Since the beginning of this last decade of the 20^th century, and with the change in the world balance of forces in favor of capitalism, following the triumph of counter-revolution in the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe, the major challenge facing the communist movement is to confront the expansion and destructiveness of imperialism which is taking place under the so-called «globalization» in recent years. Globalization is not a new thing, but rather a ripe fruit of the development of capitalism and efforts to perpetuate its system.

Marx and Engels exposed in the Communist Manifesto since the middle of the 19^th century the inherent expansionist character of capitalism. Lenin also revealed, in the beginning of the 20^th century, that this nature is reaffirmed in the monopoly stage of capitalism and its parasitic character. These are facts which are confirmed by the present reality.

Despite the fact that multi-national monopolies have managed in recent decades to accumulate in their hands a big proportion of the fruits of the world economic and social process, by using the results of scientific and technological revolution, capitalism has, however, witnessed since about 1970, as a result of its structural defect, the beginning of the end of the economic boom which had followed the Second World War. That war had contributed to a great extent to overcoming the effects of the 1930s recession. A long period of stagnation then began, but it was no longer certain, under the world balance of forces resulting from the presence of the Soviet Union, that another world war would take place to boost once again the capitalist economy.

The Soviet Union and the historic struggles of the working class and the national liberation movement impeded the domination of capitalism over the world for more than four decades. This led to deepening the sharp contradiction between labor and capital, and the exacerbation of the crisis of capitalism. It dealt with this situation by resorting to the so-called «new international division of labor», the essence of which lies in its attempt to usurp «a new historic surplus value» with which it can face its crisis.

Capitalism realized that getting «a new historic surplus value» is achieved by means of wild neo-liberalism; i.e. the return to the criminal and brutal methods of plunder and exploitation which accompanied the discoveries of new lands, mercantile capitalism and the first industrial revolution. In other words, the return to an objective tendency in the essence of capitalism since its first beginnings, «the tendency to commoditize everything», the intensification of exploitation to the utmost through the supremacy of the market, and the shaping of a world which is characterized with the movement of capital and products, enforcing the supremacy of the market’s role and nullifying the role of politics.

Thus, the policies of «restructuring» emerged, which aim at reducing costs and burdens for capital, and restoring domination over workers through the so-called «flexibility in the labor market», which has resulted in mass expulsion of workers and cutting the labor force. An enormously big reserve army of unemployed workers emerged as a result of transferring many industries from capitalist centers to Third World countries.

These policies led to catastrophic ruin in Third World countries, which were forced to accept the programmes of «structural adjustment» to get loans from international financial institutions, and to the exacerbation of their economic and social crisis, and deepening class inequality in these countries.

Capitalist globalization and the global concentration of capital, in both the North and the South, has undermined the coherence of societies and exacerbated inequality everywhere, wherever it increased its domination over markets.

In spite of all enormous potentials of the scientific and technological revolution, they are not directed towards serving humanity, developing productivity and achieving abundance. They are rather being directed towards specific fields, especially developing weapons, as well as communications and information, to serve finance markets and commercial activities; thus increasing the parasitic character of capitalism. In this respect, the most modest estimates indicate that finance economy has become five times greater than the material economy.

As a result of the exacerbation of the parasitic nature of capitalism, the Mafia has penetrated sectors of the world economy and spread corruption, with the help of political authorities and multi-national monopolies. Legitimate economic activity intertwine with illegitimate economic activity, resulting in a change in the structure of capitalism. The size of business operations by the Mafia exceeds, according to some estimates, the size of business operations of the first 500 super companies as listed by the American journal «Fortune».

Capitalism strives to curtail political, economic and social rights of the masses. Meanwhile, armed conflicts proliferate, and the destruction of the environment is getting worse. Poverty and hunger are spreading, affecting hundreds of millions of people.

In the final analysis, the domination of monopoly finance capital has resulted in inflicting enormous damages on the working class in developed capitalist countries and on Third World peoples alike. The generation, extraction and distribution of surplus value has become an international process. This is what gives more than ever before a legitimacy and potential for revolution, and stresses the urgency of the historic role of the working class and their vanguard, the communist parties. This is so because capitalist domination has not, and will not be able to resolve, bypass, or blunt the objective contradiction between labor and capital. The whole of humanity is living through a decisive crossroads.

But capitalism will not fall of its own accord. A decisive struggle must be waged against it, and revolutionary action must be escalated to achieve this objective.

We must pay attention to the fact that imposing capitalist domination over the world takes place hand in hand with a large-scale ideological offensive against Marxism-Leninism. Enormous publicity and financial resources are allocated for this purpose, with the aim of establishing liberalism ideology as an alternative for revolutionary thought, and directing the attention of the masses towards marginal and secondary issues which are distant from the principal issues of struggle.

We must also be aware of the big and dangerous role of the world Zionist movement, which is regarded a principal contingent in world monopoly capital. It is also a racist and fiercely reactionary and anti-Communist movement. Recent years have shown that the Zionist danger is not directed against Arabs only, but is a danger which extends everywhere.

In the Arab region, the onslaught of world monopoly capital against Arab peoples is intensifying. Israel, the world Zionist movement and the US are undertaking the task of subjugating our Arab peoples, exhausting the tremendous wealth in the area, and using all aggressive means: military force - occupying Arab territories - imposing sanctions - the Israeli Turkish alliance - nuclear blackmail. Schemes for domination: the Middle Eastern market or the Mediterranean market, are put forward by each of the US, Western Europe and Israel. These schemes give Israel, as a racial, colonialist and fascist entity, a distinguished and dominant position in the area. The strategic American-Israeli alliance, and also the Turkish-Israeli alliance, are used as means of pressure on the Arab peoples in order to achieve domination over them.

The policies of development and structural adjustment have been imposed in Egypt. The Egyptian economy is being privatized at an extremely high pace, with privatization extending to public utilities, including those owned by the state for more than 100 years. These policies have resulted in a total economic, social and political crisis; with large-scale unemployment, sharp class inequality, abolishing the social gains of working class, peasants and all poor people, and reducing the available margin of political liberalism. One single indicator is sufficient to help visualize the situation. Although some reports say there are about 250,000 millionaires, 64% of the rural population and 49% of the urban population live under the line of poverty; including 23% who live in absolute poverty, i.e. a quarter of the population.

These policies have resulted in an extensive system of contradictions which require building broad alliances in order to resolve them, as well as relentless, difficult and extremely complex work, due to the interconnection and dialectical interaction of patriotic, class, national and democratic tasks. This is what has dictated considering democracy as the main link in our struggle.

In view of the complex conditions facing communism in the current stage, which has been a product of accelerated capitalist domination in today’s world, this reality confronts communist parties with extremely difficult and enormous challenges and tasks. Communists and the world working class, however, are the ones entrusted with saving our world and the whole humanity from the painful fate to which capitalism is leading them.

Dear Comrades,

In addition to the above mentioned tasks, there are some tasks which we outline as follows:

To continue work for reviving and building the communist international, and to determine its strategy and tactics which is appropriate for the current situation; on the condition that internationalist relations be established on equal and democratic basis.

To carry out the proposal put forward by the Communist Party of Greece with respect to the Information Center and the bulletin (the Journal). This has already been approved at the meeting held in Leningrad in November 1997.

To confront the ideological penetration conducted by imperialism to implant liberal ideology among communists and the working class, and to expose the methods used in this endeavor. In this respect, Marxism-Leninism must be reinstated on the widest scale, resisting the offensive unleashed against it by the class enemy and revisionist forces. And to put forward the concepts of class struggle, revolution, workers democracy, socialism and communism which are facing attempts to eradicate and distort them in many countries. In addition, to resist the influence of liberal ideology on many communists.

To study the new conditions in the world and our countries, to collaborate in dealing with them, and to propagate new experiences.

To specify issues for coordination and work on regional levels.

To display vigilance and alertness in the face of the danger posed by the world Zionist movement which is hostile to communism and liberation. And to resist Zionist and imperialist penetration, and expose its mechanisms and methods.

To declare our solidarity with:

Cuba: against the American blockade; and to salute its steadfastness.
Democratic Korea: against the American blockade; and to salute its steadfastness.
Union of Communist Parties: (the Soviet Communist Party).
Syria and Lebanon: and against the Israeli occupation of the territories.
Iraq: in confronting the dictatorship and the blockade imposed on the Iraqi people.
Libya: in confronting the American blockade.
Bahrain: in confronting the authoritarian reactionary regime.

Thank you.