Dear comrades,

The Communist Party of Sweden sends fraternal greetings to the 24th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, along with our most heartfelt greetings of solidarity to the people of Cuba. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the United States’ continued aggression and threats against Cuba, noting in particular the brutal effects of the energy blockade imposed in January of this year.

We demand an end to the criminal and inhumane embargo which the United States has enforced since 1962, in an attempt to strangle an entire people who have bravely fought to be the masters of their own fate. Through the success of the Cuban Revolution the people of Cuba achieved great advancements in fields such as education and medicine, and in an exemplary demonstration of international solidarity shared their achievements with the peoples of the world. Not only has Cuba sent medical personnel around the world to help wherever there has been need, but the country has also provided important material support to anti-colonial and independence struggles around the world.

The success of the Cuban Revolution, both in transforming Cuban society and through its exemplary international solidarity, has been a thorn in the side of imperialism, above all US imperialism. However, Cuba poses no threat to the people of the United States, but rather showed them an alternative to the plunder, inequality and exploitation of capitalism. To the US bourgeoisie this is the provocation, the establishment of a society that places human needs before market profits in what the US ruling class has long regarded as its own backyard.

That the United States has intensified its efforts to crush the proud people of Cuba and their revolution at this particular moment is no coincidence. The façade of international law and the so-called "rules-based international order" has crumbled as the sharpening of contradictions within the imperialist system accelerates. During the last few years we have witnessed an intensification of the struggle between rival capitalist blocs for markets, resources and strategic position.This is not an accidental feature of imperialism but one of its defining characteristics as the highest stage of capitalism. Capital is compelled to expand, and when expansion can no longer proceed peacefully, it is increasingly pursued through coercion, militarization and war.

We therefore reject explanations that identify imperialism exclusively with one state, one military alliance or one geopolitical bloc. Such analyses abandon the Leninist theory of imperialism. Imperialism is not the monopoly of the Atlantic powers, nor does opposition to one imperialist bloc automatically constitute an anti-imperialist position. The emergence of new centers of capitalist power and new alignments between capitalist states does not represent a break with imperialism, but rather a new expression of its contradictions and its struggle for the redivision of the world.

Any so-called “anti-imperialism” which is not based in class struggle and socialism-communism has no hope of breaking the chain of imperialism and its endless wars. The only alternative to capitalism is socialism-communism and it is only through revolutionary class struggle, based in the theories of Marxism-Leninism, that this alternative can be brought about.

With wars raging across the world, the danger of regional conflicts broadening and even escalating into a general war is considerable. This danger is particularly acute in relation to the wars in Ukraine and against Iran, where the overlap of alliances, strategic interests and international involvement greatly increases the risk of further escalation. Nor can we fail to mention the genocidal war waged by Israel against the people of Gaza, the intensifying violence in the occupied West Bank, and the invasion and occupation of parts of Lebanon.

The historic tasks of communists have always been urgent, and they are no less urgent today. We must strengthen our revolutionary organization, build our cadres, raise class consciousness among the working people, and lead the struggle against imperialism to its only possible conclusion: the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism-communism.

Long live the Cuban Revolution!
Long live Palestine!
Long live Socialism-Communism!