6th IMCWP, Contribution of Communist Party of Luxembourg

10/8/04 12:45 PM
  • Luxembourg, Communist Party of Luxembourg 6th IMCWP En Europe Communist and workers' parties

Athens Meeting 8-10 October 2004, Contribution of CP of
Luxembourg
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From: SolidNet, Monday, October 18, 2004
mailto:zeiluvol@pt.lu
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International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties on
"Resistance to Imperialist Aggressiveness Fronts of
struggle and Alternatives" organised in Athens, October
8th, 9th and 10th 2004

Contribution by Ali Ruckert, chairman of the CP of
Luxembourg (KPL)

Dear comrades,

for decades the workers in Europe were told convincingly
that capitalism changed its nature. But immediately after
the victory of capitalism in the conflict between the two
systems, capitalism started to reverse the political and
social concessions it had to make for the workers in the
past decades. Today we see, that for the first time since
one century, the younger generation will live not better
but worse than their parents did.

Driven by technical progress and the drive toward boundless
expansion and exploitation, a strengthened transnational
concentration and centralisation of capital took place
within the framework of capitalist globalisation. Supported
by modern means of transport and communication,
transnational corporations and financial groups dictate
production and living conditions. Globalisation is used to
worsen working conditions, to cut the wages of the workers
and dismantle Labour legislation.

With the help of liberalisation and privatisation, capital
acquires enormous properties, which were produced using
public means. Publicly owned companies and services,
education, health and social security are to be subjected
to open competition and the capitalist drive for profit.
Ever greater parts of public life are turned into
commodities, as described by Marx. Not only the labour
power of human beings but the humans themselves and the
very parts of their body, are turned into goods for sale.
One expression of this is also the McDonaldisation of
culture, its increasing uniformity and reduction to the
lowest level.

At the same time criminal activities increase, for example
the traffic of drugs, humans and weapons and connected
with that money laundering and tax evasion, and become one
of the most lucrative sectors of capitalist economy.
Economic and political corruption takes on an ever larger
role.

Even if up to a certain measure there exist parallel
interests of transnational corporations in the biggest
capitalist countries after the disappearance of competition
between two social systems, US-imperialism, as the main
imperialist power, is attempting more and more to ensure
its hegemony by military means during the process of
globalisation, in order to make the development of a
multi-polar world impossible for a long time.

In complete disregard of international law those national
states and political forces, which are considered an
obstacle for the further development of the world market
and the strategic interests of the USA, are attacked
militarily or, often using the pretext of the so called
"war on terror" or the "assault on human rights", are
threatened with an attack and even with the use of atomic
weapons if they don't subordinate themselves. This concerns
both securing energy sources and stocks of raw materials,
which since the collapse of the Soviet Union are again up
for grabs in Central and North Asia, and also the
political, economic and military encirclement of the
People's Republic of China.

Since also the capital of other capitalist countries and
the transnational companies of regional-economic centres of
power, for example of the European union, want to take part
in the decision concerning the allocation and utilisation
of these areas, the competition around an expansion of the
"zones of influence" leads to an aggravation of
inter-imperialist contradictions.

With this development in mind, existing military
apparatuses are being restructured and the European union
wants to create a European intervention army for wars
outside the EU-territory and to write into the "European
Convention" plans for a systematic step-by-step military
build-up. Even the military budget of a small country such
as Luxembourg is being massively increased at present and
will soon reach an amount of 1.2 percent of the gross
domestic product. Meanwhile the military budget of the USA
reached a unprecedented height that had not even registered
in the time of the Cold War.

In contrast to this, expenditures for the protection of the
natural environment and the reduction of the effects of
global warming are being decreased, development aid is in
stagnation, natural resources are plundered and more than
two billion people are excluded from any economic
development with no possibility of obtaining their basic
food requirements and no access to drinking water.

Obviously capitalism is unable to solve its inherent
contradictions. That's why it can't offer a future for
humanity. This capitalistic system cannot be reformed or
improved durably and fundamentally, it must be abolished.

The most decisive force that can bring about social change
in our country and in Europe remains the working class,
independently of the fact that regroupings in its
composition have taken place (and due to the
scientific-technologic revolution and the development of
capitalism will continue to take place). The antagonistic
contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie
still exists and can only be resolved by the overthrow of
capitalism independently of whether the large majority of
the workers today have no or only a slightly developed
class consciousness.

Therefore, we communists must focus on the work within the
trade unions. We must, however, not lose sight of the
overall interest of the movement. With open-mindedness and
patience we need to promote the unity of action of the
various organisations of the working class; we must
introduce the class struggle into social debates and
discuss the social alternatives with the workers.

We communists must pay special attention to those
political, social and cultural initiatives and emancipation
movements, which point out obvious contradictions in
selective areas of existing society and which campaign for
progressive changes. In this context I am thinking in
particular of the peace and environmental movements and the
movement against capitalist globalisation.

During recent years the economic, social and political
contradictions have sharpened dramatically. War has again
become the "normality" of the capitalist mode. Moreover,
the natural environment of the human race is being
threatened. Obviously, fundamental reforms in the interest
of the vast majority of mankind can only be brought about,
if the existing conditions are called into question
altogether.

This means that it is necessary first, to fight and curtail
the power of the current main enemy of mankind,
US-imperialism, which serves as the main support for
Zionism and the transnational corporations. Only then will
it be possible to undertake further fundamental democratic
transformations to overcome the existing structures of
capitalist ownership and to enable a new approach in the
direction of socialism.

The Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL) recognises the need
for an intensified and organised international cooperation
of the communist parties. This is a precondition for the
development of international cooperation of all left
parties and movements.

This conference gives us the possibility of getting an idea
of how the individual communist parties assess the
international situation, the development of capitalism and
its imperialist ambitions. It also gives us an idea of how
they approach the question of international cooperation
between communist parties. A European left wing party,
which has to submit to the principles of the existing
capitalist Europe and its various institutions in order to
recieve financial and other support, cannot be an
acceptable foundation for far reaching co-operation between
communist parties, especially if they aim at bringing about
fundamental social change in Europe.

It is obvious that a significant number of parties consider
the current level of co-operation between communist parties
as rather unsatisfactory and they see a more comprehensive
collaboration as absolutely necessary.

Regardless of our very modest possibilities, which set
narrow limits for our work at the international level, the
KPL would welcome the creation of structures, which would
facilitate a more regular and concrete co-operation.