Thursday, October 11, 2012

Strengthening the class struggle in Europe






By New Worker correspondent

DELEGATIONS from European communist and workers’ parties met in Brussels at the beginning of October to discuss the building of common communist stance towards the bourgeois offensive during the current slump and to develop struggle for the overthrow of capitalism. Representatives of 36 parties, including the New Communist Party of Britain, took part in the conference held in the European Parliament in the Belgian capital on 1st and 2nd of October.
The conference was opened by Aleka Papariga, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), who said that communists had to struggle to halt the attacks on the living standards of working people and chart the way forward for socialist advance. She warned of the danger of imperialist war pointing out that history had proved that when the capitalist states cannot manage the crisis and, above all the consequences, they resort to the use of arms. This was not, as the peaceniks and pacifists claim, to sell weapons but specifically because force is more effective for the redistribution of the markets in times of economic crisis.
NCP general secretary Andy Brooks represented the NCP at the conference and in his intervention he stressed the party’s support to all those struggling against imperialism and against the European Union.  The NCP leader called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan and an end to the occupation of all countries by the imperialist powers.
He also called for support for Iran’s legitimate atomic energy research programme and called for solidarity with the Syrian government and the Syrian communist movements that are working for genuine reform that preserves Syria’s independence and social system.
            The contributions and discussion largely revolved around the fight against the austerity programmes that have impoverished millions throughout Europe, the need to withdraw from the European Union and the struggle for peace. The common ground of all the parties was reflected by the unanimous adoption of four resolutions at the end of the final session. Two condemned the anti-communist campaign raging through parts of the European Union and imperialist attempts to legalise the secession of Kosovo. Another was “for the strengthening of the class struggle in Europe” while the fourth – “No to the imperialist war!” – denounced the intervention of the imperialists in the internal affairs of Syria and stressed that the solution to Syria’s problems was a matter entirely for its own people.