The majority of the European Parliament approved today, with favourable votes by the [Portuguese Parties] PS, PSD, CDS and PAN, a serious and abject resolution, which constitutes a deplorable part of the European Union’s strategy of historic revisionism.
The text now approved promotes the most reactionary conceptions and falsifications of modern History, in a deplorable attempt to equate fascism and communism, minimizing and justifying the crimes of nazi-fascism and silencing the collusive responsibilities of the great capitalist powers — like the United Kingdom and France — who paved the way to the beginning of World War II in the hope of pushing the nazi hordes upon the USSR, as would come to happen with immense human and material costs for the Soviet Union, on a level incomparable to any other country.
Centring this shameless equivalence upon the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, disregarding its historical context, the resolution adopted by the majority of the EP omits how the great capitalist powers tolerated, colluded and aligned with the ascent of fascism in several European countries, motivated by the battle against the communist ideal and the enormous economic and social achievements of the workers and peoples of the USSR, which encouraged the struggle and aspirations of workers and peoples throughout Europe.
This would explain the intentional absence of any references, in this resolution adopted by the majority of the EP, to the Quadripartite Agreement, of July 15th 1933, signed by the United Kingdom, France, German and Italy, that opened the door to Germany’s rearmament; or Hitler’s and Mussolini’s support of Franco and the fascist coup that led to the Spanish Civil War, whose fascist government would be recognized by France and the United Kingdom in February of 1939; or the Munich Conference, resulting in an Agreement, signed on September 30th 1938 by Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, dismembering Czechoslovakia’s territory, occupied by the nazi army, with parts of its territory occupied by Poland and Hungary. Or the French and British government’s sabotage of efforts to negotiate mutual assistance with the USSR, stopping a second world war, encouraged by their expectation of a German-Soviet conflict.
The resolution adopted by the EP majority not only erases the collusion of big German monopolies with Hitler, but also seeks to erase the decisive contribution of communists and the Soviet Union towards defeating nazi-fascim and freeing peoples from the colonial yoke after world war two. A resolution that also aims to silence the role of communists towards the freedom of peoples from fascist oppression, as in Portugal, or the role that played and play in advancing democratic rights, the political, economic, social and cultural rights of workers and peoples.
This resolution also entails another element whose gravity cannot be ignored: it aims to pave the way towards an intensified and generalized persecution and prohibition of communist parties, and by extension other progressive forces and trade unions, as occurs, with the European Union and NATO’s complicity, in several member-States — such as Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia or Poland, among others —, where together with the rehabilitation and historic praise of fascism and the glorification of nazi-fascist collaborators, monuments to the anti-fascist resistance are destroyed, including to the Red Army, promotion of xenophobia and racism, and promotion of fascistic forces.
This historic revisionism repeats previous EU positions. The EU aims to give the world lessons on “democracy” and “human rights”, but promotes civilizational setbacks, attacking social and labour rights, national sovereignty and democracy. The EU is in the service of big capital and great powers, and develops repressive (and militaristic) trends and practices of limiting fundamental rights and liberties. Policies that, as in the past, are at the root of upsurge of extreme-right and fascistic forces.
The PCP members of the European Parliament denounce this grave attempt of falsifying history and anti-communist action, which in its essence is also anti-democratic — an action that relied on the support of PS, PSD, CDS and PAN — and reaffirm they will not allow the absolution of fascism and the criminalization of the communist ideal and project.
