Intervention of the Iraqi Communist Party by Sami K. Ali

Allow me on behalf of the CC of the Iraqi Communist Party to express our appreciation of this highly important international forum dedicated to the 80^th anniversary of the Greek Communist Party. This event is all the more significant in view of the role shouldered at present by our internationalist movement and its domestic as well as worldwide tasks.

The initiative taken by the Greek Communist Party to organize such gatherings is distinctly commendable. Unity and reinvigoration of the revolutionary forces is imperative in the face of forces hostile to the interests of our peoples and to our democratic humanitarian enterprise.

We are living today through a complex stage in the development of mankind instigated by the demise of the Soviet Union and the socialist community. The enemies of socialism have taken advantage of the ensuing opportunities to unscrupulously engage in mass political and ideological misrepresentation distorting the facts, scorning international solidarity and underrating revolutionary parties that stand for their peoples’ aspirations. The imperialist forces and their ideological machine have exploited the mistakes, short-comings and omissions of previous socialist experiments in the economic, social and political fields to step up their anti-Communist offensive and spawn theories asserting the immortality of socialism and its final victory over socialism and socialist values.

Life, however, is the best of teachers. The past few years have convincingly refuted these theories as sham. A case in point is Eastern Europe and Russia today. The market economy they have espoused has been a bane condemning millions to abject poverty with no relief in sight.

World capitalism is trying to manipulate advance, modern technology and globalization to alleviate the straits it finds itself in. Aware that it cannot shake off its inherent structural crisis, capitalism is trying damage control to thwart its eventual doom. In this context, capitalism continues its drive to exploit and plunder peoples’ resources, create hotbeds of tension and provoke conflict of every variety. This is best evidenced by what is going on in our region.

As much as it is rich in resources and potentials, the Middle East is still riven by bloody conflicts, wars and cataclysmic upheavals. The United States has a vested interest in maintaining the Middle East in perpetual turmoil to keep it under its economic, political and military domination and siphon its human and material resources. In pursuit of these objectives Washington persists in its biased policy of support for Israel and its intransigent, aggressive stance rejecting all peaceful efforts to bring about its withdrawal from the Arab occupied territories as provided by the respective resolutions of international legality.

Dear Comrades,

The tragic plight of the Iraqi people is hardly paralleled in our contemporary world as a consequence of economic embargo and a murderous dictatorship. The 8-year economic embargo imposed on our people has wreaked havoc on all spheres of life. The ordinary Iraqi has been reduced to a state of poverty and poor health unknown before. According to official figures, infant mortality and deaths among women caused by the lack of medicine and malnutrition have assumed alarming proportions. 1,200,000 deaths have been recorded for the period 1990-1997. A staggering 130 billion dollars has been lost in oil revenues.

The very social fabric of Iraq is breaking down with terrifying consequences. The Iraqi people are made to pay for crimes committed by tyrannical rulers who are adamant in their credulous policy and ubiquitous repression. The Iraqi regime heads the list of countries notorious for their human rights abuses. The Iraqi Communist Party has presented petitions listing victims of repression to the competent international bodies. The Saddam Hussein regime remains incorrigible despite its international isolation.

Discussing the situation in the country at its sixth congress held in July, the Iraqi Communist Party has adopted a policy of campaigning for lifting the economic embargo, eradicating dictatorship and building a united, federated democratic Iraq.

From this solemn forum the Iraqi Communist Party appeals to all fraternal parties, peace-loving forces and the international community as a whole for solidarity with the people of Iraq in their plight, for exposing the imperialist, specifically US policy harming Iraq and its people, and for action to relieve the people, but not the dictatorship, of the economic embargo. We also call upon all human rights groups to unmask the regime’s crimes and condemn its repressive practices.

Defying every imaginable form of terrorism, the Iraqi Communist Party is campaigning in the country for unity of the broadest forces to end the people’s plight and build a free democratic Iraq without repression or persecution, where the legitimate national rights of the Kurdish people and all ethnic minorities will be ensured. In 1993 the Communist Party of Kurdistan - Iraq was founded as a conscious response by our party to developments associated with the Kurdish problem.

At its 5^th congress held in 1993 the Iraqi Communist Party adopted political, theoretical and organizational propositions espousing democracy and renewal. The party is aware of the need to eliminate all obstacles to its further advance in keeping with the tasks it has set itself.

Despite the difficulties facing our hard struggle, the Iraqi Communist Party has consistently maintained international contacts with the other fraternal and friendly parties. In accordance with its line, the Iraqi CP energetically upholds the socialist values as a humanitarian, democratic alternative ensuring social justice, freedom, democracy and welfare to all people. The development of the real world and the diversity of life enrich our guiding theory, essentially based on the dialectic concept of evolution. This is our scientific understanding of Marxism; this is our understanding of socialism as a theory, as values, as an ideal and as an alternative to class exploitation, nation oppression and antagonism.

The new challenges pose new questions. For us to make an impact we need to know how to tackle them. The issues in question relate to Western monopoly of the information technology and the crucial role played by the multinationals in marketing cultural and media products, not to mention commodities promoted by the major international advertising companies. Studies show that the multinationals play an increasingly important role in the media and cultural activities as conveyers through which social and cultural values are peddled.

This makes our collective and individual responsibility all the heavier. Great responsibilities are assigned to us for enhancing our role and developing our contribution to enriching our revolutionary experiences and strengthening our movement.

Such fora are today the collective brain that thrives on free exchanges and consultation on various problems of the age without dogmas or ready-made recipes.

Creativity, open-mindedness, unfettered thinking and the renouncement of dogmatism, textualism and nihilism are the way to retrieve our position. One of Marxism’s most outstanding achievements is its development of historical dialectics by working out the important law of plurality in unity and unity in diversity, implying that intellectual production is a continuous process. This is our view as a Communist Party that has been boldly facing up to its own experience with its ups and downs. We still add that as Communist Parties we should meet our peoples’ aspirations and live up to the exacting tasks entrusted to us.

This international gathering coincides with the 150^th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, which sculptured the building blocks of our creative theory and outlined a future enriched and to be enriched by our rigorous and scientifically substantiated contributions.

Marx’s thundering cry in the 1840s has been taken up by of millions and is still reverberating in various forms of heroic struggle for a bright future. It remains a driving force to carry on the fight for justice, freedom, democracy and social progress.

On the basis of our scientific theory which the Manifesto was its first statement, the search continues for a correct reading of the outcome of previous experiences with socialist construction in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The aim is to draw the necessary conclusions from the adverse consequences brought about by the absence of political democracy and by such alien phenomena to our notions and ideals as the personality cult, bureaucracy and denial of the objective action of economic and social laws among other detrimental practices. This will enable our parties to rise and resume their advance guided by socialism as an objective alternative to capitalism and its ills.

This reassessment involves examining the successes achieved by Communist, Socialist and other neo-left Parties in many countries learning sometimes from past experiences and failures while being inspired by present-day realities to elaborate workable programs expressing the real interests of the masses.

We avail ourselves of this opportunity to reiterate our appreciation of such meetings as fora for scientific discussion contributing to in-depth study of various phenomena. We are strongly in favor of such events for closer cooperation and solidarity to keep abreast with developments, utilize the latest achievements of the age in the interests of our cause and cement the theoretical and analytical base of our parties in the present complex circumstances. We are confident that our path is the right one and we have full faith in the justice of our cause.

Once again our thanks and appreciation to the organizers.

Thank you for your attention.