Dear comrades,

Allow me first to thank the leadership of the fraternal Greek Communist Party for organizing this important forum on the world revolutionary movement today and its future development in the struggle against world capitalism for victory of the Marxist-Leninist principles by establishing a society of social justice and socialism towards Communism.

We avail ourselves of this opportunity to extend greetings from the Syrian Communists to the Greek Communists, their comrades in the hard struggle for our principles, on the 80^th anniversary of the Greek Communist Party.

Over 80 years of their party’s life the Greek Communists have written glorious chapters in the national history of modern Greece and the history of the world Communist movement. In the course of their struggle they have demonstrated that the principles of proletarian internationalism are also the principles of true patriotism. In all circumstances they have always been able to pursue a policy expressing the real interests of workers, peasants, intellectuals and small traders in their country. In other words, theirs has always been a policy meeting the interests of the great majority and subsequently the higher national interests. We highly appreciate the principled and realistic character of the motto adopted by the 15^th Congress of the Greek Communist Party for a worldwide as well as a national anti-imperialist front.

Dear comrades,

Since the seventies the Syrian Communists have been cooperating within the Progressive National Front - PNF - with the ruling Baath Socialist Party and other national forces. The common cause uniting these forces in the PNF is a principled patriotic position against the aggressive expansionist schemes engineered by US imperialism and Zionist Israel.

Our party fully supports the principled Syrian position expressed by President Hafidh Al-Asad, Chairman of the Progressive National Front, that there can be no comprehensive peace in our region without the complete withdrawal of the Israeli forces from all occupied Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan heights and South Lebanon, and ensuring the just rights of the Palestinian people by establishing an independent Palestinian state.

While consistently striving to strengthen alliance with the Baath Socialist Party and other national forces the Syrian Communist Party maintains its independence as a Marxist-Leninist party invariably proceeding from a class position. Its final objective is victory of socialism in the country and throughout the world. The essence of its policy is to always uphold the interests of the working class and all working people.

These are the three pillars of the party’s policy: cooperation with all patriotic and progressive forces, preserving the independent character of the party in theoretical and major policy issues and unflinching struggle for the interests of the working people. This policy which serves as a guide for the Syrian Communists, is met by the working people in Syria with understanding and sympathy. It is also a key component of national unity in the face of imperialist and Zionist plans.

Dear comrades,

The situation of the world working-class movement has undoubtedly been difficult since the collapse of the Soviet Union under world imperialist and Zionist pressure. It may be compared to the situation the movement found itself in during the First World War. Many working-class parties at a crucial turning in the history of mankind could not cope and have simply disintegrated. Some have changed their names and completely renounced their principles to joint the servants of capital even though under a leftist label. These parties are essentially not different from the social democratic parties that had emerged following the collapse of the Second International as a faithful servant of capital and a conduit to compromise within the working class.

The other camp in the working-class movement is the Marxist-Leninist parties, which are firmly fighting for socialism while maintaining their class, patriotic and internationalist character. These parties are aware that the only salvation for mankind is by abolition of capitalism as a system and building a socialist society on the basis of public ownership of the means of production. They also realize that capital is a world power that can only be defeated by international solidarity and alliance between the working people and their revolutionary parties.

Between these two camps, the openly opportunist and the revolutionary, stand the center forces. These have often put up a Communist facade and even adopted a revolutionary terminology mainly because of the strength and influence traditionally enjoyed by the revolutionary movement among the working class in their respective countries. In practice, however, they are closer to the opportunist camp.

Sometimes the center forces are more dangerous than the openly opportunist. They often borrow the language of revolutionaries but carry out the policy of opportunists in the key areas. To the Marxist-Leninists action is what counts rather than good intentions and meaningless rhetoric. And the litmus test is whether this action is directed against imperialism or to its benefit in the final analysis. We hold that the advocates of understanding with the opportunists within a single movement in reality call for understanding with the bourgeois power whether they know it or not.

What is heartening to the working people is that despite the serious setback suffered by the world revolutionary movement with the demise of the socialist system in Eastern and Central Europe, there is a speedy recovery underway as shown by the important gains made by parties of the world revolutionary movement throughout the globe.

It is our view that the struggle against capitalism as a system goes hand in hand with the struggle against opportunism and revisionism within the world working-class movement. We are for a broad-based alliance between diverse forces in the over-all struggle against imperialism and for liberation, democracy and social progress. But we are against assimilation and merger in one melting pot containing different forces in terms of ideology and class orientation. This we believe is harmful to the general struggle because the clearer is the class and ideological identity of the working class party the better it will be able to build stronger and broader alliances, and the more effective will be its contribution to the struggle of mankind as a whole for social progress.

Dear comrades,

It is extremely important that we as Marxist-Leninists should know clearly where the key link is in the worldwide struggle against imperialism. It is just as important that we know where the world revolutionary movement’s center of gravity has shifted. There is no doubt that this center was epitomized by the former Soviet Union, the land of the great October revolution. In the period between 1917-1985, thanks to this center and its assistance, the world revolutionary movement had delivered telling blows to the world imperialist order. World colonialism was eliminated and the working people in many capitalist countries had won significant social and political gains.

Can it be claimed at present that this center is still there, somewhere in the former Soviet Union? Neither objective reality nor the present state of the revolutionary movement in that part of the world supports this claim. By their collective efforts the revolutionary parties should try to identify the center of the world revolutionary movement even thought it is still in its embryonic stage.

Dear comrades,

Recent developments have once again shown the serious danger posed by world Zionism. It has played a major, if not the key role in undermining the socialist system in most countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The Zionist forces and those associated with it continue to play a sinister role in the attempts to break up the world revolutionary movement or divert it off its course.

What makes Zionism all the more dangerous is that it is the theory and practice of Jewish financial capital. Furthermore, it is racist and reactionary. Its main threat is that irrespective of place and shades Zionism represents the interests of Jewish financial capital and the later is a component part of world imperialism, especially US imperialism.

The struggle against Zionism is therefore not only the task of Arab patriots against Israel and Zionism but also of all the forces of freedom, democracy and social justice fighting against world imperialism. The revolutionary parties, especially the communists, should sharpen their vigilance against Zionism and uncompromisingly clean their ranks of elements involved with this obscurantism power. No party or force can preserve its revolutionary spirit and continue on the right path of struggle if it displays the slightest laxity towards the actions of Zionists and their followers.

Dear comrades,

This year we mark the 150^th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. Although a great deal of water has passed under the bridge since then, the essence has remained unchanged. There is irreconcilable antagonism between capital, which is enslaving mankind, and the workers together with all toiling people who represent its future and emancipation. So long as capital maintains its power and domination the Communist Manifesto retains its validity. Its basic ideals and guidelines continue to be a compass to militants in their struggle for a happy society to mankind. The motto raised by Marx and Engels, «Workers of the World Unite!» is our guide and our ideal.

Under this motto the forces of Marxism-Leninism must find effective ways to exchange information and experiences about their struggles, to carry forward their internationalist solidarity and to coordinate their actions against the common enemy for their common goal, which is the triumph of socialism towards Communism.