I bring to the CPG and to all of you, dear friends from many other parties, warm fraternal greetings in the name of the IU, the United Left of Spain, which represents the unified synthesis of the various components of the consistent Spanish Left. Today the IU constitutes the third political power in the country.
I remember May of 1968, that marvellous French social movement which rocked the foundations of the system then and at the same time raised many issues among the revolutionary forces all over the world.
Since then, the political scene has changed greatly throughout the world. The correlation of forces on a global level has altered profoundly; today it is completely different.
And here we are today, 30 years later, in May of 1998. The revolutionary thrust and will that inspired and has symbolised the Manifesto of the Communist Party for the past 150 years remains intact, present and active.
With respect to current events, the amazing popular uprising unfolding today in Indonesia is a very characteristic example.
Up until recently, various theories could be heard boasting about the achievements of the system and its growth, which was due to the "Tigers of the Pacific" model. Meanwhile, this terrible monetary crisis broke out with violent social repercussions. This is an internal break, the social rejection of one type of economy: the American model, the model without rights, cruel and destructive.
Indonesia presents a picture today, better than a thousand speeches, of the real face of capitalism in its present stage of imperialist globalisation; it proves at the same time the power and validity of the ideals of humanism and emancipation which constitute the substance, the very nature, of the Manifesto of the Communist Party. These ideals permeate and define the history and progress of the glorious CPG, the 80th anniversary of whose founding we are celebrating today, and to which I would like to pay homage.
The surrealist Dantean spectacle offered to us by the employees and officials of the IMF and the western Ambassadors in Jakarta, and above all by the Embassy of the USA, is highly revealing, as well as infuriating. They are abandoning the entire country, like rats leaving a sinking ship, having first set fire to it themselves. This imperialism and the powers that serve and obey it are the real organisers and perpetrators of crimes against humanity and huge offensives against the most elementary human rights. Indonesia today bears witness to this.
A few days ago, the great Portuguese intellectual Jose Saramago asked himself publicly: Who rules this globalized world? Is it, I wonder, governments, the democratic institutions which have ensued from the will and sovereignty of the people, or perhaps it is super-liberal financial capitalism, as well as the networks of organised crime that capitalism itself concocts and establishes? The answer to this critical question is indisputable.
The socialist and communist ideal was born and flourished along three major lines:
To deal with exploitation, injustice and oppression and to
fight against these scourges.
To rationalise and harmonise relations between people based
on liberty, democracy and equality.
To disseminate among people the concepts of common
ownership, collectivity, solidarity and brotherhood, so that we may all have them.
Today these are more valid than ever before.
What is happening in Europe today, for example? Our peoples find themselves trapped between two steel claws:
The first is the single currency, the central European bank and the "stability" agreement. This is a monstrosity which will create even more unemployment and imbalances; more people will be excluded and marginalised; there will be more downsizings and restructurings by means of galloping privatisations in the public sector and in all social services. Instead of representing innovation, this single currency represents a terrible regression.
The second claw is the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI). Through it the notion is instituted of money as king, the absolute, arrogant and indisputable kingdom of the money markets. MAI represents an unprecedented attack on national sovereignty, freedom and democracy. Within the framework of the global economic war which is being constantly stirred up, it is these money markets and their currencies (dollars, Euro, yen, etc.) that dictate their will to Europe and the whole world.
This total globalisation, the single currency, and MAI: these are the real enemies of our peoples.
As Victor Hugo said: "High up there is the world that moves: down here it is the world on which we move and we are standing on it."
The peoples are shouting threateningly: new social uprisings are on the move and we can feel the wrath being aroused almost everywhere, in Latin America, in Pacific Asia (and in what a way!), in Africa and in the Near East, as well as in Europe.
I remember a phrase spoken by Fausto Bertinoti, General Secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party of Italy at the International Meeting in Lisbon in May 1997: "Yes, the winds may change direction in Europe."
Yes, this is what it’s all about. Today the responsibility lies with all of us, the Left, anti-capitalist, revolutionary forces.
Let us make it a reality through the broadest most active co-operation, solidarity and unity, in every region of the world, and between all regions in the world.
In this region, in Europe, we would like to share our struggles, our experiences, our analyses, and our plans in a steadfast and regular way with the uniting organisations of the militant Left in other regions of the world. We are agreeable and favourable to any dialogue, to any multilateral co-operation and co-ordination that we deem to be stable, regular, flexible and effective; i.e. which are neither bureaucratic, nor centralised, nor closed within themselves. And above all, a co-operation which should be based on the logic of a unifying approach, and would respect the existing multiformity within the militant Left.
Here in Europe we are facing enormous challenges. Within the framework of the acute intensification of intra-capitalist and Trans-Atlantic antagonisms, competition and contradictions (both within the ranks of the EU in its Maastricht-Amsterdam version, and between the EU and the US), today’s neo-liberal, monetarist, militarised, NATOised and aggressive Europe represents a crucial piece, a central structural link in the global financial war. In this war, Europe is a battlefield of primary importance.
In this context, a major political fact is becoming increasingly visible: the corruption, the prostitution of freedoms and of democracy. The democratic issue is at the heart of problems and struggles. It represents more than ever before the key to our revolutionary strategy, to social change. The democratic issue is the real Achilles’ heel, the true weak point of modern capitalism.
For this reason, Europe is thus becoming the weak and vulnerable link in the imperialist chain. And it is precisely on the basis of this Europe that suffers attacks and humiliations, on the basis of increased social conflicts and its popular struggles, on the basis of its profound cultural, humanistic and revolutionary traditions, on the basis of the dignity and sovereignty of its peoples, and certainly on the basis of the increased convergence and unity of the European militant political forces and their resoluteness and desire to unite together as broadly as possible, that we will be able to reverse the prevailing tendencies, and we will be able to act effectively to make the winds change direction on our continent.
Against the political and ideological domination of uniform total thought we must build and put forward common internationalist thought. We are working on this task and have made encouraging progress: The International Conference in Paris in May of 1996, the first Summit Meeting of the European Anti-capitalist Left in Madrid in June 1996, the International Conference in Lisbon in May 1997, the International Conference in Amsterdam in June 1997, the second Summit Meeting and Conference in Madrid in June 1997. After all these meetings which made a dynamic contribution to opening up new prospects and offered many hopes, giving a new dimension and thrust to our work, we will meet again soon, on 5 and 6 June in Berlin, for the third Summit Meeting, at which more than 20 Western European political organisations of the Left will participate at a high level. We would like to step up our work regarding discussions, proposals, elaboration and action.
Dear comrades, we are today at a crucial point where we must grasp the meaning of history, its stages and pace in an intelligent way. And we must do this without complexes, with political courage and boldness. And with even greater far-sightedness. We must build a stragedy which will place us in better conditions to fight and defend the interests of the workers and our peoples and which, on this basis, will be capable of introducing what I would call "elements of breaking" with the system. For example, to be more specific, the winning of the 35-hour week objectively represents a point, a process of breaking with the logic of Maastricht and of super-liberal globalisation.
In this unifying strategy, we should conclude with the following:
Working out a discourse, a common anti-capitalist political platform, fundamentally democratic and for the people.
This will happen in a dialectical relationship with the social movement and popular struggles, without any effort to guide it and on the basis of full autonomy for the various social and political factors.
Determination of the necessary political alliances, with the prospect of building a stable, structured and flexible political formation for all of the European militant Left from the Atlantic to the Urals.
We should approach this task with vigour, without restricting prejudices. But we must fight against right-wing, opportunist and revisionist tendencies. We must combat the intervention and interference of certain sectors of social democracy in our affairs, which are disguised as "centre-right social liberalism", in the best possible case. We must also avoid and fight against overly radical verbalism, irresponsible and self-destructive adventures; we must oppose dynamically the sterile and disappointing position of "all or nothing". And regarding the revisionist right-wing drain and sectaristic dogmatic falling back, they are completely foreign to us.
Yes, we want to build together the alternative solution against the neo-liberalism of Europe. And this is why we want to speak in Berlin. We want to build the necessary point of reference of the European anti-capitalist Left together and in a serious way. Our peoples, the mobilisations and struggles of which they are the soul, need this dramatically. We can and must do it.
Thank you, dear comrades, for your attention. May I wish all of you success in your proceedings.