Intervention of the Jordanian Communist Party by Hohamad R. Shukair

Dear comrades,

I would like to extend our greetings, thanks and appreciation to the Communist Party of Greece and its leadership for organizing this internationalist meeting aimed at generalizing and exchanging experiences of the fraternal Communist and working-class parties in the present circumstances as well as revitalizing and rejuvenating Marxist thought and those basic concepts which are still valid.

To start with, since it was proclaimed and published 150 years ago, the Communist Manifesto has not been so much a statement or programme adopted by a Communist Party as a beacon guiding all working people, revolutionaries and progressives of the world. Its main ideas that the history of society, up to the present, has been that of class struggle is yet to be disputed. Marxist philosophy, dialectical materialism and historical materialism, has armed militants with mighty tools of knowledge. The theory of surplus values is still the corner-stone in Marxist economic theory.

As far as we concerned in Jordan, the Jordanian Communist Party was founded in 1950 by unity of Marxist cells in Trans-Jordan, mainly made up of Marxist intellectuals who received their education abroad, where they had become acquainted with Marxism, and the Palestinian National Liberation League comprising Communist and progressive Arabs in Palestine. The two merged in the wake of the 1948 war resulting in the tragic displacement of the Palestinian people, denying them their own national state and the establishment of the state of Israel.

The Communists continued their struggle in Jordan adopting their first programme which focused on the fight for completing the national independence of Jordan, driving the British out of the country, revoking the Jordanian-British treaty, equal rights to women, an 8-hour working day, settlement of the nomad Bedouins and democratic freedoms. Jordan at the time had only rudimentary industries and a small working class in numerical strength employed essentially in small and scattered workshops. The other major plank in this programme was the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and statehood.

The Jordanian Communists had to wage their struggle in the face of an extremely repressive policy. Thousands of Communists, their friends and other patriots had been imprisoned. Scores of militants died in the struggle and under torture. Nevertheless, the Communist Party stood its grounds upholding the banner of Communism to the present day. It has surmounted considerable objective as well as subjective obstacles and difficulties along the way.

In the early nineties, following the dramatic collapse precipitated by the demise of the Soviet Union and Communism in Eastern Europe, groups had left the party, some announcing their retirement from politics and others launching other parties that have emphatically renounced Marxism-Leninism and dissociated themselves from everything related to Communism, both present and past. In their policies and positions they are more akin to nationalist and liberal movements.

The Jordanian Communist Party had wrested its right to legality in early 1993. Its first legal congress was held in April 1993 and its second in December 1997.

The second congress adopted the party platform as an alternative to that of the ruling coalition. Its programme defined party membership as commitment to the interests of the workers, peasants and all physical and intellectual working people. In the field of analysis and thinking it bases itself on Marxist dialectics. The sources of its thought, above all, Marxism-Leninism, are a guide for action rather than dogmas.

Our programme deals with the inherent contradictions of world capitalism and its economic and social crises that triggered the widest strikes and social struggles seen in the post-war period.

The programme views globalization as a higher level of internationalization of political, economic and cultural relations as well as profound inter-connections on a world scale. The globalization in question today, however, is marked by advanced internationalization and intertwining on the one hand, and building up this level of internationalization into a hierarchy of international economic, political and cultural relations dominated by a specific power on the other.

The programme concludes that globalization of economic life is an objective phenomenon linked to the development of science, technology and the productive forces. But the forms elaborated by the monopolistic metropolis are an attempt to turn the fruit of this development into profits pocketed by these very metropolis which seek a predominant position in the world economy and politics. All people of the planet, therefore, have an interest in scientific and technological development provided that it is to the benefit of mankind as a whole rather than an elite. To face up to globalization is to resist the monopolies’ dictates without being isolated from the rest of the world but with involvement in the peoples’ broad front.

Dear comrades,

The Arab region is living through a highly critical and complex period. Disunity reached a peak during the Gulf crisis and subsequent war. All attempts to restore unity have been unsuccessful. We need not go into details of the situation since the Madrid conference, which served as the basis for political settlement in the Middle East, and the attitude of Arab states or people towards this settlement. But the Wadi Araba peace agreement signed by Jordan with Israel in 1994 has been met with overwhelming popular rejection. The agreement has failed to satisfy the Jordanian people’s demands as to their occupied territories and plundered water recourses. Strings are attached that may turn Jordan into a bridge for Israeli penetration into all other Arab countries. Stiff resistance is being put up against normalization with Israel, a policy pursued by the Jordanian monarchy which has made normalization a major issue.

The agreement has provided for increased US influence and domination, not only in Jordan but in other Arab countries as well. Our immediate task is to fight against dependency and break out of the US orbit.

Our country is the scene of social tension and political turmoil which has further worsened since the peace agreement was signed with Israel. Unemployment has risen to 27% of the labour force. Liberalization and the end of subsidies on certain staple commodities has resulted in price increases that sparked off in 1996 what has become known as the «bread uprising». Real wages have remained stagnant. The Jordanian government continues to comply with the conditions and recipes made by such international institutions as the IMF and the World Bank.

Although there has been a measure of political relaxation and restrictions have been eased since the state of martial law was terminated in 1989, the struggle goes on between the line of democratic freedoms which the popular movement stands for, and that of repression which the forces opposed to democracy try to enforce sparing no effort to use executive, legislative and judiciary powers in order to legitimize such an anti-democratic policy.

As the struggle continues on all fronts, the Jordanian Communist Party has characterized the stage Jordan is passing through as one of national democratic development whose tasks overlap with others, some of which belong to the national liberation stage. The party is for the broadest national front at home to find a national solution to the social and economic situation and a democratic solution to the political situation. Efforts should also be stepped up for all-Arab integration and solidarity.

The Jordanian Communist Party is aware that the conditions created by globalization and the forces behind it are highly conducive to building up an internationalist front against world capitalism and neo-liberalism. The many propositions laid down in the Communist Manifesto 150 years ago may be best manifested by such an initiative.

We are aware that it is more necessary than ever for mankind to be guided by the notions and propositions of the Communist Manifesto. We are equally aware that our country and the Arab national liberation movement and the world liberation movement have what it takes to unite their ranks for the common aims and objectives emphasized by the Manifesto.