Intervention by the General Secretary of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia,

Aleksandar Banjanac

Dear comrades,

I warmly salute you all on behalf of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and I convey to you the militant greetings of our members and sympathizers. I want also to express special thanks for the great effort and dedication for the organization of this teleconference by the KKE and TKP.

Dear comrades,

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the wealth of just over two thousand billionaires in the world reached a record value, exceeding 10 thousand billion dollars. On the other hand, the corona virus crisis has pushed about one hundred million people that are living on less than $ 1.9 a day into extreme poverty. More than 30,000 children in the world die of disease and hunger every day. Hundreds of millions of people do not have water. In the "free world", tens of millions of people do not have basic health care and live in sewers and containers. The COVID-19 pandemic, has pushed another 100 million workers into poverty due to reduced working hours and job losses.

In Serbia, too, the COVID-19 pandemic further sharpened and deepened class contradictions. The gap between rich and poor is among the largest in Europe. The people in Serbia are hardly hit by deep poverty. Meanwhile authorities are continuing the disastrous policy of subsidizing the so-called foreign investment. Foreign investors come to take away, not to bring. The bourgeois authorities, led by the regime of Aleksandar Vučić, are continuing privatizations, and now it is the turn to be privatized the last remaining natural resources, with great dangers of causing real ecological catastrophes. The only way for the progressive public that opposes the usurpation of Serbia's natural resources and advocates for the preservation of health and environmental protection, is to unite with all other oppressed strata of society, primarily the working class. In Serbia, too, the "green agenda"is in the great focus of the public and represents an important current political paradigm. We emphasize that the struggle for the preservation of the environment cannot be separated from the social struggle. Therefore, fighters for ecology and conservation of natural resources should lend a hand to workers who are fighting in Serbia against the anti-people and anti-workers' Labor and Strike Law, miserable guaranteed wages, harassment of union activists, layoffs, low wages, etc. Fighters for ecology should give a hand to students who are fighting against the retrograde "Bologna Declaration". Environmentalists should also give a hand to the social struggles of pensioners, the unemployed and the youth.

Our party and our youth organization - SKOJ have made a significant contribution to raising the voice against the measures of the bourgeois regime, which further sharpen the contradictions in society during the pandemic. That is why the new attacks on us of the most reactionary forces in the society, fascists, happened. They carried out several attacks on our headquarters in Belgrade in the last month, with significant material damage. We are also suffering great pressure from the bourgeois authorities who are drawing a target at the head of our organization as part of the revisionist struggle for rewriting history in Serbia. Organizational difficulties conditioned by measures of restricting gatherings, and justified fears of gatherings of citizens due the spread of virus are an additional problem in that struggle. This significantly complicates our work, but also additionally motivates us to continue the fight with dedication and sacrifice even in these difficult circumstances.

Despite all the problems for us, the internationalist struggle has continued to be an integral part of our daily struggle. We emphasize our great solidarity and friendship to all the nations of the world, and especially to the nations and states that are suffering the fiercest imperialist pressures. Such are our people in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the peoples of Cuba and Palestine.

Dear Comrades,

In last more than 60 years, Cuba has established a participatory social system on the basis of equality and justice and has been able to cover the essential needs of all citizens, with out any single citizen being left unprotected. Exceptional developments in education, health, culture and science has been accomplished, which have in many ways enlightened and benefitted the peoples of the world. Cuba not only inspired but also supported the liberation struggles and just causes of people who rose up against imperialism.

Yugoslavia has experienced what Fidel Castro was saying: "Nothing is so bitter for the people, but to lie free and wake up as a slave." It is impossible for Cuba to impose national and religious divisions, but subversions and attempts at counter-revolution by the United States will not stop. We are aware of all the problems that Cuba is facing today and we call on everyone to unite their efforts in order to help the Cuban people, to defend the sovereignty of Cuba and the Revolution.

Dear comrades,

In the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and repression New Communist Party of Yugoslavia is expressing its full support to the people of Palestine in their just struggle for survival and recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

We repeat our firm solidarity with the ongoing just struggle of the Palestinian people for the end of Israeli occupation. Its long-lasting struggle inspires our own just struggle across the world.

We denounce the crimes and the occupation of the Israeli state against the Palestinian people, which has been continuing for decades with the support of the USA and the EU.

The struggle of the Palestinian people can be justified through the strengthening of the struggle against imperialist interventions and plans of the bourgeois classes in the region, through the strengthening of internationalist solidarity and activity.

Dear comrades,

Imperialism is constantly at work to secure economic and strategic positions, to kill off any resistance to their imperialistic policies, to block the road to any national liberation, progressive and revolutionary processes, to impose puppet regimes, to weaken the sovereignty of states, to pave the way for exploitation by transnational corporations.

In this path, they intensify ethnic, religious and border conflicts, start wars of extermination, breed extremely reactionary forces, support repressive and bloody dictatorships, slaughter civilians and cause mass exodus of populations, taking entire peoples hostage by famine, and in many cases carrying out a true policy of state terrorism.

Dear comrades,

The difficulties of our struggle are serious. The bourgeois and opportunist pressure is strong. But the communists are obliged to demonstrate great endurance and determination in the defense of the Marxist-Leninist worldview, to play a leading role in every day workers'-people's struggles, in the antimonopoly-anticapitalistic struggle, to try to achieve the connection in all conditions between the daily activities and the struggle for revolutionary workers power.

Only socialism, based on social ownership over the concentrated means of production and land, the central scientific planning of the economy, and social services can guarantee the meeting of people's needs, the rising living standards, the improvement of working conditions, and the minimization of the impact on natural environment.

Long live international solidarity of the working class!

Long live Mrxism-Leninism!

Thank you very much!