p The Left Party—Communists of Sweden regards fighting imperialism at home and on a world scale as its main task. On many peoples imperialism imposes a dual yoke—that of the parasites of their own country and of foreign capital. It exploits the raw material resources and the manpower of these peoples, keeping them in a state of poverty and destitution. The old and new forms of imperialist exploitation rob the oppressed peoples of the opportunity for economic growth.

p The postwar period is highlighted by the struggle of the oppressed peoples for emancipation. The forms of that struggle vary, depending on the time and situation. In reply to the violence of the oppressors, the peoples are compelled to resort to arms in the struggle for liberation. National independence and social revolution open up horizons for industrialisation and rapid economic development.

p Victories in the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples are of great help to the cause of peace and progress in all countries. No enduring peace can be built on plunder and oppression, on an unchanging relation of world forces; it must be based on the equality of nations. In the developed capitalist countries, too, social emancipation has to be won in fighting imperialist plunder and its effects. No people oppressing other peoples can be free.

p International solidarity must be expressed in political action. The workingclass movement must back up the liberation struggle of the poorer peoples, fight against its country’s participation in imperialist wars and war preparations, in neo-colonialism and the plunder of other peoples. It must work for effective aid to the poorer countries, their industrialisation and economic growth The idea of international solidarity should be upheld by defending it from the short-sighted interests and nationalist sentiments in one’s own country.

p Monopoly capital of the industrial countries benefits from the labour of the people of its own and other countries. It needs raw materials, markets and cheap labour in other countries and other parts of the world. It applies political pressures and infiltration, supports reaction and fascism, and defends its interests by armed force and war. Arms production, which yields immense profits, consumes labour, science and technological resources. Militarism emasculates and eliminates democratic rights and freedoms and manipulates public opinion to 444 suit its ends. The arms race and war provide the makers of arms with a market.

p Today, the United States is the centre of imperialism and the US war machine performs the function of imperialism’s police force. However, resistance to US imperialism is mounting in different ways. It is sinking in among people that the imperialist system imperils the basic interests of the nations. The need for new social relationships is now more acute than ever. The peoples demand the right to control their own resources, they demand opportunities to build a better world. The popular fight for freedom, bread and peace brought on socialist revolutions in large areas of the world. This weakened capitalism as a world system. It also helped the struggle of the peoples, the struggle of the working class.

p The Left Party—Communists ranges itself with the social and national liberation movements. It supports all those who are fighting for national independence, peace, democracy and socialism. That is the spirit in which our Party maintains its international contacts.

p Capitalism has grown into an international imperialist system, and the struggle against it must, therefore, also be international. The fight against capitalism and imperialism in one’s own country must always be aligned with the fight against imperialism on the world scale.

p The working-class movement and the Communist Party in each imperialist country contribute to the anti-imperialist struggle mainly by opposing capitalism in their own state.

p Swedish imperialism is becoming more active in plundering the oppressed peoples. This is evidenced by the steep increase of Swedish investments abroad. A considerable part of these investments goes to the so-called developing countries. As in other capitalist states, we witness an “internationalisation” of the big Swedish concerns. This happens in two important ways.

p Swedish investments in the developing countries are impelled by the drive for profit, for new sources of raw material and new markets. These investments are guaranteed "against risk" by the state. The SKF, Atlas Copco, Electrolux and other concerns operating in the developing countries are prompted by considerations of the maximum advantage. For capitalist Sweden private investments in developing countries extend the sphere of applying its capital and thereby serve the aim of improving the economic situation at home.

p The political implications behind the private investments in the developing countries are obvious too. The co-operation of Swedish concerns with big US capital in the international LAMCO in Liberia and the activities of SAAB in Argentina, CENTAB in Thailand, Avesta lernverks in South Africa, ASEA in Cabora Bassa, Mozambique, and the co-operation of the big banks in ADELA—that is a far from complete list of examples showing that Swedish investments go to countries where they fit in with the interests of US imperialism. The US military potential is seen by the Swedish investors as a guarantee of “stability” reducing the economic risk.

p Sweden’s policy towards the developing countries is based, with but few exceptions, on the same criteria as the policy of the big private enterprises. Countries where the USA is dominant are the main recipients of capital. The limited investments in Tanzania and North Vietnam are but exceptions that 445 confirm the rule. Sweden’s participation in GATT, for example, or in the European Free Trade Association, allows Swedish capital into Portugal and South Africa. The aid to the developing countries is chiefly in loans, meaning that much of it is spent on interest and repayment.

p In discussing the so-called low development ,of some countries, the Left Party—Communists has always emphasised that the problems of the developing Countries are, in effect, a direct consequence of the imperialist system that embraces both the rich exploiter states and the poor exploited countries. The capitalist world should be seen as a single whole, the dominant feature of which is the wealth of a few and the poverty of most. The capitalist system breeds both growth and backwardness.

p The underdevelopment of the economic structure of the developing countries is caused and maintained by imperialism and by the dependence on it of the countries concerned. It follows that struggle against the backwardness of the developing countries is tantamount to struggle against imperialism. The “underdevelopment” of the countries in question can be eliminated only by a social revolution that will deliver the poorer peoples from the imperialist stranglehold.

p It is up to the working-class movement and the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries to show their solidarity in action with the national and social liberation movements and to support their struggle. At the same time, they must work for changes in the trading policy, making it more favourable for the developing countries rather than the imperialist states as is the case at present. The trend of linking aid to developing countries with the interests of private capital should be combated. Support should be rechannelled to the progressive developing countries and the national and social liberation movements. This support should be rendered on their terms.

p Solidarity with oppressed peoples and support for their struggle has always been a distinguishing feature of the socialist and communist movement. That stems from the interests and ideals of the working-class movement and constitutes a natural and necessary part of its struggle. In substance, this struggle is directed against the world’s reactionary forces, against a social order that calls in question the peoples’ right to liberation from home and foreign oppression. Today, our international solidarity should go, above all, to those peoples that are fighting for national and social independence against the old, still surviving colonial powers and against neo-imperialist plunder in various forms.

p The Left Party—Communists devotes considerable attention to these issues in its political work. We promote solidarity with the liberation movements in South Africa and in territories ruled by Portugal. That one of Sweden’s biggest industrial concerns, ASEA, plans to participate in the exploitatiton of Cabora Bassa, Mozambique, jointly with Portuguese and international capital, shows clearly that the struggle between the liberation movements and imperialism is an immediate concern of the Swedish working class. In our view, the Swedish working-class movement should act in concert with FRELIMO and prevent ASEA’s participation in that project.

p However, international solidarity today is centred first and foremost on the people of Vietnam and their fight against the aggressive US imperialist war. 446 Under the leadership of the NLF, the people of South Vietnam have liberated a greater part of their country. They have shown the world, too, that US imperialism can be repulsed, and that a small nation fighting for freedom is stronger than the leading capitalist power with its vast war machine. The people of Vietnam have given new hope to all the other oppressed peoples.

p The active movement in support of the Vietnamese people scored an important victory in Sweden when, after a long resistance, the government took the correct view and established diplomatic relations with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Now, the demand to recognise the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and break off relations with the puppet Saigon regime is advanced forcefully in our country. The NLF is the true popular government of South Vietnam. It controls territories inhabited by more than three-quarters of the South Vietnam population and exercises power based on popular support, whereas the Saigon junta is supported by US bayonets only.

p Our Party fully backs the NLF’s 10-point programme. We regard the efforts to promote solidarity with Vietnam in our country as the Party’s main task today. That work has to be continued and expanded, until the foreign troops are driven out and the Vietnamese people can begin building in an environment of peace and independence. The USA must leave Vietnam! Support the NLFSV and the people of Vietnam!

p The problems of European security, too, are hanging fire. The revenge- seeking circles—above all in West Germany, but also in other countries—present a big danger. Fascism is spreading again. Its influence in West Germany is on the rise. For two years, Greece has been at the mercy of a military junta. It is an urgent task, therefore, to rally all progressive forces for consolidating European security by acknowledging the present frontiers, recognising the GDR, and creating a nuclear-free zone.

p Convening an all-European conference would be another good step in the drive to assure the security of the European peoples.

p The fight for peace, against militarisation and nuclear arming, against racial oppression and fascism, is in political effect equivalent to struggle against imperialism. To be successful in these aims, as well as in the struggle against colonialism and various forms of imperialist plunder, all anti-imperialist forces should be united. The Left Party—Communists stresses emphatically that the International Meeting should embrace all Parties and movements wishing to participate in the anti-imperialist struggle.

p The composition of the present Meeting is quite restricted. Representatives of important trends in the strategy and tactics of the anti-imperialist struggle are absent. Not only does this basic weakness impair thorough discussion taking into account the variety of trends, but it may also sharpen the existing split in the international working-class movement. We view critically the fact that this Meeting is being used for polemics against other Parties not represented here. This does not harmonise with the efforts of building up a common front against imperialism.

p . • •

p During the preparations for this Meeting we stressed repeatedly that not only all Communist Parties, but also Left-Socialist parties and, above all, national and social liberation movements, should participate in it. We should like 447 to express the hope that such a broad international meeting against imperialism will materialise in the near future.

p The discussions at such a meeting should be confined to what is directly envisaged in the agenda. The Document submitted to the Meeting, in our view, far transcends the limits set by the agenda and diverts from it. We hold that it would be better to confine ourselves to the concrete tasks of the anti-imperialist struggle.

p Also, it is our belief that the circulated Document contains substantial deficiencies "in elucidating and analysing the world situation. A number of important questions related to revolutionary strategy in the Third World, is completely ignored. General definitions obscure the actual problems and contradictions in and between socialist countries. The Document emphasises the independence of Communist Parties, on the one hand, and their responsibility to the international working-class movement, on the other, but does not state clearly that the final say in the affairs of its own people belongs, and must belong, to each Party. That we consider the basic issue of principle, especially against the setting of the critical discussion that followed the entry of troops into Czechoslovakia on August 21 last year, from which we, like some other Communist Parties, have dissociated ourselves.

p The Left Party—Communists believes that international conferences should adopt forms enabling the participating Parties to draw their own correct conclusions from the discussions. That is why we take part in this Meeting as observers. We should like to express the hope that the Meeting will promote the anti-imperialist struggle and make it more effective. For its part, the Left Party—Communists is ready to apply every effort, to use every possible opportunity of contributing to the joint struggle of the peoples against imperialist domination and for the creation of a better world.

In conclusion, we thank the Soviet comrades for their good facilities and hospitality.