p Dear Comrades,

p The eyes of millions of working people in different countries rest upon Moscow today in the hope that our Meeting will be the beginning of a decisive .turn in achieving and cementing the unity of the world communist movement, a turning point in intensifying the anti-imperialist struggle along the road to new victories.

p That we are holding this International Meeting is a big success for the world communist movement, considering the grave difficulties we encountered in preparing it and the complications our movement experienced in the period of preparation.

p By virtue of the hard, efficient work done after the Consultative Meeting more than a year ago, we have overcome many of the difficulties and were able to convene the Meeting. Loyalty to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, our sense of responsibility for the future of our peoples and all mankind, had obviously nourished the perseverance and determination of our Parties to convene this International Meeting. That it has successfully convened, coupled with the agreed decisions on the drafts of its documents—that, naturally, is the fruit of a common effort, particularly that of our Hungarian comrades and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who put in a lot of work and did everything for the Meeting to be convened and to run smoothly.

p The last world forum of Communist and Workers’ Parties was nine years ago. That is a fairly long period in modern world history, which unfolds with unprecedented rapidity. We have lost much time due to the attitude of some of the fraternal Parties, which thought that all Parties must participate in any international meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties and that non-participation by a number of fraternal Parties would only deepen the differences, deepen the rift, rather than consolidate unity. The facts have refuted this, because our efforts to prevail on the Parties concerned to participate in the International Meeting proved in vain, while postponing the forum did no good to the unity of the world communist movement. On the contrary, more frequent meetings of this kind bring our views and attitudes closer together, strengthening the 315 unity of our movement. Our present forum is in itself an important contribution to the unity of the world communist and working-class movement After all, unity can only be welded through meetings and collective effort based on fidelity to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Proletarian internationalism requires each Party to fulfil its duty to the working class and people of its own country and its duty of solidarity with all the contingents of the world communist movement, sharing in their collective responsibility. To weigh international proletarian solidarity against the principle of the independence of each Party, against the national sovereignty of each socialist country, means to ignore the common interests and destinies of the world communist movement. -To give food to anti-Sovietism, or to condone it, means to undermine one of the key principles of international proletarian solidarity. The principle of solidarity with the Soviet Union and the CPSU has always been, and still is, the touchstone of a Party’s internationalism, the internationalism of each socialist state.

p The vanguard position occupied today by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is a fact shaped by history and justified by a half-century of experience, a half-century of revolutionary struggle for the consummation of the first socialist revolution in history and the building of the world’s first great socialist state. The Soviet Union has always been, and now is, the main revolutionary force of our epoch, an invincible bastion of socialism, democracy and peace. Shouldering this vanguard role, it has to display the maximum loyalty to principle and, at once, bear bigger responsibilities than others, make greater sacrifices and show more initiative. The Soviet Union and its glorious Party have withstood immense difficulties, coping with their role and responsibilities with dignity and honour. We can say proudly here that our Party could never have revived as quickly and as effectively from the terrible ordeal that fell to its lot without the effective solidarity shown, in the first place, by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and by other fraternal Parties. The malicious stand of the Chinese leadership on the disaster that befell our Party in 1963 was the very opposite of this internationalist attitude. The Chinese leaders used it as a pretext for attacking and discrediting the Soviet Union.

p In our view, anti-Sovietism can have nothing in common with loyalty to socialism and proletarian internationalism. The Mao Tse-tung group that carries this shameful banner, no longer confines itself to just splitting the ranks of the world communist movement, or the Communist Parties; it is redoubling attacks on the Soviet Union and anti-Soviet agitation, directing its activities not against imperialism, but against the Soviet Union. The Mao group came to a point where it ventured on armed aggressive actions along the Soviet frontier. Our Central Committee discussed and condemned these subversive activities at its latest plenary meeting. The so-called 9di Congress of the CPC could not have shown more clearly that the ruling group in China has turned its back on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, creating a new situation with a gravely negative effect on world events and the conditions of the struggle waged by the anti-imperialist forces. Hushing up the Mao group’s deviations and distortions of Marxist-Leninist principles, tolerating its frantic subversive actions, is incompatible with our responsibility for the purity of Marxist-Leninist 316 thought; nor will it help us buttress the unity of the world communist movement. We must courageously expose the opportunist trends and the nationalist and chauvinist sentiments on a basis of principle, with perseverance, as Lenin would, acting openly before the eyes of the working class and all working people. These are the reasons why our Party disagrees with those who evade the. fact that the Chinese ruling group and none other bears the full blame for undermining our unity, for splitting our communist movement and following an unbridled anti-Soviet line. Our delegation holds, too, that neutralist positions, on this score lack objectivity, because they shift part of the blame on the Soviet Union, which has for years actually displayed a sense of deep responsibility, great restraint and patience towards the subversive activities of the Chinese ruling group.

p Dear comrades, the experience of our movement in recent decades has borne out the obvious fact that the tighter our unity and the stronger our international solidarity, the more numerous and complete our victories. Reversely, splitting activity that undermines the international unity of our movement has caused setbacks for some contingents of the world revolutionary movement, compelled them to retreat in the face of imperialist assaults and intrigues. Our present sufficiently representative Meeting is a big help to the world communist movement in firming up our international solidarity and achieving more complete and enduring unity, which is of extreme importance and of great benefit to the struggle of the peoples. The unity of the ranks and actions of the world communist movement will not only add to its own strength in the crucial struggle against imperialism, but also enable the national liberation movements and all anti-colonialist forces to continue their offensive and score fresh victories against imperialism. The national liberation movements, including the Arab, have learned from experience that victory against imperialism is bound up closely with the firmness of the socialist camp and the world communist movement.

p The fact that all the fraternal Parties at this Meeting have declared their solidarity with the Arab peoples in the common struggle against imperialism, as well as in their struggle against Israeli aggression, for national independence and social progress, evokes pride and satisfaction in our hearts and the hearts of all progressively-minded people in our country. Like all Communists and progressives of the Arab world, we think highly of the stand taken by the fraternal Parties and all socialist ^countries on problems related to our liberation movement. We are particularly grateful to the Soviet Union, which rendered and continues to render the Arabs selfless military and economic aid and political support by virtue of its firm principles of solidarity with the embattled peoples. Allow us, therefore, to refer to some of the viewpoints on the situation resulting from the Israeli aggression. As we see it, it is essential to pinpoint the source of the aggression and to condemn the aggressor on the strength of Marxist principles and in the spirit of international solidarity with the Arab people oi Palestine and other Arab peoples, victims of the aggression.

p Comrades, our delegation heard Comrade Brezhnev’s important speech with deep attention. In our view it contains a correct:and exhaustive analysis of the peculiarities of imperialism at the present stage and enumerates the means securing closer unity and intensifying the struggle-of the socialist camp, the 317 world communist movement and all the contingents of the world-wide revolutionary anti-imperialist movement. Comrade Brezhnev rightly emphasised the effective role played by the national liberation movement in the fight against world imperialism and the importance of the latest progressive changes and tendencies in some of the newly independent countries. Comrade Brezhnev also dealt with problems arising before these countries and stressed the immense significance of building and consolidating the worker-peasant alliance, uniting all progressive anti-imperialist forces, and firming up the alliance of the national liberation movements of these countries with the socialist countries and the international working-class movement. We are certain that the analysis contained in the’ speech, its ideas and principled approach to problems, help light the way of struggle for all the forces of national liberation opposing imperialism and, in particular, for the national liberation struggle in our Arab countries.

p Comrades, our Central Committee studied the draft of the Main Document at a specially convened plenary meeting and empowered our delegation to vote in favour of it. Our Party should have liked a fuller programme document, one touching on all issues of principle. However, we hold that the submitted Document, all four sections of it, will, after the amendments are taken into account, provide a correct analysis of the international situation and serve as the basis for uniting the ranks and actions of the world communist movement and all the anti-imperialist forces. The Document is the result of common efforts by the Communist Parties participating in this Meeting, which proceeded in their appraisals from the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. The Document defines the basic and vital tasks of the common struggle against world imperialism and can equip the forces of world socialism, the working class in the citadels of imperialism, and the national liberation movement, which is at different stages of development from country to country, with an effective weapon.

p For our Arab countries the Document is doubly significant from the standpoint of the Arab struggle against Israeli aggression and imperialist designs and, at once, from that of the general struggle for political liberation, for democracy and social progress.

p The Arab liberation movement has always been an object of imperialist attacks and intrigues, aimed at weakening or breaking its bond of co-operation and friendship with the countries of the socialist system, especially the Soviet Union, and at dominating the oil^rich Arab states holding important strategic positions. The attacks have become sharper of late due to Arab gains in the bitter liberation struggle against the imperialist domination, against imperialism’s political and economic positions. Imperialism’s aggressiveness has increased most in relation to those Arab countries where deep-going political and social changes have been effected. Israel’s ceaseless acts of aggression against the Arab countries are but part of the imperialist plan to suppress the Arab liberation movement and wipe out its progressive gains. That is why the Arab liberation movement is still a crucial outpost in the struggle against world imperialism, while the fight of the Arab peoples against imperialism and Israeli aggression is an integral part of the world-wide struggle of the anti-imperialist front. At the same time, the struggle of the Arab peoples, supported by the socialist 318 camp and the world’s communist and progressive movement, is a contribution to the struggle of world socialism, the working-class movement in the capitalist world and the national liberation movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

p Exactly two years ago Israel started its undisguised barbarian aggression against the neighbouring Arab countries with the support of aggressive US, FRG and British imperialist groups. It continues to hold the occupied Arab lands, robbing their population of home and hearth, slaying, torturing and perjecuting the people brutally. It intends to annex these Arab territories and stubbornly refuses to fulfil the Security Council resolution aimed at establishing peace in the region.

p During the imperialist world war, colonialists occupied Palestine on the specious pretext of granting its people self-determination. However, what resulted was a Jewish national centre in Palestine, established in pursuance of the designs of world imperialism and Zionism, bringing on repressions against the Arab people, the victim of this act. Lenin opposed Zionism, because for the imperialist bourgeoisie Zionism is an instrument splitting the working class in each country by artificially isolating Jews from the rest of the people, from the common struggle against capitalism, and by organising Jewish emigration to Palestine with the purpose of setting up a colonial regime no different in substance from the racialist regime in South Africa. Israel was not content with the borders demarcated for it by the United Nations in 1947, pursued a policy of expansion and went farther and farther along the road of aggressive wars and annexations. Today, it occupies all Palestine and, having crossed its borders, has seized vitally important areas in the neighbouring Arab states. Israel’s rulers continue to declare brazenly that what they have taken by force has become an inalienable possession and make no secret of their aggressive expansionist designs.

p Alongside all patriotic and progressive forces in the Arab countries and the rest of the world, our Party is working for the expulsion of the Israeli invader from occupied Arab territories and vigorously supports the Palestinian resistance movement. Our Party holds that the principal and most insistent task today is to compel the Israeli aggressor to withdraw from captured Arab land, guarantee the right of Arab refugees to return to their home’s and to afford the Arab people in Palestine the opportunity to exercise its lawful national rights, including that of self-determination in its own land.

p Comrades, our delegation supports the Main Document and calls on others to approve it, because it is a means for eliminating some of the weaknesses in the progressive regimes in the Arab and other newly free countries, and because we think it bears out the existence of many of the basic conditions essential for their victorious struggle against imperialism, for democracy and social progress. Our Party regards the Document as an unquestionable confirmation of the effective role that Communist Parties should play in the politicallife of their countries.

p Some progressive regimes in the Arab countries, and likewise some nationalist political parties and petty-bourgeois groups opting for “socialism”, persist in their attempts to vulgarise the principles of scientific socialism and, all too often, to distort them. They divorce the possibility of radical social 319 changes and non-capitalist development from the character and structure of political power and from the role the working class and its political Party must play in political life and during this reconstruction. Some of them are also trying to impose a Unitarian form of political organisation in order to justify disbanding the Communist Parties or dissolving them in that organisation. In many cases this is accompanied by a curtailment of democracy, by attempts to remove Communist Parties from the political arena and exclude them from the country’s political life. Some of these regimes and groups do so in order to limit the vanguard role of the Communist Parties and deny the laws of transition to socialism or building socialism, including the essence of the Leninist proposition that a Marxist Party and one or another form of proletarian dictatorship are indispensable.

p These phenomena and tendencies impair the revolutionary movements in our country and were one of the main causes behind the military defeat of the Arab countries after June 5, 1967.

p Comrades, our delegation also calls on you to approve the other documents submitted for the consideration of the Meeting. We attach special importance to the document concerning the centennial of the birth of the great Lenin. It contains the basic postulates of Lenin’s revolutionary theory, the revolutionary’s weapon in fighting revisionist trends, dogmatism and adventurist “Leftism”. It reaffirms Lenin’s propositions on international solidarity and determined struggle against imperialism, for peace, democracy and socialism. Our Party stands firmly for unfolding a merciless struggle against nationalist and all opportunist tendencies, both Right and “Left”. That is the only way to preserve the purity of the Marxist-Leninist principles and to invigorate united action by our Parties based on these principles.

p Dangerous tendencies surfaced in our Party, too, as represented by a divisive “ultra-Left” group of adventurers, impairing our internationalist positions. That these tendencies appeared was due to the adventurist policy and nationalist and anti-internationalist line of the ruling group in China. However, our Party has coped with this petty-bourgeois trend, fought it ideologically until it was destroyed, crushed by its own barren sectarian ventures.

p Our delegation approves the draft of the document that calls for extending the fight for world peace and eliminating the seats of aggression and tension. We hold that the fight for peace is an international and patriotic duty of all Communist Parties and all sound forces the world over wishing to prevent the disaster of a destructive world war. Our delegation also approves the draft of the document calling on the international solidarity movement to redouble its efforts in behalf of the heroic Vietnamese people, for an end to the US aggression in Vietnam. We hold that this is an urgent task and the internationalist duty of all Parties and progressive forces the world over. Further, our delegation approves the draft of the resolution on convening a world congress of all anti-imperialist forces and states its readiness to help in convening it and to participate in it.

p Adoption of these documents and our unanimity concerning the tasks of our common struggle against imperialism create a firm foundation for achieving and cementing the unity of the communist movement and add to our capacity 320 of mobilising all the anti-imperialist forces in the general offensive against imperialism and reaction.

p We are convinced that any success achieved in that struggle will exercise a positive and immediate influence on the struggle of our Party and that of the people of Iraq, promoting the unity and solidarity of all forces fighting imperialism, Zionism and reaction.

p Dear comrades, our country, whose vast petroleum resources are controlled by imperialist monopolies, constantly the object of imperialist intrigues and plots, lived through important events last year. A two-phased military coup on July 17 and 30,1968, put power into the hands of the Party of Arab Socialist Renovation and a few prominent army officers.

p Our Party did not let bitter feeling and resentful recollections of the bloody reprisals showered upon Communists in 1963, when the Baath Party was in power, influence its attitude to these developments and proceeded from a Marxist-Leninist analysis of the political situation, from the interests of the toiling masses and all people.

p The Party of Arab Socialist Renovation announced that it would not follow the 1963 line and advocated a national front that would include our Party, saying that it had no intention of monopolising power. The new government acted to eliminate the consequences of the deplorable past, releasing arrested patriots and reinstating in their jobs most of the persons dismissed for political reasons, excluding a certain section of progressively-minded officers. Of late, the government has also taken bold measures consistent with the national interest against colonialism and the imperialist monopolies, recognising fully the German Democratic Republic, concluding an agreement on joint development of sulphur deposits with the Polish People’s Republic and making a number of important and positive amendments in the agrarian reform law. All this had been demanded by the people, and our Party and all progressive forces had worked for it. Our Party backed these measures and called for solidarity in effecting and consolidating them.

p One of the most essential weaknesses of the present government is that it does not try to find practical ways for a peaceful democratic solution of the Kurdish problem. Past attempts to solve that problem by armed force have failed. The wars succeeding each other in the past eight-years yielded nothing but a loss of human life and property, economic ruin, robbing the Iraqi army of its ability to fulfil its mission of repulsing the imperialist Israeli aggression. Although the present government has taken a number of steps in harmony with the agreement concluded with the leaders of the Kurdish revolution on June 29, 1966, it has refused to recognise the Kurds right to autonomy in the framework of the Iraqi Republic; nor has it embarked on peaceful negotiations to achieve agreement on a formula that would contain an acceptable solution of the crisis and remove the danger of more intensive armed clashes than those now taking place.

p In criticising the position of the government, as well as the negative aspects of the Kurdish revolution and of its own struggle for a democratic solution of the Kurdish problem our Party is guided by its sense of responsibility for the interests of the people, Arab and Kurd alike, for the interests of unity and 321 of redoubling the joint struggle of Arab and Kurd against imperialism, Zionism and reaction.

p We hold that the way to eliminate the dangers overshadowing our country and resolve the present problems, the way of steady progress, requires close and sincere co-operation between our Party and other national forces in the country. That is what the ruling party proclaims as well, although it follows a policy of monopolising power and political and public activity.

p Our Party calls for a national front, for a coalition government based on that front and loyal to the front’s charter. It also calls for democratic freedoms, and above all freedom of political activity for the patriotic parties and forces, and for a complete and radical elimination of all survivals of political oppression, of all signs of enslavement and abuse. All this our Party regards as essential before a universal national front can be built, capable of rallying and guiding the people to eliminate the dangers and resolve the existing problems in the interest of the masses.

p Our Party is working for a firm policy against imperialism and its oil monopolies, against imperialism’s aggressive plans, for effective coroperation and close solidarity with the liberated Arab countries in eliminating the Israeli aggression and its consequences, for greater friendship and co-operation with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Our Party is also working for a stronger army, for the reinstatement in its ranks of progressively-minded officers, for remedying the present economic situation and building up a prosperous national economy, for better living conditions, and for the enforcement of the political and social rights of the working class and other sections of the working people.

p Our country is exposed to increasingly strong imperialist threats and intrigues. Recently, Iran denounced the 1937 border agreement and massed its troops on the frontier. Along with other national forces, our Party condemed this hostile act of the reactionary Iranian rulers and called for solidarity actions to repulse and frustrate the reactionary plan and the CENTO plot in the region. The danger of plots against the existing regime has also increased. The situation is complicated by the fact that many of the problems facing the country are still unsolved, this applying primarily to the Kurdish problem, the problem of democracy and of the establishment of a democratic regime, the national front problem and the problem of a policy that would deprive the oil monopolies of the rights they usurped in Iraq, improve the economic situation and raise the standard of living.

p Dear comrades, in conclusion our delegation deems it necessary to declare that the basic principles and propositions of the 1957 and 1960 documents are still valid and that we approve and support the content and ideas of the documents our Meeting is about to adopt. We hold that these documents should reach all Communists and revolutionaries, that each Party should put them into practice creatively to suit the conditions and peculiarities of its country.

p Allow me, too, on behalf of our Central Gommittee, to greet this Meeting and to express the wish that it should be the beginning of still more representative and frequent meetings. I hail all the delegations of the fraternal Parties and through them the Parties they represent and the working class of their 322 countries. I hail the fraternal Communist Party of the Soviet Union, whose hospitality our delejations are now enjoying and which applied so much fruitful effort to make the work df this Meeting a success.

p May the unity of the world communist movement go from strength to strength on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism!

Long live the solidarity of all the anti-imperialist forces!