p Dear Comrades,

p This International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties is a big victory for the world communist and working-class movement. It is the outcome of persevering collective efforts by all Parties present, the outcome of equal and comradely co-operation based on the common ideals and lofty humanistic aims of our movement.

p It is our duty to thank all those who helped prepare and convene this Meeting and made such a good job of it. In particular, we thank the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, which contributed actively to the success of the preparatory work, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which extended its hospitality to us and provided such good facilities for both the Preparatory Committee and the Meeting itself.

p This Meeting, gathered on the eve of the centennial of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the greatest revolutionary of all time, responds to the insistent demand of our time, to the need for cementing the unity of Communist and Workers’ Parties, securing united action, and uniting and rallying all antiimperialist forces fighting on all the five continents for peace, national freedom, democracy and socialism.

p At this decisive hour in history, in this period of deep-going revolutionary changes on all continents, in all spheres of life, the Marxist-Leninist Parties, the vanguard of all the progressive forces, shoulder big tasks and heavy responsibilities. Beyond question, the Communist and Workers’ Parties are the biggest political force that ever existed, and it is up to them to accomplish the most decisive changes ever known to man in his long history.

p None of us doubt the fact that co-operation by Communist Parties is the most salient factor in uniting the world’s anti-imperialist forces. That is why communist unity and ’the co-operation and mutual understanding of the vanguard forces of mankind are our main and most urgent concern. Our common ideals, common tasks and common scientific outlook—all this enables us, makes it essential for us, to produce a general appraisal of the situation, to chart a common line of struggle and secure fraternal co-operation and solidarity among our Parties. No other movement in the world has such good 121 preconditions for unity and for uniting progressives of all nations on the basis of a common programme for joint action.

p Our countries are at different stages of development and have to deal with completely different problems. There are representatives here of Parties that stand at the head of socialist countries and there are comrades who work underground at home, because their Parties are persecuted by colonialist or fascist reaction. Yet all of us represent peoples with common interests and common aims, all of us represent Parties that are the vanguard of the working people, linked unbreakably with each other by our international solidarity in the fight for man’s better future. That is why we sit together as brothers in complete equality and an unprecedentedly creative atmosphere.

p In recent years, imperialism and neo-fascism have intensified their antiSovietism, slandering and making the most absurd accusations against the Soviet Union and its Communist Party. But what else can be expected from them ? They are mainly bent on isolating the national liberation movement and the working-class Parties from the socialist camp and its vanguard, the Soviet Union. Thereby they hope to undermine the anti-imperialist struggle and preserve the system of enslaving and exploiting the peoples. But anti-Sovietism, no matter how refined, is still, in substance, the same thing as anti-communism, serving imperialist ends.

p One of the “arguments” used by the imperialists and neo-fascists against the working-class Parties, chiefly in the capitalist countries, says that they are not independent in relation to the CPSU, that to some extent the CPSU “imposes” its will upon them. That, of course, is a lie and outright calumny. However, due to the way it is presented, some people believe it.

p Our Party, the Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus, represents the working class of a small country. We have had close relations with the CPSU for many years but have never felt what the enemies of communism impute to the Soviet Party. On the contrary, we are convinced in the absolute equality of our relations, an equality that also marks the work of this Meeting.

p In all fairness, however, we must note that despite this equality, our responsibility is not equal in degree. One cannot compare the degree of responsibility borne by our Party with the immense historical responsibility. shouldered by the CPSU for the outcome of the international struggle between the two systems, for the future of the international working-class and anti-imperialist movement, for the future of world peace and socialism.

p As the Party of a small country, we wish to express our respect and satisfaction over the fact that the principles of equality, mutual respect and mutual understanding among the fraternal Parties of big and small countries were closely observed in all the preparatory stages of the Document, which we shall ultimately approve.

p Since we work in entirely different conditions and deal with different concrete problems, it is natural that we solve them in different ways and approach them from different angles.

p The main thing is, however, that our movement has a common outlook, a common scientific appreciation of social phenomena and the main political processes of our epoch, common aims and common struggle. All this links us 122 closely, because it is basic for all of us. What is more, all know that the workingclass movement derives its strength from international solidarity, from the unity and co-operation of all progressives, the socialist system, the international working-class movement and the national liberation movement. This indisputable fact impels our will and effort to achieve the international unity of our movement and all progressive forces of the world. This granite basis on which we should cement unity, must be pure, free from all distortions of Marxist-Leninist theory and proletarian internationalism.

p The 1957 and 1960 Meetings invigorated co-operation among our Parties. They equipped us with a profound analysis of the international situation and the basic social and political phenomena of our epoch, and worked out a common platform of action.

p However, life does not stand still. It poses new problems. Alongside the consolidation of the socialist system, alongside the growth of the workingclass and national liberation movements in many countries, there have been retreats and setbacks in some of them. We saw differences and disagreements arise in the ranks of the communist movement, on the one hand, and an increased imperialist aggressiveness, on the other, aimed at changing the world balance of forces and hindering man’s progress. That is what made the present Meeting necessary, in order to cement the unity of the world communist and working-class movement and enliven joint action by the world’s anti- imperialist forces.

p The Preparatory Committee has accomplished much serious work for this end. As a result of persevering collective efforts and equal comradely co- operation by all Parties, the Preparatory Committee drafted the Main Document of the Meeting, containing all the basic factors that unite our Parties in the struggle for peace, freedom, democracy and socialism.

p The Main Document contains a scientific appraisal of the present international situation and the balance offerees in the world of today; it gives a profound analysis of the problems posed by the present-day struggle against imperialism, for united action by the world communist and anti-imperialist movement. That is why it is an important guide to joint action for the broad democratic and anti-imperialist movement throughout the world, as well as for our Parties. The unity of the world communist movement, the cohesion of all the progressive militants of our time, will gain considerably from this united action.

p Dear comrades, for man’s progress fighting imperialism is the main task of our day. It is only proper, therefore, that this Meeting of vanguard workingclass Parties centres its work on the problem of the anti-imperialist struggle.

p Despite partial difficulties and setbacks, the anti-imperialist front of the peoples has not grown any weaker in the past ten years. On the contrary, it has grown stronger and broader. The partial and temporary imperialist successes have not altered the international relation of strength, the general world situation or the character of our epoch, because the peoples are persevering in their determined struggle against slavery, racialism and fascism, for national independence, human rights and democratic freedoms.

p Imperialism has not improved its positions in the world over the past ten years. On the contrary, it is clearer than ever that whatever efforts it may make, 123 it cannot be the decisive factor in the destiny of the peoples in our epoch nor hold undivided sway in the world. The unexampled heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people has undone the political and military prestige of the USA, the world’s principal imperialist power. The persevering struggle of the Arab peoples for the liberation of their land seized by Israel shows that imperialism can no longer achieve its aims with ease and rule the destiny of small peoples.

p The world-wide anti-imperialist camp embracing all the progressive forces of our time headed by the socialist countries and the powerful Soviet Union, can frustrate the aggressive imperialist ventures, prevent a thermonuclear war, and pave the way for the freedom and progress of all nations. For this it is necessary to secure joint action and unity of all peoples in the common fight for peace, freedom and progress, nipping in the bud all the criminal imperialist designs.

p The nine years since the 1960 Meeting were the first nine years of independence for our country. Yet the peace-loving and progressive people of Cyprus could not make full use of this period for peacefully developing their country. The imperialists, who retain military bases and other privileges limiting the independence of the Republic of Cyprus, endeavoured to turn our island into NATO’s military appendage and a staging area for their strategic designs in the Middle East and Mediterranean.

p The Cyprus government declared that it would follow an independent policy and that its purpose was to turn our island into a golden bridge of rapprochement among the peoples of the three neighbouring continents. Our Party consistently supported this foreign policy, and especially the line of developing economic and political ties with the socialist countries that had helped us during our national liberation struggle.

p However, this alarmed world imperialism, especially the US imperialists, who were nursing plans to hitch Cyprus to the aggressive NATO bloc and make it a war base and bridgehead against mainly the neighbouring Arab states.

p The imperialist plot to subvert and enslave the Republic of Cyprus centred on an attempt to split the Cypriot people by various pressures and interventions. Having failed to split the people by an anti-communist campaign, for which the US imperialists allocated $20 million, the imperialists resorted to subversion and to fanning national strife between the Greek and Turkish communities.

p Cyprus escaped imperialist NATO thraldom thanks to two important factors: firstly, the intrinsic unity of the people, to which our Party, which understood and firmly opposed the imperialist danger, contributed decisively, and, secondly, the solidarity and support of the socialist arid developing countries. The Soviet diplomatic, political and military support in the critical period of 1964-19»7 was decisive.

p We take this opportunity to express our gratitude, the gratitude of our Party and people, for this extensive aid and support.

p The imperialists have not abandoned their subversive activity against Cyprus. They are hatching new plans for partitioning our island and placing it under NATO control, for which end they employ new forms of subversion. They are trying to impose their own, imperialist solution of the Cyprus question with the help of the fascist junta in Athens and the reactionary chauvinists in Ankara, 124 aiming to turn the island into a military base against the Arab peoples and the socialist countries.

p From this international rostrum of Communist and Workers’ Parties we firmly denounce the perfidious subversive imperialist plans and declare that the Cypriot people will apply all their energy to achieving a solution securing Cyprus’s independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty, unity, demilitarisation, while fully assuring the rights and interests of the Turkish population.

p At the same time, we call on all Parties to express their solidarity and support for the difficult struggle of the Cypriot people. Cyprus’s independence, neutrality and demilitarisation is a highly positive factor in the struggle of the peoples of the Mediterranean and Middle East for national independence, peace and social progress. We are convinced that the solution of the Middle East problem on the basis of the Security Council resolution of November 22, 1967, will also exercise a beneficial influence on the struggle of the Cypriot people.

p It is obvious fromi the Cypriot example that in our time, with the existing balance of forces, a small country, too, can be successful in maintaining its independence if its national liberation forces attain anti-imperialist unity and if it has the aid and support of the socialist countries and the international anti-imperialist camp. This opportunity, lacking in the epoch of imperialism’s world domination, is a result of the change in the international balance of forces after the emergence of the socialist world system and the disintegration of the colonial system.

p At present, at the time of the scientific and technological revolution, the opportunities for the economic, political and social progress of all peoples are truly boundless.

p To achieve progress, we must unite all progressive, anti-imperialist forces and raise to a new level the fight for the solution of the vital problems of our time, in order to deliver our planet once and for all from the inhuman blight of colonialism, to block neo-colonialist policy, to repulse the reckless imperialist designs and avert the danger of a devastating thermonuclear war.

p The Main Document is a broad united action platform for aims based on a realistic and scientific appraisal of our epoch. As we see it, Section Three is a scientific action programme, a splendid guide to action for the international working-class movement and all anti-imperialist forces. From beginning to end the Main Document is imbued with the spirit of militant international solidarity and co-operation of all peoples in the fight for a better future. That is why we support it unequivocally and shall apply all our efforts to translating it into practice.

p Our Meeting is the right kind of milestone in the common effort of strengthening the unity of the world communist movement. We hold that it will be the start for a further expansion and strengthening of ties and of international co-operation among our Parties. Greater co-operation and comradely exchanges of opinion and experience will help us overcome our differences in questions of tactics, in appraising some of the problems, and will enrich our own experience.

p None of us should underrate the decisive and beneficial influence which the 125 unity of the world communist and working-class movement will exercise on the peoples’ fight against imperialism and reaction.

p We are impelled to cement our unity by the interests of our peoples, the interests of all nations fighting for freedom, democracy, peace and progress. The struggle of the heroic Vietnamese people, the colonial African peoples, the long-suffering Greek, nation, the Arabs and many other peoples, requires us to unite all progressive and anti-imperialist forces in a single, powerful worldwide front for a decisive offensive that will deliver our peoples from imperialist domination. Our every effort to cement the unity and cohesion of the world communist and working-class movement is an invaluable contribution to the peoples’ struggle for national freedom, peace, democracy, progress and socialism.

From this official rostrum of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, we promise that our Party will do its utmost to help cement the unity and cohesion of the world communist movement, unite the antiimperialist forces of the world, and promote the international solidarity of the peoples.