suggest that such a structure be as flexible as possible,
that mandates be set for relatively short periods of time
and reviewed on a regular basis, and that the Internet
which is now almost universally used by parties become the
main instrument for communications.

We support a step by step approach, one that gradually
builds on what has already been accomplished, and avoid
hasty, ill-considered actions. At the same time however,
we think that our movement can and should move quickly on
some immediate initiatives around which there is broad
consensus, such as the growing war danger.

We need to make sure, at the same time, that cooperative
efforts will effectively strengthen the unity of our
movement and not detract from or imperil it.

Several parties have raised some very useful suggestions,
comments and proposals aimed at strengthening our
cooperation and "unity in action". These ideas and
proposals should be studied and discussed in a more
in-depth manner, along with fresh ideas which will come
forth at this conference, at other upcoming meetings, and
from interested parties around the world.

The important thing at this stage of the process is to have
a vehicle that will enable us to ensure that the process
will continue once this conference ends and that we will be
able, at some point, to bring forward a concrete proposal
for the consideration, improvement and approval by most or
all parties.

One possible option would be to enlarge the composition of
the Working Group set up at the recent Prague Conference to
include parties from other continents. This Working Group
could then be mandated to consult widely with all
interested parties and to begin drafting proposals.

The objective of such a Working Group would be to enable us
to move one step closer to that goal of building stronger
cooperation, a goal which we have been talking about for
some time. We are more confident than ever that achieving
such a goal is entirely realizable, provided we
collectively commit ourselves to make it happen.

On behalf of the Central Committee of our Party, I wish to
express our warmest greetings to all of you, and thank you
for your attention.

Let us work closely together to strengthen our ties and
build an even stronger International Communist Movement!