p We have gathered here to work out a platform of joint struggle against imperialism, the main enemy of mankind, to co-ordinate our actions accordingly and to buttress the unity of communist ranks.

p In recent years our Party repeatedly called for an international conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties, for greater world communist unity. As we see it, it is compulsively necessary in the interests of the world-wide struggle against imperialism and its allies to eliminate differences that threaten our advance and reinforce the international unity of the communist ranks. That unity is a necessary precondition for decisive success in rallying the working people and all progressive forces to the joint struggle against imperialism and reaction.

p I speak here on behalf of the working people of a small country. And it is people of small countries that feel the need for international solidarity in the fight against the class enemy most strongly. We trust that our Meeting will not disappoint the working people of Luxembourg.

p The Meeting has all the premises for success in firming up the unity of our movement. The Preparatory Committee has drafted the Main Document, which the overwhelming majority of the Parties here present have approved of. The draft of the Document contains a correct and profound analysis of the situation and the world balance of forces and draws the right conclusions on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. The draft as a whole and all its sections present a good basis for invigorating the united actions of the world communist movement.

p The Communist Party of Luxembourg expresses its complete and unconditional agreement with the draft Document. We hold that the Document is only valuable as a single whole. It is not a cake from which each of us may cut the slice he likes best.

p I take the liberty to single out a few of the paragraphs that seem more important to us.

p The draft says that the aggressiveness of the United States, the main imperialist power, has increased. This means that the danger of local wars and, consequently, the danger of a new world war, has not been eliminated. This also applies to Europe. The military NATO bloc is experiencing certain difficulties at present. There are internal frictions, as well as mounting resistance from the 501 masses to its expensive and dangerous military policy. All the same, NATO is still a strong and aggressive bloc, stepping up the arms race and buttressing its organisation. It is particularly dangerous, because it is the main support of the revanchism and militarism of West German imperialism bent on abolishing the GDR and revising the results of the victory over Hitler fascism. It is a constant threat to peace in the heart of Europe and it would be a tragic mistake to underestimate that danger.

p To be sure, the peace forces in Western Europe have grown stronger, while the difficulties of the imperialist warmongers have increased. In this situation, our Party has succeeded by its persevering and long struggle against the arming policy pursued by the Luxembourg government in NATO’s interest to mobilise the masses and secure the repeal of military conscription.

p Our demand that Luxembourg should revert to its traditional neutrality is evoking a broad response among all strata of our people. There are indications that the recently formed Christian-Liberal government will follow a more realistic policy with regard to the Soviet Union and will not oppose the idea of a European security conference.

p Yet it would be a mistake to draw overly optimistic conclusions from these successes in Luxembourg and other countries, or from the difficulties in the capitalist camp, particularly the European Economic Community. The imperialists still dispose of powerful means and resources. They are ever ready for armed ventures and only wait for a suitable opportunity. And the weaknesses in our movement, the lack of unity in our ranks, may only spur them to new adventures. To bridle the imperialists, we must co-ordinate our aims and efforts. Individualism of any kind can only do us harm.

p Comrade Leonid Brezhnev and other comrades have convincingly portrayed in their speeches at this Meeting the perils for socialism, the world communist movement and world peace implicit in the criminal policy and activity of the CPC leaders. We share this view completely. No Communist, no Party can be indifferent to the fact that the Maoist adventurers in China are perverting Marxism-Leninism, replacing it with their chauvinist great-power theory, destroying the Communist Party, replacing it with army-dominated coercive machinery, organising provocations against the Soviet Union, undermining international working-class solidarity and conducting subversive divisive activity in other Communist Parties, where a dangerous situation is developing as a result.

p The anti-Soviet policy of the Maoist rulers, their divisive actions in the world communist movement, present an immense danger primarily to peace, because they may prod the imperialists to new armed ventures. No Communist, no peace champion can keep his silence or stand aloof in face of this course, nor confine himself to merely advising the two sides to "make up". That is why we, the Communists of Luxembourg, firmly denounce the pernicious policy of the Maoist leaders that so impairs the unity of the world communist movement and runs counter to all the principles of Marxism-Leninism. That is why we side with the Soviet Union, which defends Marxism-Leninism, the socialist cause and peace from the attacks of the Chinese leaders.

p Of late, the imperialists have mounted a bitter offensive against MarxismLeninism on the ideological front, conducting it in a “sophisticated” way, in 502 a novel manner, using artful and refined devices masked by talk about some new model of socialism. .For example, they maintain that Marxism-Leninism is applicable in the Soviet Union only and inapplicable in the “civilised” West. Attempts are made to prevail on the working class that if a bit of water is added to the wine of Marxism-Leninism and a bit of socialist flavouring to the vinegar of capitalism, they will get a beverage suitable and acceptable for all. In scientific terms this concoction is called “convergence”, politically it is named "humane socialism" and in practice it connotes collaboration with capitalism for the purpose of saving it. The task of all Communists is to combat with due vigour every attempt of the bourgeoisie and its fellow-travellers to distort the Marxist- Leninist teaching. What this implies is that we should in our Parties fight all shades of revisionist and “Left” trends and deviations mercilessly and consistently.

p The imperialists and the Right-Socialist and extremist parties, groups and formations that follow their lead, have of late redoubled their efforts to split the ranks of the Communist Parties and impede their international co-operation, to set the socialist countries one upon the other, to undermine the international solidarity of the working class, to "soften up" the socialist camp and the Communist Parties from inside, and to sow mistrust and enmity against the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. As we know, in the West even the entirely insignificant splinter groups of adventurers with anarchist, Trotskyist or “Leftist” leanings are afforded the media of the press, radio and television to disseminate Right-opportunist views and Maoism. The foes of socialism, monopoly capital and its agents, are past masters at exploiting the weaknesses and vacillations in the communist movement for their own ends, and at attracting the vacillating element in its ranks. Through the radio, television and other media, including illegal means, as well as their agents and sympathisers, they conduct ideological subversion in the socialist countries, playing mostly on “national” sentiments. They howl about the alleged oppression and suppression of these countries by “Moscow” and about the Communist Party of the Soviet Union “dominating” other Communist Parties.

p National feelings are deep-rooted and, as such, deserving of respect. But national feelings manipulated by the class enemy often grow into narrow-minded nationalism and may be used to fan chauvinism, becoming a dangerous weapon in the hands of reaction. In the socialist countries, national feelings may be used by foes of socialism as a perfidious weapon; in all countries they are used against internationalist working-class solidarity and particularly against the Soviet Union, that powerful bastion of socialism, whose very existence is a guarantee of the national independence of nations.

p This danger must be spotted before too late and combated vigorously.

p In recent times, much is being said about the principles of independence, about each Party’s own way of fighting imperialism and reaction, and national specifics in building socialism. These principles have not been overlooked in the draft of our Main Document. That is good. After all, they are correct principles and we have used them for years in our struggle. In any case, the Luxembourg Communists have always lived up to them.

p But correct principles may be incorrectly used. For example, a Party breaks away from the world communist movement if the principle of independence is 503 wrongly interpreted or overly and one-sidedly emphasised, if that principle is accentuated to the exclusion of others, while the principle of international solidarity is obscured; or if it serve^; merely as camouflage for revisionist distortions of Marxism-Leninism.

p Each Communist Party deals with all its problems independently. All Parties are equal. They are responsible for their actions and policy to the working class of their countries. But they shoulder international obligations as well, because they are also responsible to the international working-class movement. More than ever before, the successes or setbacks of each Party in the fight against the class enemy of its country depend on the successes or setbacks of the working class as a whole in its international struggle against imperialism and, most of all, they depend on whether the positions of the socialist camp grow stronger or weaker. It is in the interest of each Communist Party to take its place in the united front of the world-wide working-class struggle. This does not imply any subordination of its interests to those of another Party, for joining the united front of struggle is a voluntary act prompted by the Marxist-Leninist recognition that it is necessary.

p In the present situation we need not discuss securing the independence of individual Parties, which none in our ranks imperils and which, by the way, does not in the least consist of dissociating oneself from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The prime task today is to invigorate the international solidarity of the Communist Parties, the principles of proletarian internationalism and the unity of our movement.

p Our Party combines fulfilment of national tasks with fulfilment of internationalist duties in the fight against imperialism and reaction. And we are convinced that we owe our success of recent years to just this approach.

p The victory our Party scored in the municipal and parlimentary elections last November and December has been particularly revealing.

p As you know, we supported, completely and unconditionally, the measures of the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Treaty countries in Czechoslovakia in August last year. At that time, the reactionary bourgeois parties, and with them the ardently zealous anti-communist leaders of the Socialist Labour Party, organised a strident campaign against our Party. It was probably comparable only with what we experienced in 1956 in connection with the counter-revolution in Hungary. The reactionaries boasted publicly that this time they would “wipe” our Party "off the face of the earth", for which purpose they called pre-term elections in two large industrial towns and, finally, went to the length of dissolving the parliament. But they were bitterly disappointed. Our Party scored a sensational victory in the November and December elections. Everywhere, in the tiniest hamlet and especially in areas with a predominantly working-class population, the number of votes polled by CP candidates increased. In terms of the whole country, we polled more than 15 per cent of the votes (against about 12 per cent in the previous election). The Socialist Labour Party, led by Right-wingers, suffered palpable losses, the electors blackballing the more phrenetic anti-communists.

p It stands to reason that more than one factor contributed to our election success: the people’s increasing discontent with the reactionary policy of the 504 former Christian-Socialist government coalition, coupled with our Party’s successful battle for the people’s social demands—for higher wages pegged to rising prices, for a better pensions scheme, against exorbitant taxation, against dropping standards of living depressed by high prices and inflation, and against the military policy of the government. Our Party is strong in the big enterprises. It works continuously for working-class unity and, above all, for trade-union unity, which a few years ago culminated in the fusion of the free labour union led by our Party with the labour union led by the Socialists.

p All this has won us confidence among large sections of workers. And it should be stressed that the working class of Luxembourg has demonstrated unequivocally in the election that it approved of the firm stand our Party took in August last year, and this despite our class enemies and their malicious anti-Soviet campaign.

p As the elections showed, the confidence of the working people in our Party, in the Soviet Union, in the GDR and other socialist countries, far from diminishing, has markedly increased.

p Some delegations said here that the measures of the five Warsaw Treaty countries in support of the CSSR last August had harmed the world communist movement. Yet our Party’s success in the elections shows that no such harm resulted for the communist movement in Luxembourg. On the contrary. The influence and prestige of our Party increased even among sections of the petty bourgeoisie. In the hour of decision, when the class struggle attains a peak at home or internationally, we must not let ourselves be cowed by petty-bourgeois laments or the howls of the class enemy; and never must we waver. To help the wavering, Lenin taught us, we must not waver ourselves. True, our little country is not the centre of the universe. But some of the bigger Parties would probably benefit from an examination of the reasons why the Communist Party of Luxembourg scored its success precisely in connection with the Czechoslovak events.

p As we see it, the Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties and the documents it is adopting, will, beyond question, to a decisive degree, help invigorate the solidarity and fraternal alliance of all the Communist and Workers’ Parties with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with its rich experience in struggle and its tradition, with the biggest successes to its credit in building socialism and communism, a Party that has always been unshakably loyal to Marxism-Leninism, to the principles of proletarian internationalism and international solidarity, a Party on which all of us can fully rely.

Our Party is convinced that the Meeting will not disappoint the hopes and expectations of the Communists of all countries, that it will pave the way for further success in the world-wide struggle of the working class, all progressiveminded people, all peace forces against imperialism, for democracy, peace and socialism, that it will represent a decisive stage in the achievement of complete world-wide communist unity.