p Dear Comrades,

p The delegation of the Communists of the Lebanon greets the delegations of brother Parties assembled here. We acknowledge the immence effort they have exerted during the past fifteen months. Our delegation particularly appreciates the efforts of the CPSU and HSWP, which have made an important contribution to the political and organisational preparations for this Meeting and have provided the best conditions for its work.

p Comrades, the very fact that this Meeting has been convened is a big advance in uniting the world communist movement. It is a new victory for proletarian internationalism and a new blow at the sinister schemes of our class enemies, who had seriously hoped for the disruption of the unity of our movement and for a split in our ranks. The fruitful work of the Preparatory Committee on the eve of this Meeting reaffirmed the increased cohesion of our movement. It was a victory for the world anti-imperialist front as a whole.

p The period after February 1968, when the Budapest Consultative Meeting was convened, was one of the busiest and most fruitful stages in the world communist movement in recent years. During this period sustained joint effort and .comradely discussion held in a democratic spirit with all the Parties willing to participate yielded important results. Solutions were found to numerous problems which at first had seemed to be insurmountable obstacles. This is evidence of the importance of meetings of brother Parties and the need of such meetings in the future, all the more so since the international developments and the increased aggressiveness of world imperialism are demanding ever more imperatively still greater unity and co-ordinated action on the part of the Communist Parties, the vanguard of the anti-imperialist movement.

p Our collective work has produced the draft Main Document we now have— "Tasks at the Present Stage of the Struggle Against Imperialism and United Action of the Communist and Workers’ Parties and All Anti-Imperialisi Forces"—and the drafts of a number of other documents.

p The comprehensive Marxist-Leninist analysis contained in the draft Main Document reveals the general trends of world development and describes the forces operating in the world. On the strength of this analysis a scientifically 73 valid, objective and realistic assessment is given of the balance of world forces and of the possibilities imperialism still has. While pointing out the increased aggressiveness of imperialism, the draft Document confirms the fact that active in the world today are social and material forces which can curb imperialism provided they are consolidated.

p The increased aggressiveness of imperialism, primarily of US imperialism, expressing itself more obviously in the barbarous war against the people of Vietnam, is due to the deepening general crisis of capitalism and, on the other hand, to the development of the world revolutionary process, to the offensive of the revolutionary forces, which is continuing despite difficulties and certain setbacks. Imperialism realises that the balance of forces is changing to its disadvantage. It realises that the contradiction between the imperialist system and the socialist world system, all the forces of socialism, is the fundamental contradiction of our time. Hence, to maintain or regain its positions, imperialism uses new methods so as to alter the balance of forces step by step, to fight the forces of socialism, liberation and peace. This makes imperialism and its acts of aggression very dangerous. This danger necessitates constant vigilance and combat readiness on the part of all revolutionary forces. New methods of combating the revolutionary movement are being used by imperialism on a world scale. Imperialism’s offensive is spearheaded against the socialist countries, which it is trying to undermine from within, with the aid of the reactionary forces, by reviving the concepts of bourgeois nationalism and by disrupting the unity of the socialist countries. It uses local wars and takes part in them directly, as in Vietnam, or indirectly, as it did in the Middle East in 1967, when it resorted to the aid of its agents in Israel. It organises coups, assassinations and local wars in developing, newly free countries, tries to divide the labour organisations, to undermine and split the Communist Parties. The increased aggressiveness of imperialism is expressive of the intensified class struggle between imperialism and the forces of socialism, liberation and world peace which covers every sphere—economics, politics and ideology.

p The main force in this international class struggle is the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, which contribute to this struggle more than anyone else by their economic and scientific achievements, by building up their defence potential, improving the living and cultural standards of the working people and promoting socialist democracy. This increases the impact of the socialist example on the working people of the world and curbs the forces of aggression. The political role of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries on the world scene and their material assistance to the liberation struggle and to the working people’s fight constitute the principal factor in extending and carrying forward the world-wide struggle against imperialism. Thanks to this assistance, the US imperialists’ attempt to subjugate the people of Vietnam has failed. The heroic fight of this courageous people forced the biggest and most dangerous imperialist state to begin the Paris talks.

p It follows that the struggle to strengthen and foster the unity of the socialist countries on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, to defend their gains, is of tremendous international significance and is an internationalist duty of every Communist and every revolutionary of the world.

p The working class in the developed capitalist countries and its vanguard, the Communist Parties, play the main role in weakening and undermining the positions of imperialism in the focal areas of its rule.

p The Communist Parties’ principled and firm policy of uniting the working class and of rallying the mass of working people behind it to fight the monopolies and bring about deep-going democratic reforms is paving the way for socialism, enhancing in the minds of the masses the prestige of the Communist Parties as parties representing the interests of the nation in the sphere of social progress, in the struggle for democracy and socialism. This principled position of the brother Parties, complemented by the .policy of exposing and isolating the forces and elements—including the Right-wing Social-Democratic leaders— that hinder the unity of the working class and other working people, has been proved correct by life. The big victory achieved by the French comrades in the recent presidential elections and the disgraceful failure of the opportunist elements, especially of the Right Socialist leaders, show that the policy of the FCP, based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, is correct,

p The struggle which the Communist Parties and the working class of the developed capitalist countries are carrying on against the monopolies, for deep-going democratic reforms, for socialism, is not only a national but an international task because it is being conducted against the common enemy of the socialist system and the national liberation movement, Hence the working class in the developed capitalist countries, whose fighting positions are becoming stronger thanks to the achievements of the socialist countries and the anti-imperialist national liberation movement, is contributing, for its part, to the .weakening of the common enemy and is striking it a blow. This confirms the interconnection of national and international tasks,

p Side by side with the socialist countries and the working class of the developed capitalist countries, the national liberation movement is stepping up the fight against imperialism. Most peoples of Asia and Africa, having won political independence and done away with direct colonial domination, are moving on to the struggle to gradually attain economic independence and to get rid of the economic, cultural snd social backwardness inherited from colonialism. Thanks to the growing militancy and efficiency of the revolutionary democratic forces, including the Communist Parties, in the countries which could not guarantee by themselves the achievement of economic independence, the early establishment and development of a balanced and harmonious economy, many of the developing countries were able to set out, in a favourable international situation in which they could draw on the economic, political and military aid of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, to effect social reforms and undermine the positions of big national capital linked with foreign monopolies. The Arab countries today are furnishing a new example of this in the form of the gains which the May revolution in the Sudan is registering.

p This has imparted a new social content to the national liberation movement; it is directed against both imperialism and capitalism. And while imperialism comes out against any liberation movement, it fights with redoubled fury against the countries that have taken the road of non-capitalist development. The evolution of the Arab liberation movement is not merely a vivid illustration 75 of the new stage which national liberation as a whole has entered. It also discloses the brutal methods used by imperialism, particularly against the progressive countries where profound economic and social changes are taking place. The Israeli aggression of 1967, inspired by the imperialists, was aimed at strangling the Arab liberation movement which had acquired a new social content, and at overthrowing the progressive regimes in Egypt and Syria, where that new content is particularly marked. To use Israel as a bridgehead for operations aimed at conquest, as an instrument of imperialism, was in the interest of the imperialists, above all the US imperialists, who wanted to camouflage their direct responsibility for the barbarous aggression and to represent it as a racial conflict between Jews and Arabs. They had an interest in concealing the true nature of the aggression as part of the world-wide struggle of the imperialist forces and their agents against the forces of liberation, progress and socialism.

p If imperialism and its tool, Israel, were unable to achieve their purpose of defeating the chief force of the Arab liberation movement, that is, overthrowing the progressive regimes, it is only because the Soviet Union and other socialist countries resolutely backed the Arab peoples. However, the imperialists and Israel succeeded in creating a dangerous situation jeopardising peace in the Middle East and throughout the world. They insist on Israel continuing to occupy the territories of the three Arab countries—the UAR, Syria and Jordan. Israel ignores the UN resolution demanding the withdrawal of its troops. It is clear that Israel would not have dared to take this stand but for the political, economic and military aid and support given it by world imperialism, first of all US imperialism. Israel refuses to carry out the Security Council resolution of November 22, 1967, whose execution is decisive at this stage, as we see it, for maintaining and extending the Arab liberation movement and its main force, the progressive regimes.

p The United States, which is intent on undermining the Arab liberation movement, wants to implement another plan which is more in line with both its obj ectives and the interests of its tool, Israel. Its plan undercuts the fundamental idea of the Security Council resolution, which demands the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from all the territories occupied by them as a result of the June aggression. The plan provides for only a partial withdrawal, as well as for the annexation of vast areas of the UAR and Syria by Israel under the pretext of "safeguarding its frontiers”.

p Thus US imperialism is inciting Israel to provoke the Arab countries, so as either to force them into surrender or to drag them into another war while they are not yet fully prepared to defend themselves. US imperialism uses its reactionary agents in the Arab countries to insist on the Security Council resolution being replaced by this plan for surrender. The reactionary forces in the Lebanon were active along the same lines, and this deeply angered the people, who held mass demonstrations that the reactionaries countered with fire and sword. The people were indignant at the Lebanese reactionaries’ complicity in attempts to realise the American plan in the sphere of inter-Arab politics. Numerous economic and social factors stemming from the crisis in the capitalist economy of the Lebanon—a crisis which in late years has gone deeper—made for this outburst of popular anger. This is why the bullets shot 76 at the demonstrators on April 23 and 24 last did not subdue the popular movement as the reactionaries would have liked but led to an acute political crisis in the country. As a result, the Lebanon still lacks a government. The economic, social and political crises experienced by the Lebanon fully reveal the consequences of the capitalist road of development—a road of economic and political dependence on neo-colonialism—for those Arab countries which follow it.

p We are fighting against the policies of the Lebanese big bourgeoisie, which puts the burden of the effects of the economic crisis on the shoulders of the working people. We are fighting for the economic, social and democratic interests of the people, against the policy of submitting to the US way of settling the Mideast problem, against the forces blocking the execution of the Security Council resolution. We support the Security Council resolution calling for a political settlement of the effects of the aggression of June 5, although we consider that this problem cannot be solved so long as the Arab people of Palestine are in the plight of exiles and are denied the right to shape their destiny freely, without physical or moral coercion.

p They are carrying on a legitimate fight for liberation from Israeli occupation, for the complete re-establishment of their right to self-determination. Our Party firmly supports their struggle, which is steadily developing and taking different forms and is backed by the Arab peoples and all progressive forces. We must say that in this fight we encounter Right- and Left-opportunist trends. And while the Right-wing trends, which call for an end to the class struggle and for the renunciation of the social reforms in the progressive Arab countries, have already been unmasked, the danger of Leftist trends, especially on the national question, is still grave. The salient feature of these trends is the effort to oppos*e the Palestine problem to the main force of the liberation movement, that is, to the progressive regimes. These trends call therefore for armed struggle as the only form of solving the Palestine problem, even if the progressive regimes should fall as a result. They take exception to the Security Council resolution on the plea that it does not radically solve the problem. In objectively evaluating the results of the appeals made by these trends, it is fair to say that they are striking a blow at the Arab national liberation movement irrespective of whether they are prompted by good or bad intentions.

p Our analysis of the general situation in the world and of the conditions of our struggle makes us attach great importance to the unity of action of all contingents of the world revolutionary movement, and first of all to communist unity.

p Our collective work during the preparations for the International Meeting yielded a collective Main Document which shows the way to a programme of unity of action between us and other anti-imperialist forces. We therefore support the Document in its entirety—all its four sections in their inseparable unity and logical sequence. The Central Committee of our Party has instructed us to sign the Document.

p We also support the other documents submitted by the Preparatory Committee.

p May the unity of the world communist movement grow stronger on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism!

Long live communism!