Athens Meeting 18-20 November 2005, Contribution of CP of
Luxembourg (KPL)
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From: SolidNet, Monday, November 28, 2005
http://www.zlv.lu , mailto:kpl@zlv.lu
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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

Contribution by Ali Ruckert, President of the Communist
Party of Luxembourg (KPL)

Dear comrades,

This year, on the 29th of May and the first of June
something happened what the ruling forces did not have on
their agenda: at a referendum the majority of the French
and the Dutch people rejected the draft of the
Constitutional Treaty for the European Union.

Even in Luxembourg, where no serious rejection had been
foreseen, more than 42 per cent of the population with
Luxembourg nationality voted against the constitutional
draft. Among the working class and the youth of our country
it was even a clear majority of rejection.

Those have been very important moments, since they made
clear, that the European capital and its political staff
was not in the position to convince a majority of the
working people in parts of the EU to vote in favour of the
neoliberal, undemocratic and militaristic constitution
despite the fact, that the ruling political forces have
huge resources at their disposition to manipulate the
people.

For a certain moment we were full of satisfaction regarding
the results of the referendum, but we are not cheating
ourselves and therefore we know very well, that despite of
those results the European capital with or without the
Constitutional treaty will not stop to continue its
efforts to create better preconditions on European level
for the utilisation of labour force in the interest of
profit maximisation as well as to further construct the
European Union as an instrument of imperialist policy. The
final aim of these efforts is to ensure the implementation
of the interests of European corporations with economic
means, and if it would be necessary by military means as
well.

All this is not new at all, even with regard to the fact,
that the European superstructures had reached a new quality
through the introduction of the common European currency.
We should not forget, that all supranational structures
that have been created in Western Europe after 1945 at the
initiative of the capital, were always serving the single
aim: to ensure the exploitation of resources and of the
working people on the long run, and to further improve the
conditions of exploitation. This was already the case with
the "European Community of Carbon and Steel", as well as
with "Euratom", the "European Economic Community" (EEC) up
to the "European Union".

But in the meantime some change had occurred, that turned
over all previously existing realities. The breakdown of
the European socialist countries, the victory of the
counterrevolution and the restoration of capitalist
conditions of production gave capitalism new power, opened
new markets as well as new perspectives. It was like
discovering a new continent with the view to a long period
of stable conditions of exploitation.

In direct concurrency to the real existing socialism the
Western European capitalism had developed the so called
"social market economy", to prevent the workers from
developing truly revolutionary ideas.

The real concessions of the bourgeoisie to the working
class and the permanently propagated ideas about the
allegedly naturally given "social" character of the
capitalist way of production, in close combination with
anti-communist indoctrination, had resulted in an
ideological and social-psychological commitment of the
overwhelming majority of the working people to the
capitalist system.

With the end of the conflict between the two social
systems, the capitalism turned back to its normal way of
function and is now in the position to put into question a
lot of previous concessions as well as achievements from
the past decades. The current generation will for the
first time since the end of the second world war live
worse than their parents, who are still believing in the
ideas of a "social" capitalism, despite the fact that this
period of history is over in Europe. They do not yet
understand, that the basic contradiction of the society can
not be solved under the conditions of the existing
capitalist system.

Under certain circumstances, the end of the conflict
between the two systems could have been the beginning of a
new and enduring phase of expansion of capitalism. But
things did not happen as expected. The profit expectations
within the productive sector remained too small, and there
was practically no readiness from the side of the
industrial capital for massive risk investments in the
industry of the former socialist countries.

This is connected with developments that have been
predicted already by Karl Marx, namely that the financial
capital is meanwhile controlling essential parts of the
industrial capital and of the real economy, which is the
basis for the financial capital to demand an ever growing
share of the produced added value. If the financial capital
is demanding a return of shareholders' equity of 15 per
cent what has to be the creation of added value in the
productive area to satisfy the demands of the financial
capital? This leads to a displacement of living labour from
the production process and finally to increasing
unemployment. Since for the industrial capitalists the
creation of absolute added value is of increasing
importance, they will always strive to cut the wages and to
introduce unpaid prolongation of the working time.

Currently we are experiencing this period in Europe, and in
our case in Luxembourg especially from the side of the big
US American and transnational European corporations like
DuPont de Nemours and Goodyear are developing ambitious
efforts to conclude new collective contracts with cuts of
wages and prolonged working schedules without compensatory
wage increases. Other corporations as for example
Electrolux are threatening openly with the dislocation of
the production into other countries, if the workers are not
ready to agree with unpaid prolongation of the working
hours.

The supranational institutions in Europe and the
governments of several states are making efforts to clear
the way from all economic and social obstacles that might
hinder the increase of the profit rate. The negative
consequences of this all European raid can be seen now
everywhere.

Even in Luxembourg, a country that due to its high
concentration of industry, services and banks has the
highest gross domestic product per capita in Europe, and
where the population is said to have a high living
standard, we have to count more than five per cent of
unemployed people. 10 per cent of the population is
regarded to be poor. Through the lowering of non-wage
labour costs as well as through tax incentives and
privileges for the capital there was made a massive
reallocation of public finances, and the government is
going to further develop cuts in social services.

A part of this development is the pull-out of the state
from social insurances, the increase of the self
participation of the people for the costs of medical
services and prescription drugs, a massive increase of the
prices for child care and water supply, a reduction of
social services in general, a destruction of previously
made achievements in employment law and the increase of the
age for receiving pensions.

We are facing today the destruction of the European "social
model", taking place in all countries even though with
different speed , where supranational European institutions
as the EU Commission are playing a leading role, as for
example through the "Bolkestein-Directive" and the
liberalisation in the field of energy and transport.
Parallel to this development another destructive element is
of growing importance: this is the attempt of the European
Union to increase the armament and to act as self-contained
imperialist "factor of law and order" in international
politics after the previously existing European security
system was deliberately destroyed by the EU with the aim to
subordinate the East of Europe and to utilize it against
Russia. The final aim is to enforce the interests of the
European bourgeoisies and corporations worldwide, be it at
the side or on the long run even against the USA, the most
dangerous imperial power.

Facing these global challenges what has to be the role the
communists are to play today? It is our opinion that the
presence as well as the political and ideological impact of
communists is indispensable on very different levels.

The basic fundament of communist policy has to be the
defence of the interests of the working class and of all
working people, especially in the struggle against
liberalisation, against demounting labour legislation and
against the policy of cuts in social services: against the
capital, the national governments and the European Union.

This means the communists have to be active in the trade
union movements and to support the trade unions as
"collecting points of the resistance against the violent
acts of the capital", as Marx said. At the same time we
have to do everything to prevent the trade unions from
confining themselves to "wage small battles against the
effects of the existing system, instead of trying at the
same time to change it, instead of using their organised
forces as a leverage for the final liberation of the
working class" (Karl Marx).

This means at the same time to take firm positions against
the existing illusion of the possibility of political
participation in the frame of the capitalist government
system, be it on national or on European level.

It can not be our aim to form a "better capitalism" and to
contribute on European level to a better functioning of the
supranational capitalist superstructure. On the contrary,
it is indispensable to put the capitalist exploitation
system in question and to get finally rid of it.

We want to avoid any kind of misunderstanding: we are not
thinking of verbal radicalism, we just want to express a
clear standpoint. With a view to the victory of capitalism
and its restoration in Eastern Europe 15 years ago, and
with regard of the anarchic economic and crude social
circumstances as well as the aggressive and destructive
potentials produced by this system again and again, the
wording of a socialist and communist system alternative is
an absolute necessity.

But at the same time it is necessary to make clear that
this social alternative can only be realised when in the
every day political struggles and while striving for an
ideological hegemony in the society we are able to reach a
new balance of power among the classes.

This concept must not be misunderstood as a refusal of
alliances with all those who are on the one hand ready to
resist, but on the other hand do still have several
illusions about the present day capitalist state and about
the supranational capitalist institutions. But we have also
to underline that such alliances would have no meaning and
that the communists would be loosing their right to exist,
if they for what ever reasons would limit themselves to
create the illusion that "a better capitalism is possible".
Communists will also loose the meaning of their fight, if
they on the one hand declare the war against neoliberal
globalisation and on the other hand forbear from putting
into question the entire capitalist system of exploitation
together with the private ownership of the means of
production if they do not strive for the abolition of
capitalism and to develop a socialist alternative.

At this very point I do not want to hide our point of view,
since all those have been important reasons for the
communists of Luxembourg not to join the "European Party of
the Left". We are of the opinion that this party has
surrendered in several essential questions in front of the
European Union, and additionally it has created confusions
and a certain grade of helplessness inside some communist
parties as well as mistrust among communist parties. We
think that it has nothing to do with anti-capitalist policy
of alliances, if the founders of that party on the one hand
are segregating certain communist parties and on the other
hand are developing cooperation with social democratic,
trozkyist and other groupings that are fighting against
communist parties in their home countries.

We think that the time has come for the communist parties
to create an organisation on international level with a
clear communist identity with the aim to avoid any kind of
confusion and to give a clear signal to the working class.

Despite of the existing variety in our movement we think
that our common ideological basis is the precondition to
find a common line of attack, a precondition for doing
something essential in the practical struggle. And it
should be understood by itself that the different parties
remain autonomous and every kind of interference into
internal affairs of other parties will be excluded.

The aim of such a structured co-operation on European and
worldwide level can only be to bundle all the communist
forces who on the basis of the theoretic findings of Marx,
Lenin and other Marxist thinkers and revolutionaries are
consistently striving for the abolishment of the capitalist
system of exploitation and for a socialist and communist
social order. We must not disavow our own history of the
communist movement, but we have to draw the necessary
conclusions from our successes and achievements as well as
from our mistakes and defeats. This is the only way to give
an alternative to the working class and to all working
people, an alternative that corresponds to the hopes and
wishes of the working people for a world without war and
exploitation in one word: without capitalism. It might
seem that these are great words, but if we do not confront
ourselves with this task, if we do not start the creation
of a structured international co-operation of communist
parties and if we do not use the opportunities resulting
from such a co-operation nobody will do this for us.

For this reason I think we should not wait any longer and
take some first decisions here at this meeting. We should
decide without delay to declare our "International
conference of communist and workers' parties" as our
organisation. All parties present here may join this
organisation. I suggest that within half a year the
concrete documents of our organisation should be worked out
this means a program which is based on the principles of
the "Manifesto of the Communist Party", a constitutional
document that defines the rights and duties of the member
parties, including a membership fee and the creation of a
solidarity fund. Furthermore I suggest that our Greek
comrades should take over the functions and duties of a
Secretariat of our organisation, until further decisions
will be taken.

If we do not take the initiative now we would leave the
field of international class struggle to other forces.
Those would be forces with social projects and ideas that
sooner or later will reach a point of no return due to the
lack of a clear orientation on the abolishment of the
capitalist system of exploitation.

I am saying all this as a representative of a small
communist party from a small country, and I am well aware
of the fact that a structured international co-operation
will only have a prospect of success if the bigger
communist parties are ready to take their responsibility.

I think that the time has come that the parties gathered
here should take the initiative. Of course, this structure
should be open to all communist parties that are conscious
of their political responsibility and for those, that one
day will understand the need of a strong international
communist movement.

Thank you very much for your attention.