In view of the decision taken on October 12 by the Government of the Czech Republic to officially dissolve the Communist Youth Union of the Czech Republic (KSM), the Portuguese Communist Party expresses its firm rejection of this attack against democracy and against elementary freedoms in the Czech Republic.
Following a process begun in December 2005, in which the Czech Ministry of Interior used as arguments the restriction of political activity solely to political parties or the fact that the Communist Youth Union of the Czech Republic had Marxism-Leninism as its ideological foundation – and following an international wave of solidarity against the attempt of illegalization of KSM – the argument now put forward is a demonstration of the anti-democratic and fascistic character of this measure: the Communist Youth Union is officially dissolved because in its Program it defends the collective appropriation of the means of production in opposition to their private ownership.
This decision is not, as previously stated by the Portuguese Foreign Affairs Ministry, a mere internal matter of the Czech Republic. It is in line with a
more general trend – with various expressions in Europe, mainly in Eastern Europe – of criminalization of emerging resistance to capitalism, in particular of the communist movement. It is also in line with a wider attempt to rewrite the history of the liberation of the peoples of Europe – in which the communists had a determining role – and of criminalization of communist ideology.
These measures and trends cannot be separated from the growing phenomena of rehabilitation of Fascism, of attacks against freedom and democracy in the name of a so-called “combat against terrorism” which, as a whole, aims to restrict the activity and influence of the communists and thus attempt to remove socialism, as a real alternative to the present capitalist system of exploitation, oppression and war, from the horizon of the peoples.
In view of this unacceptable and insulting measure of political persecution of a fascistic type, carried out in a European Union member country, the PCP demands from the Portuguese Government the adoption of measures, namely through international bodies in which it holds a seat, to express to the Czech authorities the rejection by the Portuguese State of this unacceptable attack on fundamental freedoms and rights and on democracy in the Czech Republic.
The PCP also expresses to the Communist Youth Union and to the Czech communists its solidarity and also reaffirms its determination to carry out solidarity actions in Portugal against the illegalization of the organisation of the young Czech communists. The PCP appeals to all Portuguese democrats, in the name of democracy, to manifest themselves against this unacceptable measure and express their solidarity with the young Czech communists.
