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Dear comrades,

Let me express my party's honor and gratitude to be granted once again the opportunity to be present at this notable venue. I wish to thank the Lebanese comrades for their efforts in preparing such a big arrangement, despite the winds of war that are blowing over this beautiful and proud country as well.

1. We are living in a very dangerous phase: the inter-imperialist competition is sharpening; the aggressiveness of the NATO-Israel bloc is clashing with Russian and Chinese interests and manifesting itself through military confrontations between NATO and the SCO - most notably in Syria - with unpredictable consequences.

2. The propaganda campaign unleashed by the imperial powers in our European continent and in the US is turning realities upside down - the news are being fabricated, the facts are being distorted, fake enemies have been invented - thus obscuring the real causes of US-NATO wars, which are ultimately - as usual - huge economic interests and the perpetuation of capitalist accumulation.

3. We must admit that otherwise little attractive governments like China, Russia, and Iran are currently playing a progressive role in actively opposing US-NATO, Israel's and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries' aggressiveness, particularly by militarily supporting the Syrian patriots, but also through diplomatic channels - most notably opposing war-mongering resolutions at the UNSC. This "progressiveness", although motivated by Russia's, China's, and Iran's corporate interests, is currently preventing a bigger bloodshed and a complete submission of Syria to the neoliberal doctrine and its regression into a client regime; Russia's, China's, and Iran's stance on Syria is also preventing a further attack against the non-aligned countries in the region, namely Lebanon, Iran, and Palestine.

A halt in Syria would mean, for the imperialists, a reformulation of their policies, which would grant more respite for other (socialist or nationalist) countries that are also under huge pressure and threat by US-NATO, including Cuba, DPR Korea, Belarus, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and others.

4. There is little hope of mass revolts against the war in the imperialist countries: mass revolts normally happen for direct material reasons, namely worsening economic and social conditions. The ongoing anti-capitalist protests in the West are due to economic and social reasons, and don't have a strong anti-war connotation.

The hope for a NATO retreat from the Middle East is therefore to be found mainly in the local resistance. For such a resistance to succeed, advanced weapons and a strong and motivated army is a necessary precondition. These advanced anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons are being supplied to Syria by Russia, and it's precisely this that - possibly - has prevented a carpet-bombing of Damascus like the one suffered by Tripoli - not the failed UNSC resolutions. These have and will be ignored by NATO powers today, or by China and Russia tomorrow.

Another thing to mobilize for, is to uncover and politically annihilate all those forces and activists that are supported by the imperialists. These include the most dangerous - because extremely fanatic and thus easily manipulated - Islamic, usually Sunni, "Jihadists", which have always been and still are the most efficient CIA, MI6, Mossad and Pakistani ISI assets. We in former Yugoslavia know well the deeds of extremist Muslims backed by the US and their allies, as they control now Kosovo and parts of Bosnia, on behalf of course of the CIA and the Pentagon.

5. We Croatian communists must reveal the lies of our rulers about the war and the economic crisis.

Our task must to be aimed at building a consensus against Croatia being part of NATO - as well as of the EU - a membership that was disgracefully accepted by our client regime without any kind of popular consultation, demonstrating that when big material interests for our capitalist elites are at stake, bourgeois democracy is simply abandoned.

6. Respected comrades, I wish to call upon every organization represented here, and especially upon the strongest ones, to support each other in the spirit of revolutionary comradeship. Many of the smaller Marxist-Leninist organizations in the world - including our own - struggle to survive as they are attacked by capitalist violence, and therefore our duty is - where possible - to establish mutual ties and collaboration.

Andrea Degobbis
Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia - Socijalistička Radnička Partija Hrvatske (SRP)