Contribution of the PCP by Angelo Alves - Athens, 8th to 10th. October 2004
Dear Comrades,
Let me begin by thanking the comrades of the Communist Party of Greece the invitation to participate in this important international meeting and the hospitality with which we were received here in Athens.
The theme of this meeting is extremely rich and complex. It holds two great challenges that the forces of social emancipation, and in particular the revolutionary forces, the communist and workers Parties, have to face. On one hand, deepen the knowledge and the study of the present stage of development of the capitalist system and its crisis, trying to form the concrete and realistic idea of the present correlation of forces. On the other hand, deepen the common reflection on the conditions, methods and ways of resistance to imperialism and the necessary relaunching and strengthening of the anti-imperialist front, internationalist solidarity and cooperation among Communists and other anti-capitalist forces.
In the present stage, still of resistance and gathering of forces, but which at the same time holds huge potentialities, and in which the subjective factors have an important weight in the mobilization of the working class and other anti-monopolist strata, as well as in the
reflection within the forces that resist imperialism, this debate assumes a decisive importance.
Our Party is preparing its 17th Congress, to be held on the 26th, 27th and 28th November and the discussion on the above mentioned issues have an important weight in the theses which are being discussed in the whole party collective. What I am transmitting to you results from a debate we are holding in our party, therefore yet to be concluded.
It is an undeniable fact that the present situation is marked by the radicalisation of the aggressiveness of imperialism and the deepening of its parasitic and inhumane character, with devastating effects on all humankind.
On the social level the sharp drop in the level and conditions of living of the vast majority of humankind, the increase in the gap of wealth between the countries of the capitalist centres and of the countries on the periphery and between the multimillionaire elite and the huge mass of the poor population, are realities that are impossible to hide with the supposed programs of support to the development and fight against hunger. Scourges like hunger (a combat that the UN itself recognizes it is losing, and whose causers now hypocritically say they wish to combat), the complete inoperativeness of the combat against AIDS and the reappearance of diseases already eradicated in the past, the increasing weight of criminal activities in the economy such as traffic of drugs and people, the systematic and increasing destruction of the environment associated with the dilapidation of the world's energy resources, are glaring examples of the inhumane and regressive character of capitalism, bringing to a crying presence the issue of "Socialism or barbarity". These factors have important repercussions on the political level and introduce changes on the subjective factor that we have to follow closely.
The idea that a different world, possible, is urgent and necessary (although many sectors do not define or do not know the kind of world it can be) gains increasing social support and many put forward the issue of the overcoming of capitalism not only in the field of social justice, democracy in its diverse aspects and sustainable growth, but also at the level of the struggle for the survival and existence of mankind itself.
The definition of imperialism as a superior stage of capitalism, outlined by Lenin, has thus, in our opinion, an extraordinary actualness. Lenin spoke about the monopolies and financial capital resulting from the fusion of industrial capital with the banking capital. Today, the great transnationals are the monopolies of Lenine's period several times multiplied in their dimension and territorial scope. The financialization of the economy, the internationalisation of the exploitation and resort to militarism and war are very clear nowadays. In fact, we are not facing a "new" imperialism a development stage of imperialism marked by a galloping development of technologies of communication and information, by the role of the media in the ideological and cultural offensive, by the determining weight of the financial sphere in the international economy and a correlation of forces highly favourable to big capital and to exploitation, in which the great capital and its system of power carries out an unprecedented offensive against the workers and peoples, looking for a never ending accumulation of capital, hegemonic political and military power and the appropriation of raw materials all over the world.
This offensive, being a result of the very nature and dynamics of capitalism is also, and in an increasingly more evident form, an expression and at the same time an answer of force to its deep crisis. A crisis that more than cyclical, that is to say a typical and profound crisis of overproduction not yet surpassed, is above all structural with deep reflection not only on the production, economic growth, trade and social situation, but also and increasingly a political and cultural crisis of a global dimension. The issue that the ideologues of the system today debate, without any answer in sight, is no longer on how to sell the idea of the absolute triumph of capital, as in the nineties, but on guarantying imperialism's global dominance without portraying the evident contradictions and historic limits of the system and without being confronted with the explosions of movements of social protest in different parts of the world that endanger the foundations of the system, trying to prevent, silence or bring them into the limits of the system.
But this offensive is also the result of the radical change in the correlation of forces at the international level resulting from the disintegration of the USSR and the defeats of socialism in the East and a weakening of the revolutionary and anti-capitalist forces around the globe. A factor that, in the definition of the objectives and forms of cooperation and struggle, we should always take into account, analyse in a realistic way, and whose leading reasons it is necessary to continue to analyse more deeply.
If in other periods, capitalism showed a considerable ability in answering and overcoming its own crises even making historic concessions in the social and workers rights field, and which constitute a historic heritage of the workers and their organisations today capitalism's answer to the crisis is in the opposite sense and the correlation between capital and labour quickly changes in a negative sense. Keynesianism of the old times is replaced by neo-liberalism with its policies of destruction of the historic conquests of the workers and the increase in exploitation, namely cheap labour in the less developed countries. The theories of "lesser state" are in practice the adaptation of the States and their Governments to the interests of big capital, while actually reinforcing the role of the States and the supranational structures (supported by the most powerful Nation States and their governments) in the process of capitalist accumulation and imperialist globalisation.
Portugal is not an exception. I can tell, without any doubt, that today in my country we have the most reactionary, obscurantist and conservative government since the April revolution, which this year commemorated its 30th anniversary. The coalition government (PSD [right]) and CDS/PP [far right]), now reshuffled, continues the line drawn by the government led by Durão Barroso, now president of the European Commission, which consists of a multifaceted offensive, without precedent, against the workers and the underprivileged, the privatisation of all areas of social life and the blind submission to US imperialism, as was the case of the war summit held on national territory (Azores) and the participation of Portuguese militarised forces in the occupation of Iraq, against which we continue to fight in our country.
It would be impossible to describe in detail the expressions of this offensive in Portugal, but in fact several of the measures being taken by the government, in spite of being accelerated and increased in their dimension in view of its highly reactionary and anti-democratic
character, are mostly expression of the global neo-liberal offensive.
That is, in Portugal, as elsewhere in the world, there is an intensification of the policies of emptying the social functions of the State; an increase in the rate of privatisations and the fusion of the political power with the economic power, handing to the capital the fundamental levers of the economy; a transfer to the private sector of the assets, areas and public services, transferring to the capital the ability to directly intervene in important areas such as the fundamental rights, the social issues and public services and the economic development (an expression of a fundamental change in the balance of power between capital and labour). In parallel, the repressive character of the State deepens and tries to impart on the citizens a collective paranoia around the issues of security which justify repressive measures and the State's tutelary role on the private life and the civic and political participation, trying to circumscribe the action of those who do not bow in to the system, or to a palliative or harmless intervention.
But, in Portugal, these measures do not result only from the presence of really dangerous forces in government. They also result, and in great measure, from the silence, complicity and even collaboration of social democracy, represented in Portugal by the Socialist Party. Examples such as the privatisation of healthcare, education and social security; privatisation and destruction of the strategic sectors of our economy; agreement of opinions on the neo-liberal, federalist and militarist course of the European Union; cooperation in the approval of anti-constitutional and profoundly anti-democratic laws, such as the Law on Parties and Party financing, which, while jeopardizing the democratic regime itself, are mainly aimed at the PCP, are a demonstration of the dangerous ideological proximity between PS and PSD. The decision by the Portuguese President of the Republic, a PS member, not to call early elections after the resignation of Durão Barroso to occupy the post of President of the European Commission, demanding from the new government to continue
the policies of the previous government, is probably the best example of the proximity between social democracy and the right in our country, now aggravated by the election of a new PS secretary-general, clearly a turn to the right and which, at a more wider level, is part of the general process of the failure of the theories of reformation of capitalism and the profound ideological crisis of social democracy.
This important factor today leads, in some areas, to conformation and capitulating behaviours or even voluntarisms that only strengthen the sectors which, born out of leftism, base their action on mediatic show offs, carrying out policies close to social democracy and which are conveniently distanced from the main class conflicts. These are some of the determining causes of the so-called "political crisis" which is no more than a profound crisis of the bourgeois system of representation in which the parties within the system, alternating in power and defending the same class interests, feed the fusion of the political power with the economic power, distancing it from the citizens, shielding it from popular control and, essentially, continuing the same neo-liberal policies.
This situation increasingly leads to the urgency of the issue of political alternative, a fundamental part of the wider issue, the alternative system: socialism. It is a historical evidence that the process of building a socialist society will go through different stages of developing alternative policies to the present ones.
Socialism is not "around the corner". But the deep crisis of the system and the aggressive answer of imperialism turn impossible, with the present correlation of forces, the success of reformist strategies. Insisting on them will only lead to capitulation and strengthening of capitalism.
The building of a true alternative fundamentally has three central issues: the strengthening of the revolutionary parties in organic, political and mass influence terms; the development of the mass struggle, with the resulting strengthening of the mass organisations, namely the class trade union movement and finally,and in a dialectical relation to the previous two, the strengthening of the anti-imperialist front, the struggle at the international level and the cooperation among communist and progressive parties. In our opinion, this is the only possible way to change the correlation of forces between labour and capital and to create better conditions for the battles that can lead to a different rhythm and sense of the social changes in the world. It is obvious that in this confrontation it is necessary to build alliances, which, in our perspective, have to be forged mainly, based upon the popular struggle that as history proves can obtain positive results. And it is in the struggle for the defence of the interests of the workers and the peoples, and through it, that lies the real political alternative.
As we say in the theses of our 17th.Congress referring to the national situation: "The political alternative is indissociable from the struggle for an alternative policy to the policy of the right".
Today, the implacable use of imperialism's international structures; the consolidation of the federalist processes, as is the case of the EU, which aim the creation of new political and military blocks of an imperialist nature, associated to the strengthening of the political-military alliances and the change in its strategic concepts; war and militarism associated to the subversion of international law and UN instrumentalization, are fundamental and complementary processes of domination and attempt to solve the structural problems of imperialism, such as: the elimination of the resistances to the circulation of financial capital; the opening of new markets (namely in the Eastern European countries and the ex-USSR); the appropriation of raw materials, specially in energy; the imperialist military presence around the world and the growing use of war and military power as a political affirmation of the hegemonic power of imperialism; the increase in the production and profit margins of the arms industry (the area of the economy that at the international level holds the top place in terms of trade exchange) or the establishment of new protectorates which defend the interests of the great capitalist powers and of big capital associated with them in the different regions of the globe.
But, if the conjunctural trend is for a compromise in the name of the more general class interests of big capital and the systematic withdrawal of the other big powers of the "Triad" in relation to the hegemonic designs of the US, on the other hand, the past times were marked by the growth of the rivalries among the different poles of imperialism.
These rivalries, have real objective bases, linked to the different level of economic, political and military power of the various poles and their evolution at unequal rhythms. An evolution that breaks previous balances and creates new correlations of forces, whose resolution in the past, led more than one time to great clashes. This dynamic balance between concertation and intra imperialist rivalry (two inseparable faces of the dynamics of the capitalist system) is a factor that deserves, in the prosecution of the struggle, a great attention on our part. On one hand, we have to avoid interpretations that make absolute the intra imperialist rivalries and almost place in the progressive field those who, apparently, as the EU, question US hegemony. On the other, at every moment, we have to be able to benefit, in terms of class, from these rivalries, opening clefts in the system which, as witnessed at the beginning of the war in Iraq, can contribute to the strengthening of the struggle.
Comrades,
The struggle against imperialism in the present is chiefly marked by a tenacious process of resistance, of gathering of forces, and the creation of conditions to develop processes based upon a wide popular support able to introduce real changes in our societies. We are also faced with a complex challenge, in the present historical conditions and correlation of forces: strengthen the international cooperation in the struggle against imperialism and affirm the possibility of a socialist alternative. How to do it?
We believe there are no definitive answers. Based upon our experience, our interpretation of the international situation and upon the principle that it is at the national level and at places where the clash with the dominating class is more direct and where exploitation is the highest (as in the workplaces) that we find the main battleground and mobilisation to destroy the foundations of the
capitalist system, that we point out two main axis of struggle, indissociable between them, and from which we can define some common fronts of struggle:
A first and extremely important one that we can resume as: "struggle against neo-liberalism and its consequences". In this axis we find prioritary fronts of struggle, such as: resistance against the exploitation of the workers and intransigent defence of the conquests and rights now threatened, namely the right to work and to fair salary; the struggle against privatisations; the defence of public services and of the social functions of the State; the defence of the economic and political sovereignty of each of our countries; the struggle against the policies of the international structures of capitalism, namely the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO; the struggle against discriminations and for the rights. At the European level we include here the struggle for a different Europe of the workers and the peoples, against a European Union dominated by the main European capitalist powers and the great transnationals.
A second one that we could call "against war and imperialism" and that encompasses: the strengthening of the struggle against the imperialist wars and threats; solidarity with the peoples and their struggles, specially those who on the ground are resisting imperialist atrocities and crimes; the struggle for the dissolution of the political-military alliances, like NATO; the rejection of projects which aim the creation of new political-military blocks of an aggressive nature, like the militarisation of the European Union, the struggle for disarmament and abolition of weapons of mass destruction, beginning with the US; the struggle against foreign military presence in each of our countries and the defence of complying the United Nations Charter and a true democratisation of the UN.
These are the fronts of action that in our opinion should guide the common action of the anti-imperialist front and which can strengthen the perspective of important progressive and revolutionary changes, which will be as stronger as stronger are the revolutionary forces involved in it and always taking into account the importance of the dialectics of the revolutionary struggle at the national, regional and international level.
The PCP is open and available, as always, to discuss all the possibilities of strengthening of cooperation at the regional and international level, namely by trying to find more stable forms of cooperation. This availability naturally derives from the characteristics of our party,patriotic and internationalist. At the same time, and taking into account recent developments in Europe, we
believe it is necessary to weigh well each step taken. It is necessary to analyse, at every moment, if the pointed out or defined solutions more than uniting, more than strengthening, separate and create difficulties to the definition of a common action at the level of struggle.
Bypassing stages, forcing solutions, hiding or under levelling ideological and historical differences can result in harm, leading to the weakening of all progressive and communist forces and losing real chances of reaffirmation at the world level of the possibility and need of building a real alternative to the system.
Comrades,
More than a decade after the defeats of socialism in the East and realizing the ripening of the material conditions for the strengthening of the anti-imperialist struggle, it is imperative to relaunch the central idea of socialism as an alternative to capitalism. It is necessary to impress upon the new generations, who did not witnessed the experiences of building socialism, the real possibility of building a new society. We believe it is fundamental to do it, associating our ideological offensive to the struggles we are carrying out. The affirmation of socialism as an alternative, a path to be followed, is inseparable from the continuation of the struggles for concrete and immediate aims. At the same time that, we have to reject illusions and easy ways out, we should, together, enhance the potentialities of the present situation and the real possibility of, where the contradictions run deeper and where there are strong and influential revolutionary forces, developing, sometimes in surprising ways, revolutionary changes. That is what we have been trying to do, namely in the anti-globalisation movement, and we believe that actions such as those carried out at Mumbai World Social Forum are positive examples of what we can manage to do together.
We believe that these are the fronts and main forms of struggle that can unite and widen the anti-imperialist front, give greater efficaciousness to the struggle and relaunch the revolutionary struggle as a fundamental factor in overcoming capitalism and building a new society.
Without ever forgetting the intransigent defence of those who in our countries put their faith in us to defend their interests and support them, in the small and great struggles.
Without ever forgetting the fundamental duty and role of the working class and of it organisations in the development of wider and stronger movements of solidarity with the peoples that, in every moment, are at the core of class struggle and of resistance to imperialism. It would
be impossible to conceive common actions of international cooperation and of resistance to the aggressiveness of imperialism without paying the needed attention to the vital importance of solidarity with these peoples. In the present days solidarity with the peoples like the Iraqi and Palestinian ones, that are resisting on the ground to the massacres and crimes of imperialism, or with Cuba and Venezuela, among others, that bravely are resisting to the interferences and threats of imperialism, and that, every day, are showing to the world the real possibility of building alternatives, must be a priority on the communists', and other progressist forces, activity.