Dear comrades,
We start this contribution by thanking the Communist Party of Cuba for its work in the organization of this 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in Havana. We acknowledge the effort this important event for discussion on current and useful issues for the development of class struggle in our countries entails for the Party and the Cuban people.
Comrades, The international scenario is achieving maximum tension. Contradictions between the different imperialist powers have been increasing in the last years in an escalation of competition for raw materials, transport routes, energy sources, markets, and spheres of influence. The escalation has arrived to a turning point since last February 24th, when open war in Ukraine with the direct intervention of Russia began. In these moments, the working class and the people's strata in our countries are dealing with the results of the two recent capitalist crisis and the current effects of the imperialist war.
Working-class families still endure the outcomes of the 2008 capitalist crisis. Workers have nowadays worse life and labor conditions than at the beginning of the century. Many political, social, and trade-union rights were lost in order to favor a way out of the crisis for the sake of the interests of capitalists. Added to this, in early 2020 emerged a new capitalist crisis, catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which worsened this situation by accelerating a crisis that was becoming apparent already since 2019 and whose effects are still present two years later.
Political economy shows us that crisis are a characteristic and cyclic feature of capitalist economy. They answer to the inherent dynamics of the productive and accumulation processes. On the other side, the Leninist theory also shows us that the current stage we are carrying out our class struggle in is the imperialist stage, the highest and last stage of capitalism.
This stage is characterized by the internationalization of capital and economic relations as well as relations of domination and subordination resulting (mainly) of the export of capitals. We insist, it is not just an aggressive foreign policy by one or another power. One of the most important outcomes of this export of capitals is the increase in the rivalry between imperialists as well as the worsening of contradictions between them. This is why new conflicts for the division of world happen periodically, according the change in the correlation of forces between monopolies and the imperialist powers that support them. Nowadays, the unequal economic and political development internationally makes impossible the disappearing of these inter-imperialist contradictions.
The sharpening of such inter-imperialist contradictions reaches its maximum expression through war. War is one more tool for capitalists, it is the most radical way to solve contradictions between them. War is the continuation of politics by other means, and therefore we should assess every war according to this starting point, to the political and economic reasons behind each war.
The war in Ukraine is an imperialist war. On one side, the EU-USA-NATO bloc has huge interests in enlarging its influence to the former Soviet republics and people's democracies in Eastern Europe, using all the means at their reach —even the violent ones—, as they proved with the Euromaidan coup. On the other side, the bloc of Russian capitalists is also in a position to claim its influence over some of those territories. Thus, the contradiction for the influence and control of transport routes, sources of raw material, and the domination of markets in the zone breaks out.
In the last decades, every international conflict or contradiction has implied the accumulation of a tension capable of unleashing a new world war. This scenario of widespread imperialist war is now closer after the events in Ukraine, given that European countries are advancing in the path of increasing military expenses, reinforcing the NATO imperialist alliances, and retaking the idea of the “Euroarmy”.
The militarization of economy and society is being accelerated, with evident results in the limitation of basic rights and the deepening of the anti-communist campaign in many countries as well as the proliferation of forced population displacements and migration flows.
In our country, the bourgeoisie and its social democratic government are opting for a series of measures against the rights of the working class and the people's strata. Such measures are characterized by two features: the increase in the level of exploitation of workforce with new measures for the consolidation of inner flexibility in companies and the massive use of state funds to shield the interests of monopolies. The Spanish Government —like all the social democratic governments— is not interested in overcoming capitalism, but in managing it.
The PCTE in this context is making its intervention by promoting the mobilization and organization of masses against the imperialist war and the outcomes of the capitalist crisis in both workplaces and neighborhoods. We are making a great effort in explaining the causes of war, the causes of the capitalist crisis, as well as denouncing the measures adopted by the Government of social democratic coalition, in order to prevent new deceptions to our class and the people. We demand the stoppage of every involvement of our country in the war by means of military presence or delivery of weapons, and we struggle for the break of our country with the imperialist alliances thus following our anti-capitalist and anti-monopolistic struggle.
Working-class families still endure the outcomes of the 2008 capitalist crisis. Workers have nowadays worse life and labor conditions than at the beginning of the century. Many political, social, and trade-union rights were lost in order to favor a way out of the crisis for the sake of the interests of capitalists. Added to this, in early 2020 emerged a new capitalist crisis, catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which worsened this situation by accelerating a crisis that was becoming apparent already since 2019 and whose effects are still present two years later.
Political economy shows us that crisis are a characteristic and cyclic feature of capitalist economy. They answer to the inherent dynamics of the productive and accumulation processes. On the other side, the Leninist theory also shows us that the current stage we are carrying out our class struggle in is the imperialist stage, the highest and last stage of capitalism.
This stage is characterized by the internationalization of capital and economic relations as well as relations of domination and subordination resulting (mainly) of the export of capitals. We insist, it is not just an aggressive foreign policy by one or another power. One of the most important outcomes of this export of capitals is the increase in the rivalry between imperialists as well as the worsening of contradictions between them. This is why new conflicts for the division of world happen periodically, according the change in the correlation of forces between monopolies and the imperialist powers that support them. Nowadays, the unequal economic and political development internationally makes impossible the disappearing of these inter-imperialist contradictions.
The sharpening of such inter-imperialist contradictions reaches its maximum expression through war. War is one more tool for capitalists, it is the most radical way to solve contradictions between them. War is the continuation of politics by other means, and therefore we should assess every war according to this starting point, to the political and economic reasons behind each war.
The war in Ukraine is an imperialist war. On one side, the EU-USA-NATO bloc has huge interests in enlarging its influence to the former Soviet republics and people's democracies in Eastern Europe, using all the means at their reach —even the violent ones—, as they proved with the Euromaidan coup. On the other side, the bloc of Russian capitalists is also in a position to claim its influence over some of those territories. Thus, the contradiction for the influence and control of transport routes, sources of raw material, and the domination of markets in the zone breaks out.
In the last decades, every international conflict or contradiction has implied the accumulation of a tension capable of unleashing a new world war. This scenario of widespread imperialist war is now closer after the events in Ukraine, given that European countries are advancing in the path of increasing military expenses, reinforcing the NATO imperialist alliances, and retaking the idea of the “Euroarmy”.
The militarization of economy and society is being accelerated, with evident results in the limitation of basic rights and the deepening of the anti-communist campaign in many countries as well as the proliferation of forced population displacements and migration flows.
In our country, the bourgeoisie and its social democratic government are opting for a series of measures against the rights of the working class and the people's strata. Such measures are characterized by two features: the increase in the level of exploitation of workforce with new measures for the consolidation of inner flexibility in companies and the massive use of state funds to shield the interests of monopolies. The Spanish Government —like all the social democratic governments— is not interested in overcoming capitalism, but in managing it.
The PCTE in this context is making its intervention by promoting the mobilization and organization of masses against the imperialist war and the outcomes of the capitalist crisis in both workplaces and neighborhoods. We are making a great effort in explaining the causes of war, the causes of the capitalist crisis, as well as denouncing the measures adopted by the Government of social democratic coalition, in order to prevent new deceptions to our class and the people. We demand the stoppage of every involvement of our country in the war by means of military presence or delivery of weapons, and we struggle for the break of our country with the imperialist alliances thus following our anti-capitalist and anti-monopolistic struggle.
Comrades,
We would also like to seize this moment to express our internationalist solidarity with the Cuban working class, its people, and its Communist Party. We condemn the different attempts of provocation, aggression, and destabilization of the Cuban revolution. We call on defending their revolution, which is not a legacy for their makers only, but for the international working class.
We also convey our solidarity with the Communist Party of Venezuela, which is facing great difficulties for carrying out its political activity as a result of the constant harassment the Bolivarian Government of the country is practicing against our comrades. We support the tireless efforts of the Communist Party of Venezuela for defending its political space and responsibly fulfilling its historical tasks of being the vanguard of socialist construction in the country.
We show our solidarity to the Sahrawi people and the Polisario Front, who are defending their right to exist and to self-determination by all the means at their reach. We denounce, loud and clear, the Spanish Government, which is turning their from the Sahrawi people when it declares its support to the consideration of Sahara as an autonomous province of Morocco. This stance by the social democratic Government intends to defend the interests of Spanish monopolies in the plundering of Sahara, enables the maintenance of the Moroccan domination, and delays the full decolonization of the Western Sahara territory.
Last, we express our support to the Palestinian people, who are suffering relentless attacks by the State of Israel, causing hundreds of dead and injured. It is urgent to advance in the solution of an independent Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital and the 1967 borders. It is necessary to advance so the Palestinian and Sahrawi peoples can freely choose —without interferences— their future.
Dear comrades, We are in a decisive moment of class struggle, when the contradictions of capitalism are highly sharpened. Despite the suffering this situation is causing, the Communist and Workers' Parties must seize the opportunity to turn frustration into hope and demobilization into organization, all of it under the line of an attack questioning the power of monopolies and placing in the center of political discussion the need to build our own power, which means a centralized and scientifically planned economy based on social property that ends up with capitalist exploitation. With this, the working class can be able to prove that another world — a world without exploitation and social inequalities, a socialist-communist world— is possible.
Long live the 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties! Long live proletarian internationalism!
We also convey our solidarity with the Communist Party of Venezuela, which is facing great difficulties for carrying out its political activity as a result of the constant harassment the Bolivarian Government of the country is practicing against our comrades. We support the tireless efforts of the Communist Party of Venezuela for defending its political space and responsibly fulfilling its historical tasks of being the vanguard of socialist construction in the country.
We show our solidarity to the Sahrawi people and the Polisario Front, who are defending their right to exist and to self-determination by all the means at their reach. We denounce, loud and clear, the Spanish Government, which is turning their from the Sahrawi people when it declares its support to the consideration of Sahara as an autonomous province of Morocco. This stance by the social democratic Government intends to defend the interests of Spanish monopolies in the plundering of Sahara, enables the maintenance of the Moroccan domination, and delays the full decolonization of the Western Sahara territory.
Last, we express our support to the Palestinian people, who are suffering relentless attacks by the State of Israel, causing hundreds of dead and injured. It is urgent to advance in the solution of an independent Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital and the 1967 borders. It is necessary to advance so the Palestinian and Sahrawi peoples can freely choose —without interferences— their future.
Dear comrades, We are in a decisive moment of class struggle, when the contradictions of capitalism are highly sharpened. Despite the suffering this situation is causing, the Communist and Workers' Parties must seize the opportunity to turn frustration into hope and demobilization into organization, all of it under the line of an attack questioning the power of monopolies and placing in the center of political discussion the need to build our own power, which means a centralized and scientifically planned economy based on social property that ends up with capitalist exploitation. With this, the working class can be able to prove that another world — a world without exploitation and social inequalities, a socialist-communist world— is possible.
Long live the 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties! Long live proletarian internationalism!
The text in Spanish.
