Contribution of CP of Denmark [En]

16^th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, Guayaquil 2014

Intervention by the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP)

Henrik Stamer Hedin

The state of the world entering the year 2015 is still dominated by the economic world crisis, which has been ravaging since 2007. Several countries, especially in Southern Europe, are in a state of right-out depression, end the situation in other developed capitalist countries is disheartening. Already, we have been experiencing a double dip, i.e. a new setback before the economy has had time to recover from the crisis; now, in late 2014, certain economic indicators suggest that we are facing a triple dip.

The Soviet economist Kondrachev developed the theory of ”the long wave”, i.e. that capitalism beside and beyond its ordinary recurrent crises at intervals of about half a century enters a prolonged era of especially serious crises. He explains this ”long wave” by leaps in the development of productive forces, as new industries come to dominate while older ones decline displaying the usual symptoms of crisis – drops in production, sackings, bankruptcies and so on. Today, information- and biotechnologies are displacing heavy industry, motor cars and oil as the leading industries. It seems that we have not yet overcome this, the third or fourth ”Kondrachev crisis”.

As has been seen before, imperialism is responding to the crisis by enhancing its aggressiveness and sharpening tensions in the world to (or beyond) the brink of war. In Europe, the EU has exhibited enhanced aggressiveness and expansionism towards eastern Europe, most recently Ukraine, where an EU-inspired surge of reactionary and partly Fascist violence usurped power by a coup d’état and, by doing this, triggered a civil war in the country. EU politicians were extremely active in what went on at the Maidan, and the mantra of the movement was ”European values” – whatever that is. The US reacted to what they perceived as a European attempt to take the lead in the aggressiveness race by further sharpening their own aggressiveness. Presumably, the US was behind the February coup in Kiev, while the EU, for lack of military muscle allowing a straight course, had preferred a softer line based on a negotiated solution involving Russia and leading on the very eve of the coup to an international agreement on elections and a change of constitution in Ukraine. This was not aggressive or radical enough for the US, which acted accordingly.

Eventually, even the EU with more or less enthusiasm backed the hard line of the US, which has led to an escalated confrontation between Russia on one side and EU/US on the other. Russia’s determined attention to her interests in Crimea and the Russian government’s cautious support of the Donbass armed resistance has by a regimented propaganda campaign, unequalled in modern days in its mendacity and massiveness, been branded as aggressiveness, breach of international law, history revisionism and so on – it’s the thief crying ”stop the thief”.

Imperialism in its machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere may seem united and monolithic, but this is not so. Imperialism never was united and never will be. The EU interest in Ukraine is expansion of the Union and destruction of the Ukrainian economy, so that Ukrainians will be forced to migrate to Western and Central Europe as cheap labour, while those staying at home will have to import the goods no longer produced in their own country from the same Western and Central Europe, leaving the profits there. US interests are primarily to block or hamper Russia’s access to the Black Sea and thence to the Mediterranean.

These differences in interest notwithstanding, the imperialist blocks are still dependent on each other; the US could not act as it does in Europe without some backing by the EU. The differences of interest should not be underestimated, nor should they be absolutized.

Parts of the Left in Denmark believe that the EU could be used as a shield against US imperialism. They have therefore embraced the EU and become EU adherents. This is a dangerous course. The most immediate danger to all European countries is the European Union. It should accordingly be fought with resolve and determination. Danish Communists are doing just this, and realizing more than 40 years ago the necessity of fighting the EU led us to build the broad anti-EU people’s movement that has since then won important victories and preserved important parts of our independence; e.g., we still have our own national currency.

In doing so, we fulfilled the role generally ascribed to Communists – to act as guides to the people and show the way. Without our effort, this broad unity would never had been accomplished; the movement would have dissolved into nationalist factions on the one hand and leftist ones on the other, into proponents of the ”Nordic model” on one side and adherents of ”small is beautiful” on the other, or similar divisions.

As a matter of fact, this is to some extent what happened after the Communists were weakened in the wake of the European Counterrevolution and were no longer capable of guiding the movement. Nevertheless, the resistance against the EU is still strong in Denmark, and Danish Communists are constantly keeping in view: Fighting imperialism in Europe means fighting the European Union.