Athens Meeting 18-20 November 2005, Contribution of CP of
Bohemia & Moravia
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From: SolidNet, Monday, November 28, 2005
http://www.ksm.cz , mailto:international@ksm.cz
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International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
"Current Trends In Capitalism: Economic, Social And
Political Impact. The Communists' Alternative"
Athens, 18-20 November, 2005

Socialism is necessary

First of all I would like to express a heartfelt
appreciation to the comrades from the Communist Party of
Greece for organizing this conference and for the
invitation.

Since 1989, the world has been shaken by economic storms.
The victory of the counter-revolution in the Eastern Europe
and USSR has led further on to an aggressive drive for
imperialist "globalisation". But this "globalisation",
named in many cases "economic miracles" brought many times
in last 15 years to economic crisis.

Mexico in 1994 had to devalue the peso after financial
crisis. In 1997, the Asian financial crisis completely
destroyed the illusion created by the economic success of
the four Asian "Dragons". During the Asian financial
crisis, 90 % of the population became poorer. The whole
economic and political system was shaken and paths were
opened up for revolutionaries. In the summer of 1998, it
was Russia's turn to expose its economic rottenness under
the impact of the Asian crisis. Life expectancy decreased.

In September 1998, Brazil suffered a currency outflow of
one billion dollars every day. The biggest Latin American
country fell victim to the speculation fever. It received
billions from the IMF and the United States to avoid the
contagion. In return, it had to reduce its budget deficits
by cutting on social expenditures and devaluating its
currency, the real. The country was bled dry. The economic
crisis led to a political crisis.

And the United States?

At the start of the decade, the United States had entered a
new phase, that of the "new economy". According this model
capitalism itself would be replaced by a new social form,
the post-industrial society.

Since then, a spectacular collapse has shown that these
concepts were not based on any reality. The so-called "new
economy" functions just like the old and start a crisis of
overproduction, as in the purest capitalist mode.

The US economy had been propelled by enormous speculation
on the financial markets. Since 1982, the level of US
production has increased more than 2.5 times, while that of
the financial markets increased tenfold. This system is
also based on the ever more dominant position of the US
dollar on the international scene. Social inequalities
increase. And the financial development only increases this
social injustice. At Enron, with the company bankrupt, the
managers go home with compensation payments of several
hundreds of millions of dollar, while the workers lose not
only their job, but also their savings plans, which were
placed in company funds. This shows that the so-called "new
economy" is and remains capitalist in nature.

We all know factors that generated the crisis of 1929, we
are now in similar position, and all these factors are
present today at a much larger scale. "Globalisation" has
reinforced all the contradictions of the system. The
elements of destabilization have grown. The problems are
accumulating and worsening.

Monopolisation: only a few companies per economic sector
have survived on a world scale; companies invest by
acquiring other companies to eliminate competition, not to
develop the productive forces;

Inequality: the gap between the imperialist countries and
the Third World is growing; within the imperialist
countries, the most important capitalists see their
proceeds growing; how could there be an unlimited
expansion, if in 100 countries the per capita income is
lower than it was 15 years ago?

Debts: the debts of the Third World amount to 2,500 billion
dollar; from 1970 to 2000, it has paid more than 4,000
billion debt service. This is financial plunder; the South
is financing the North and not the other way round.

Overheating of the financial markets: 1,100 billion dollars
of foreign currency change hands every day; the stock
exchanges are overvalued, exceeding the GDP of their
respective countries; a crash is threatening; but at the
same time, the financial markets impose profitability on
companies, which, as a consequence, increase the
exploitation of the workers.

Instability of the world situation: the United States has
positioned itself as a service economy (production in the
Third World) and a debtor; this can hold only if the dollar
is accepted everywhere as international currency and that
in its turn depends strongly on the American supremacy in
all areas. But since the fall of the socialist countries,
the competition between the imperialist blocs has sharpened
strongly and the European Union is asserting its superpower
ambitions. At the same time, European imperialists want to
win own part of world. And building-up of European Union
with constitution, militarization, and enlargement is one
part of this project.

Contradictions are not not only between south and nord, but
between rich capitalist countries too and inside all
capitalist countries For example other faces in project of
european imperium are social cuts, growing of unemployment,
flexibilisation of work and low-term work, increasing of
gap between rich and poor. We can see today social
conflicts in France and Belgium. And it is only beginning.

Conditions are building up for a crisis to break out, more
serious and more destructive than that of 1929. To head off
the crisis, the IMF had to intervene. It has had to remit
billions dollars to Mexico, Thailand and Indonesia, South
Korea, Brazil. But all this interventions are not enough to
solve crisis of capitalism.

There are practically no more than two major solutions for
capitalism in the present situation: either the road of a
new world war, provoked by the aggravation of all
contradictions of the system and itself pushed forward by
the current economic crisis; or the overthrow of capitalism
and its replacement by a socialism.

The Bush administration has pushed massive military
production. It has increased the military orders and the
defense budget will be raised.

September 11 has been used as the pretext for wars and
aggressions against any country or movement that opposes
imperialist domination and for further fascisation of the
political regimes of the West. The United States, followed
by the other imperialist powers, have launched a campaign
of "anti-terrorist struggle". But it is clearly meant to
suppress all forms of people's resistance and all attempts
to anti-imperialist sovereignty. With the war in
Afghanistan, the declaration of war against the "rogue
states", the United States clearly affirm their will to
dominate the world. In the first place, they aim at the
Middle East, East Asia and Latin America.

The European Communist and radical left-wing
anti-imperialist movement are organizationally and
ideologically fragmented and it is still experiencing a
crisis. The struggle between revolutionary principled
communist viewpoints and reformist, opportunist, capitalist
system compatible ones continues within the European
communist movement and within many communist parties,
including our party. The fact that there are also left-wing
principled communist streams within the parties that have
an opportunist leadership or an opportunist majority should
not be forgotten. The last case of reformism has been
recently concentrated in the Party of European Left that is
connected with integration into the structures of the EU;
on the contrary it brings division of the left in Europe.
Thus the staring point of building of a European
anti-imperialist front should be an agreement that the EU
is a part of the Euro-Atlantic imperialism, against which
it is necessary to concentrate forces. On this ground it is
essential to build the anti-imperialist front, that would
not be limited to the area of the EU and that would on this
ground unite, and not divide radical Left. This way it is
vital to build a union that would not expel the communist
forces, which should constitute its backbone.

I see some positive results for antiimperialist movement:

1. Beginning of regular cooperation between communist,
workers and anticapitalist radical left parties in form of
seminar, conference or meetings, for example here in
Athens, in Brussels, in Prague, or in Latin America etc.

2. Some positive trends in the anti-imperialist struggles
in Europe. Especially the unprecedented anti-war
mobilization and popular refusal of the European
Constitution Draft.

3. Building of new alliances against imperialism,
capitalism, social cuts and finding of new partners. And
these cases are very good school for our international
movement: patriotic front in Turkey, PAME in Greece,
Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, Cuban revolution etc.

I think that our work must be based on these goals:

Solidarity - We have to support the socialist countries
like Cuba and other progressive countries like Venezuela
and we have to support antiimperialist movement like Iraq
resistance. We have to work active in antiwar movement not
only against US military adventures, but against EU
militarisation too.

We have to fight against social cuts and against destroying
of our rights and freedoms, in education, work, social
system, health care, public services.

Very important is fight against reformism, oportunism and
social democratism. We have to oppose all these tendencies,
not only ideologically, but practically too. Our goal is
not just a temporary taming of imperialist forces. Our task
is a complex defeat of imperialism on ideological and
military fronts.