Contribution of Romanian SP [En]

by Gheorghiță Zbăganu

Dear comrades, dear friends

First of all I want to thank the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and comrade Ziuganov for this wonderful meeting in the same place where, one hundred of years ago, Lenin proclaimed the power of Soviets/.

Next I want to congratulate you in the name of Romanian Socialist Party and in the name of its president, Constantin Rotaru. More than that, I have the task to congratulate you in the name of all Romanian Communists which are divided now in four parties besides us: Romanian Communitarian Party, The Party of the Communists and the Romanian Communist Party of 21th century.

Comrades

Right now all all main mass media in the world “celebrates” the great October Revolution in its way, according to ideological affinities and political interests. For instance last week the Russian patriarch Kiril has visited Romania and he declared that 100 year ago a criminal experiment began and thanks God it was finished 25 years ago. Maybe he has direct wire with the last Russian saint, emperor Nicholas the second! The TV channels compete each others to speak about the “crimes of communism” and some hot heads want that 7 november to be the international day of the crimes of the communism or to start a kind of “Nuremberg of communism”. The anticommunist propaganda has intensified this year using two kind of ammunition: minimization (it was not a big deal) and demonization (Lenin was a traitor paid with German money and Trotzki another one paid with Jewish ones). Anyway, they cannot deny that the Bolshevik revolution was the most important event of the last century.

For us, the communists and for all the progressive movement the meaning is different. A hundred years ago a new epoch began: the epoch of socialist revolutions. To those that say that socialism is kaput we answer: after the counter-revolutions started in 1989 the socialist system lost 25% from population. It hurts, but it is not the end. The capitalism is doomed and more and more people understand that the alternative is socialism or barbarism.

Yes, it was a defeat. Especially in my country, Romania, where the Romanian Communist Party crushed in 24 hours. The communists were forbidden as in other “democracies” as the Baltic states, Hungary and Poland. The Romanians were the first to do that. Totalitarian anticommunism has risen since 1990. I say “totalitarian” because it does not accept competition. This was the “democracy” accepted by the bourgeois elite from European Union for East Europeans countries.

Anticommunism was used as an anesthetic for the working people in order to accept the capitalist restoration: privatizations and retrocessions. To accept the steal of the results of 40-year labor, the people were to feel culpable for collaborationism .. Even now, 27 years after the counter-revolution started in december 1989 and killing of Ceaușescu the ideologues of the Right point the finger to communists for all what goes wrong in the country. The crimes of 27 years of capitalism are to be considered again crimes of communism. In the period 1994 – 2015 the Romanian courts rejected 14 attempts to register a party which has in the name the word “communist”. After 2015 they decided that the danger has passed and a new law has been adopted according to which it is enough to have 3 members in order to register a party. It is allowed to use the word “communist” but not Romanian Communist Party.

The good news is that more and more Romanians wake up from the anesthesia and see what capitalism means: inequality, unemployment, lack of health insurance, diseases and poverty for majority. Three millions of the have gone to find work outside, hoping in a better capitalism in Italy, Spain, France, USA and other countries. Many of them change their vision about communism there and become leftists.

Comrades

It is a time for celebration but it is also a time for lucidity. Yes, without the Great Socialist October Revolution there have not existed Poland, Finland, Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraina and other states. Yes, without it the world would have been a a world of rich metropolis and poor colonies. Yes, without the fear of communism there would not have existed welfare states in the developed countries.

But we have to see what went wrong with the socialism applied in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union in order to correct the errors next time. To see why the communist parties have lost the power and the peoples accepted that. To see how the parties of the working class are to behave in the future in order that keep the power for working people and not make gaps between them and people. We are sure that the future is ours.

Long live the Great October Revolution!

Long Live Socialism!