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p Dear Comrades,

p On behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany, I convey cordial greetings to the representatives of fraternal Parties present here and thank the Central Committee of the CPSU for its hospitality.

p Our delegation takes part in this Meeting with the purpose of contributing to the effort of cementing the unity of the world communist movement on the basis of Marxism-Leninism.

p We are pleased that a Document has been produced by a truly collective effort as a tangible basis for our Meeting.

p Our delegation is basically in agreement with the proposed Document. We welcome the fact that the action programme is preceded by an analysis providing a realistic picture of the class alignment on a world scale. As we see it, this conforms with Lenin’s postulate that every correct formulation of political guidelines must rest on a thorough analysis of the concrete situation.

p And indeed there is no other way but by means of analysis to pinpoint the new phenomena in imperialism and the developments in the balance of forces between socialism and capitalism.

p It being our duty to take the offensive in the fight against imperialism, we need a realistic analysis of socialist and progressive positions, and of the reactionary positions. There is no other way to find the means to advance our movement to the maximum.

p The Document submitted for discussion indicates, among other things, that imperialism, the general crisis of which has grown deeper, still rides roughshod over many nations and is a source of constant danger to peace and social progress.

p It is pointed out, at the same time, that powerful revolutionary processes are unfolding throughout the world.

p Allow me to add a few points on this score in the light of the experience of the CPG in the Federal Republic. To begin with, I should like to emphasise that German imperialism is not the same as the West German population. Quite the contrary. The German imperialists are the worst enemy of the people of our country. By taking their stand against the German imperialists here 174 in Moscow, the German Communists stand up for the national interests of the people in the Federal Republic.

p West German imperialism has again become one of the strongest pillars of the world imperialist system. Its aggressive character stems from its economic potential and the peculiar features of its historical development.

p Of late, and especially since the 1967 crisis, concentration of production and capital has been increasing by leaps and bounds. The partial fusion of Siemens and AEG, for example, is a step forward in the erection of a superconcern with an annual turnover of some DM 14,000 million and employment for some 400,000 in the electrical engineering industry. This super-concern, important for the arms industry, will control some 50 per cent of the output of the electrical engineering industry.

p Fusion of the aircraft and space vehicle industry is continuing under the direct guidance of Bonn. The pressure of the arms monopolies and the massive intervention of the War Ministry impelled the emergence of West Germany’s biggest aircraft and rocket concern—Messerschmitt-Bolkow GmbH, employing 12,300, with an annual turnover of DM 525 million.

p The Flick, Rochling, Siemens and AEG-Telefunken arms concerns have concluded a working agreement for the development of an anti-aircraft tank.

p In the motor industry, too, the process of concentration is proceeding apace. In addition to the Flick-controlled Daimler-Benz AG, a mammoth concern fully controlled by West German capital is coming into being with the merging of NSU-Motor AG, Auto-Union and Volkswagen AG.

p Those are just a few examples of how the industry, above all the arms industry, is building up its potential through concentration.

p A high degree of concentration is also in evidence in other developed capitalist countries. The especially dangerous aspect of it in the Federal Republic is that concentration there is linked with the general aggressive policy of the ruling circles. The imperialist groups are casting about for new forms to fit the high degree of socialisation in production, while leaving intact private monopoly ownership of the means of production. Interlacement of monopoly power with the power of the state has now become an objective necessity for the survival of imperialism. It centres on integrating all the forces of the capitalist system and state-monopoly domination of all areas of social life.

p In following this course, West German imperialism exploits the contradictions in the imperialist camp to improve its own positions. The monopoly tycoons and the military, the big banks and their government, are making the most of the monetary crisis to pressure their allies for their immediate goal: pre-eminence in Europe and acquisition of atomic weapons.

p Comrades, the imperialist politico-military strategy of West Germany is unambiguously directed against the socialist countries. We West German Communists daily obtain new evidence that the imperialist exponents of expansionist and aggressive policy in our state are bitter enemies of the Soviet Union.

p A journal published by a government-sponsored research institute dealing with current problems recently carried an article entitled, "Between Prague and Moscow", saying:

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p “Now more than ever, the compulsion arises for German (naturally meaning West German) policy to proceed from the maxim that that which injures the Soviet Union is beneficial for us.”

p This is probably clear enough. But the above-mentioned research institute does not, confine itself to just that deduction. It amplifies on its standpoint, and explains: One must encourage everything that operates against the Soviet Union and fight everything operating for the Soviet Union. That is also the central idea which Strauss, spokesman of the most influential monopoly capital group, expounds in his book, The Plan far Europe.

p Since the Great October Socialist Revolution, our Party has viewed the Soviet Union as the main bulwark of the world’s revolutionary forces and socialism, and holds that it is the duty of all Communists to frustrate imperialist attempts at turning part of the working class and even the Communist Parties against the Soviet Union and the CPSU.

p For our Party the main principle is this: the closer our, links with the Soviet Union, the more consistently, we serve our own national interests, world peace and world socialism.

p Comrades, it says in the draft of the Main Document that the West German imperialist forces are pressing forward with a revenge-seeking programme aimed at revising the results of the Second World War, changing the frontiers of a number of European countries.

p What are the most characteristic features of the West German imperialist strategy? The West German imperialists refuse to accept the consequences of their defeat in the Second World War. They want to extend their position of power and recover their old dominions.

p We should bear in mind that the designs of US imperialism and its truest ally, the Federal Republic, back in the fifties, to roll back the socialist states militarily, have foundered. From this they drew conclusions for a new approach to the old policy of aggression, bearing the cover name of "new Eastern policy”.

p The West German rulers have instructed a number of ministries and countless research institutes to study in great detail what points of contact with the European socialist countries are most likely to advance the aims of their policy of aggression. This has yielded a direct order of priorities: on which country to concentrate most and which to deal with more casually, with lesser effort.

p As we see, there is in the strategy of the West German imperialists an orientation on basic points. To make their intentions clear, Bonn’s revenge politicians have invented a special expression. They speak of promoting centrifugal trends in Central and Eastern Europe, emphasising that these would benefit Bonn policy in the long term. And that—in just so many words— in two directions:

p 1) The centrifugal trends will strengthen the revisionist, anti-socialist forces in the countries concerned and

p 2) should be so guided as to spread to other countries.

p The more these centrifugal trends develop (this, too, in so many words), the greater are the chances that they will spread to the German Democratic Republic.

p In other words, the idea is to encourage revisionism and nourish ideas of 176 “democratic socialism" in order to infuse them with a counter-revolutionary connotation, to speak of "national sovereignty" to encourage anti-Sovietism, and quibble about “autonomy” to drive a wedge between the socialist countries. The centrifugal trends, as evident from pertinent materials, are directed in substance against the Soviet Union, the revolutionary centre.

p Some may say that all this is no more than ridiculous speculation, because no socialist country would in earnest consider the idea of volunteering into West German imperialist captivity. Yet it would be dangerous to overlook the powerful means, both ideological and material, in the possession of West German imperialism to realise its intents. And it is equally wrong to underestimate the extent to which they are supported by US imperialism.

p Apropos the word speculation, I want to say the following:

p Doomed to extinction, the imperialists cannot develop a policy conforming with the laws of history. That is why there emerge from imperialism dangerous concrete plans hinging on the material potential of the imperialist states. Besides, the actual political actions of US and West German imperialism are anything but pure speculation, as proved by developments in a number,of European countries and in other parts of the world.

p Comrades, I speak of these things because the opinion that we live in a state of detente in Europe and that the danger of West German imperialism is exaggerated has currency even in our own ranks.

p We may note with satisfaction that Europe has enjoyed a fairly long period of peace. This we owe first and foremost to the increased power of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, and the efforts of the forces of peace and socialism throughout the world.

p But this is no reason for us to overlook the fact that West German imperialist aims contain a potential danger of war in Europe. Furthermore, the barbarian US imperialist war against the people of Vietnam and the policy of aggression against the Arab peoples supported by world imperialism accentuate the extent to which the danger of still larger armed conflicts has increased.

p It goes without saying that there are powerful forces in Europe working for a policy of detente and a European security system. The imperialists do everything in their power to split these forces, for which reason it is necessary above all that the Communist and Workers’ Parties should act in concert in the fight against imperialism. That is also the most important precondition in forging a broad alliance of all progressive forces in the anti-imperialist struggle.

p Bonn’s exponents of aggressive policy pursue a diametrically opposite strategy. They want to split us by playing up the national peculiarities and, principally, to divide the socialist states.

p They are bent on seizing control of everything in NATO, the EEC and other West European organisations. In order to do so, they even say that national statehood is losing in importance and that all West European economic and arms resources should be pooled against socialism.

p Of course, imperialism is no eternal and indestructible colossus. Quite the reverse. A close examination of imperialism will reveal its contradictory nature, its dangers and, at the same time, its weaknesses.

p We often hear it asked how it came about that German imperialism was able 177 to re-embark on its dangerous aggressive course, considering the experiences of the German people in the Second World War and during the gruesome nazi dictatorship.

p West Germany’s misfortunes began after 1945, when the imperialist occupation powers ordered the split of Germany and helped the old monopolies and the militarists back to power. They succeeded, because the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party stood in the way of working-class unity in what were then the Western zones. The CDU/CSU, the party of monopoly capital, was able to control the machinery of state ever since the founding of the separate West German state, where anti-Sovietism and anti-communism are not mere bourgeois ideology, but a state doctrine and the main ideological means of winning the masses for the policy of expansion.

p That was why the West German ruling circles outlawed the Communist Party, refusing to lift the ban, because they also use anti-communism as a lever for a new dangerous neo-nazi revival. The Social-Democratic ministers accept anti-communism as a state doctrine and orientate their entire policy accordingly both at home and internationally.

p In addition, a neo-nazi party is being bred on the general CDU/CSU political line of great-power chauvinism, revanchism and militarism. That, too, is an indication of the sharpening of the class struggle and the dangerous rightward development in the Federal Republic.

p In reference to this round of problems, we have taken the liberty to submit to the fraternal Parties a collection of documents, "German Imperialism—the Main Danger to European Peace", to which I should like to draw the attention of all comrades.

p Comrades, state-monopoly capitalism and its political power machine are labile. This is borne out by the 1967 crises and the bankruptcy of CDU/CSU policy in 1966.

p In this situation it is damaging for European development that instead of exposing the bankrupt imperialist policy of the Adenauer-Erhard era and fighting it with its own concepts, the Social-Democratic Party leadership lends itself to pursuing a revanchist policy jointly with the CDU/CSU.

p Evaluating the role of the Social-Democratic ministers in the KiesingerStrauss government is highly important in working out a common action programme for our Parties in Europe, and for all concerned.

p We realise that this is linked with our basic endeavour to achieve united action by Social Democrats and Communists.

p The important principle that even in unfavourable conditions we must fight the enemy in our own country, fight imperialism, and on no account associate with the chauvinist camp, which Lenin formulated in connection with the betrayal by the German Social Democrats at the beginning of the First World War, is highly instructive for us today. That basic Leninist principle, we hold, is doubly valid in our time for the working-class and progressive movement in each country, and for our world communist movement.

p The struggle against chauvinism, against nationalism of every shade, is an important criterion of each Marxist-Leninist Party.

p It stands to reason that we should not identify the Social-Democratic 178 masses with that group of leaders which has abandoned all principles of socialist policy and loyally helps push through the CDU/CSU policy. This also applies to those still uncritical of their leadership, but interested in safeguarding peace, upholding democratic growth and promoting economic security and welfare, that being consistent with their class interest.

p Even though the Social-Democratic leadership insists that the Social Democrats and Communists have no common interests, we proceed firmly from the fact that all working people have common interests in fundamental matters, and that this is sinking in increasingly among members of the Social Democratic Party and its functionaries.

p We also proceed from the fact that it is necessary for us as the MarxistLeninist Party in the Federal Republic to achieve clarity about the present role of the Social-Democratic Party leadership, and particularly of the SD ministers in the Kiesinger-Strauss government. Unless we achieve this clarity, we shall not be able to fulfil the task of winning large sections of Social Democrats and workers away from the official government policy, shaped by antiSovietism and anti-communism.

p Social Democratic Minister Herbert Wehner told the SD leadership recently that it was in the interest of the Social-Democratic Party to resume relations with many of the Communist Parties in other countries, in order to bring it home to them that revanchism in the Federal Republic is no more than a communist invention.

p It would be useful for the struggle of the peace-loving forces in the Federal Republic if all our brother Parties helped expose these attempts to mislead public opinion.

p While intending to conduct a dialogue with the Communist Parties of other countries in the hope of dividing the world communist movement, the SD leadership has made it clear that there shall be no association or dialogue with the Communists of their own state, and, what is more, that they would maintain the ban of the Communist Party jointly with the Bonn government.

p Comrades, this does not mean that we Communists in the Federal Republic, though willing to form a united front with the rank-and-file Social Democrats, intend to follow a policy of struggle against the top SD leadership. All Communists in the Federal Republic are oriented on seeking a dialogue with the Social Democrats at all levels, and we should welcome any move on the part of the Social-Democratic leadership to exchange ideas with us on how to curb monopoly power, how to check the dangerous Rightward trend and what must be done in the Federal Republic to achieve a European security system.

p The Social-Democratic leaders have so far been rejecting a dialogue with the Communists in the Federal Republic, because they continue to support the home and foreign policy aims of the ruling imperialist circles. The specific function of the Social-Democratic ministers is to disguise the system of outright war preparations, external aggression and psychological war conditioning with a lot of high-sounding words about peace, mutual understanding, disarmament and security.

p •

p In our work among the masses we adhere to Lenin’s injunction to do 179 everything to show the masses clearly, uncompromisingly, day in and day out, the secret of how the imperialists are preparing for war.

p Comrades, in the draft of the Main Document we find a reference to the fact that in West Germany, too, forces actively opposing revanchism and militarism are growing. Rejection of the dirty US war against the Vietnamese people and of its support by the Bonn government is gaining strength among the population in the Federal Republic. Not only our Party, but also trade union circles, working-class communities, Social-Democratic organisations, and various sections of the people, above all the youth, demand an end to Bonn’s claims of sole representation, recognition of the German Democratic Republic in international law, recognition of the existing frontiers in Europe, immediate signing of the nuclear proliferation ban, and safeguarding of European security.

p The success of the people’s forces depends largely on whether the anticommunist obstacles to co-operation are overcome and whether Social Democrats and Communists, trade unionists and Christian workers, students and all progressive forces come to terms despite the many differences in outlook and in tactics, on how successfully they find points of contact and agree on a democratic programme of action. We Communists are working for just such a democratic action programme.

p GDR successes in building socialism, the strength of the first workerpeasant state on German soil and its consistent policy of peace have a bearing on development in West Germany and are of priceless assistance for all progressive forces. As we see it, it is the prime task of all progressive forces in the world to fight Bonn’s revenge-seeking claim for sole representation and work for the recognition in law of the GDR in the interest of peace.

p Lifting the ban on the Communist party is part of successful struggle for peace, democracy and social progress in the Federal Republic. That ban is a constant infringement of the democratic rights and freedoms of all progressives in the Federal Republic, connoting pressure and terror against all democratic forces and actions, and especially against the newlyestablished German Communist Party.

p I take this opportunity to thank all fraternal Parties for their solidarity and ask them to redouble their support of our demand that the ban on our Party be lifted.

p Comrades, in the Federal Republic imperialist propaganda daily emits volleys of lies to the effect that the Soviet Union and other socialist countries imperil the independence and sovereignty of other states.

p Just a few words on this score:

p The independence of every single socialist state, and the independence of nations generally, is imperilled by none but the imperialists and in Europe primarily by West German imperialism. We continuously witness gross interference in the internal affairs of other countries, evidenced, among other things, by the claim to sole representation put forward by the Bonn government. Every single socialist state is in full possession of its independence, of its sovereignty, which it can defend solely because of the strength of the Soviet Union and the existence of the strong community of socialist countries.

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p Comrades, we are faced at present in all capitalist countries, and also in the Federal Republic, with a sharpening psychological war by the bourgeoisie against the working-class movement. By reason of the sharpening of the class struggle in all capitalist countries, we face a new wave of revisionist attacks fostered by the bourgeoisie against Marxism-Leninism, against the ideological, theoretical, tactical and organisational principles of the communist movement.

p We believe that it is the task of Communists throughout the world, in accordance with the guidelines of the Main Document before us, to conduct an uncompromising struggle against the bourgeois ideology, to propagate the ideas of scientific socialism, to remain unshakably loyal to Marxism-Leninism, and consistently oppose the Right and “Left” opportunist distortions in theory and politics.

p We consider it necessary, therefore, to set out, if only in outline, our viewpoint concerning the attitude of the Chinese leadership under Mao Tse-tung. As we see it, the course and results of the 9th CPC Congress and the border provocations against the Soviet Union make it possible for all fraternal Parties to look into and answer the question whether or not that attitude has anything in common with Marxism-Leninism, with our world outlook.

p After the latest events, one cannot consider the Mao line as an accident or, say, a deviation from Marxism-Leninism. No, what we have is a large-scale attack on the world communist and working-class movement, an attack on our world outlook, on Marxism-Leninism.

p The provocations on the Soviet border and the struggle against the Communist and Workers’ Parties conducted by the Mao Tse-tung group are one and the same thing. We think it is high time to speak up. Those who daily slander the Soviet Union and Lenin’s Party, who continuously organise armed border provocations on an ever increasing scale against the most powerful country of peace and socialism, use the word socialism for the sole purpose of camouflaging their nationalist great-power policy; those who impute revisionism and betrayal of the revolution to the Communist and Workers’ Parties waging a bitter struggle against imperialism and often making heavy sacrifices, have broken away from proletarian internationalism and objectively serve the ends of world reaction.

p Those who organise splinter groups in the international working-class movement and in all progressive movements sin mortally against the main demand of our time, that of restoring unity of action against imperialism.

p We Communists in the Federal Republic see daily how the government encourages official Mao groups and uses them to split the anti-imperialist front for its own ends. While our Party is outlawed and the activities of the democratic forces are impeded at every step, the Mao splinter groups are accorded freedom of action.

p The imperialist circles dominant in our state make no secret of it—and Strauss has said so openly—that they are in deep sympathy with the policy of the Mao group. The West German chauvinists and revenge seekers say that they have a common interest with the Chinese leadership, namely, to surround the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries in order 181 to repattern the frontiers in West, as well as East. The West German imperialists consider the Chinese leaders as their strategic reserve.

p Comrades, when we return to our countries after this Meeting, all of us shall be confronted by these facts even more tangibly than in the past. All of us realise, of course, that we cannot conclusively discuss at this Meeting all aspects of the Chinese leadership’s stand. But neither can we keep silent, because such silence only encourages the Chinese leaders to continue their activity against the Soviet Union and our world movement on a still more reckless scale.

p Comrades, it says in the draft of our Document that as a result of the aggressive behaviour of the imperialists, the danger of armed conflicts, the danger of a world war, is increasing. It is also a fact that imperialism is banking on the differences in our ranks to facilitate its aggressive plans, using them against the interests of the peoples, against national freedom, democracy and socialism. The imperialists are pinning special hopes on nationalism, which, as they openly admit, they employ as a weapon against our movement. The Communists and all progressives in the Federal Republic expect us to safeguard and cement our unity.

p We Marxists-Leninists are patriots and internationalists at one and the same time. The fundamental principle of Marxism-Leninism, "Workers of the World, Unite!", is based on the premise that each Party bears responsibility to the working class and people of its own country and, at the same time, on an international scale, to the entire world communist movement.

p In face of the co-ordinated imperialist actions, we can succeed only with a commonly agreed policy on the main issues of the international confrontation and with joint action based on this policy. The movement as a whole and the revolutionary forces in each country can only benefit from co-ordinated action. At the same time, the struggle of the national forces for progress in their own countries will have greater international impact and, accordingly, be more effective, the closer it is linked with the world-wide revolutionary anti-imperialist movement.

p Naturally, we cannot and have no intention of ignoring the existence of a number of differences in the world communist movement. In our view, these differences of opinion should not impede our common struggle against the common adversary, for common aims.

p The important thing is that, despite differences on this or that issue, the Communist and Workers’ Parties should search for ways to build up international ties and cement the unity of their ranks on the basis of MarxismLeninism. The Document before us offers all Parties the opportunity to agree and unite. That is why we are for it.

p Let us do our utmost for the unity of our ranks on the basis of MarxismLeninism!

p Long live proletarian internationalism!

Long live our joint struggle for peace, democracy and socialism!