THE COMMUNIST RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME
[1] ~ [2] __SERIES__ Marxism-Leninism and Our Time __TITLE__ THE COMMUNIST RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME __TEXTFILE_BORN__ 2008-07-14T17:41:28-0700 __TRANSMARKUP__ "Y. Sverdlov"PEACE AND SOCIALISM International Publishers Prague 1987
[3]General Editor S. V. TSUKASSOV Compiled by Yu. S. OGANISYAN 7404 - 2
[4]CONTENTS
From the Publishers 7
NEW HORIZONS OF SOCIALISM 9
Georgi RAZUMOVSKY
On the Road of Communist Creativity and Peace 10
Rodney ARISMENDI
Some Reflections on a History-Making Event 28
Karoly NEMETH
Along the Leninist Path 46
Milos JAKES
To Accelerate Socio-Economic Progress 62
Grisha FILIPOV
Upward Development 74
Hermann AXEN
New Ways of Tapping Our Potentialities 89
Demchigiyn MOLOMJAMTS
Decisive Factor of Transformations 101
Jozef CZYREK
Clear Prospects of Social Development 112
THE WORLD OF CAPITAL: FOR
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 127
William KASHTAN
Guided by the Interests of the People 128
Pierre ZARKA
Renewed Strategy 142
James STEWART
A Landmark for the Party 154
Louis VAN GEYT
Our Alternative to the War Economy 163
Gerd DEUMLICH
For a World Without Nuclear Weapons and
Jobs for All 180
Narayana Kalyana KR1SHNAN
Unity of Purpose and Action 192
Mahdi HABIB
The Ability to Overcome Difficulties 202
Semou Pathe GUEYE
The Road Chosen by Us 212
Luther THOMAS
Building Up the Vanguard Role of the Party 224
Randolfo BAN EGAS
Safeguarding National Interests 233
RELYING ON INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE 245
Rene URBANY
Internationalism: The Strength of Our Movement 246
At a Crucial Time of World Development.
Documents of a Special Meeting of the Editorial
Council 261
Matyas SZUROS
For Stronger Solidarity and Unity 288
Boris PONOMAREV
With Banner Unfurled 303
Unity and Diversity.
The Communist Movement in a Changing World:
New Potentialities 320
Julio ROJAS
Attractive Force of the October Revolution's Ideals
and Cause 350
The principal task of this book is to highlight those new elements that are typical of the communist parties' approach to the key problems of our time and that are reflected in these parties' strategy and tactics. The book includes World Marxist Review articles and summaries of collective discussions devoted mostly to the party congresses held in the mid-1980s. The decisions of these congresses are a novel contribution to the theory and practice of scientific socialism, the communist response to the challenge of our time.
The international communist movement is an ideological and political force of great influence in today's world. The Communists are fighting for the vital interests of the working class and all working people, for social progress, peace, disarmament and universal security. What determines the leading role the fraternal parties are playing in the revolutionary process and in the advancement of mankind? According to this book, it is primarily the fact that this world-wide historical process which heralds the transition of nations from capitalism to a new social system is guided by the Communists and occurring under a direct impact of their ideology and policy, that their activities are the foremost factor in the prevention of nuclear catastrophe.
This conclusion can be made from the articles in the first part of the book, the part devoted to the 27th Congress of the CPSU and other congresses of the fraternal parties of socialist countries. These congresses reiterated the fact that socialism and peace are indivisible, provided a Marxist-- 7 Leninist interpretation of the principal issues of our age, and formulated the basic principles of a new way of political thinking. This generated a broad response in the international communist movement and in world public opinion. Convened at a turning point in the development of the socialist world, these forums adopted documents reflecting the complex issues of perfecting socialist society and outlining the ways of resolving these problems. The second part of the book deals with the congresses held by the communist parties of industrialised and developing capitalist countries, discusses the conditions in which the Communists conduct their struggle in these nations and the tasks they face. Finally, the third part is a synthesis of problems common to the fraternal parties of different countries, a study related to the summing up and use of their' international experience and cooperation today.
The articles contained in the collection were published in Wor/d Marxist Review in 1985 and 1986 and required only minor updating. The positions of the authors, their assessments and the figures and facts cited reflect the situation obtaining at the time of publication.
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The more time passes since the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the more distinctly we see the profound, indelible imprint it has made on the life of Soviet people and the mounting powerful impact that its ideas and resolutions continue to have on the work of the CPSU and the entire people.
The congress was convened at a steep turning point in the history of the Soviet Union and of the world as a whole. In large measure this predetermined its special significance, the character of its proceedings, and the content and political orientation of the resolutions and documents adopted by it. The congress compellingly demonstrated the party's high sense of responsibility for the country's present and future, for the building of communism in the USSR, and for the maintenance of peace and international security. It proceeded in the spirit of Leninist traditions, in an atmosphere of the party's commitment to principle and unity, of uncompromising exactingness and Bolshevik veracity, of an open identification of shortcomings and omissions, and produced a profound analysis of the internal and external conditions of Soviet society's development. It answered fundamental questions put to the party and the people by life, helped to acquire a more profound understanding of the essence and distinctive character of the period we live in, brought to light the new inspiring perspectives opening up for the Soviet Union, and charted a realistic action programme combining magnificent objectives and the party's plans with the hopes and aspirations of many millions of people.
10The Central Committee's Political Report delivered by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev was the pivot of the congress. Profoundly and comprehensively, from Marxist-Leninist positions it surveyed and summed up the work accomplished by the party and the Soviet people and the world's development over the quarter of a century that has passed since the third Programme of the CPSU was adopted, incisively and frankly noted society's pressing problems, creatively and innovatively raised key issues of the theory and practice of scientific communism, and substantiated the party's programme aims and its economic and political strategy. The Political Report gave the Communists and all other people of the Soviet Union a clear vision of the tasks confronting them. The propositions, conclusions, and principled guidelines advanced in this Report were approved unanimously by the congress and used as the foundation for the substantive Resolution passed by it.
After they were considered all-sidedly the congress adopted the new edition of the Party Programme, the Rules of the CPSU, and the Guidelines for the Economic and Social Development of the USSR for 1986--1990 and for the, Period Ending in 2000. In accordance with the CPSU's democratic traditions, the drafts of these documents were submitted for discussion of the entire party and all the people. This discussion vividly demonstrated that the Soviet people whole-heartedly support and approve the party's political line, its domestic and foreign policies, and its concrete plans. The discussion showed that the tasks being put forward by the party are entirely in keeping with the people's aspirations and will, and allowed enriching the content of these highly important party documents with the experience and opinion of the people as a whole.
The CC Political Report, the congress Resolution on this Report, the new edition of the CPSU Programme, and the Guidelines were the product of extensive theoretical work by the party, of its in-depth Marxist-Leninist analysis and understanding of the basic tendencies and objective requirements of society's development, of the practice of communist construction, and of the situation in the world at large. These documents encapsulated the party's creative 11 thought, its collective wisdom, scientific prevision of the prospects for progress, and staunch belief in the inexhaustible potentialities of the socialist system and the creative work of the people. The historic significance and enormous inspiring and mobilising strength of all the documents passed by the congress lie in the fact that in them are clearly defined the communist prospect of the USSR and the ways and means of taking Soviet society to a qualitatively new stage of development.
The CC plenary meeting of April 1985 laid a sound foundation for holding a forum such as the 27th CPSU Congress proved to be and for drawing up and adopting such large-scale and-far-reaching decisions. The plenary meeting gave a powerful impetus to all the work of the party and the Soviet people and created an atmosphere of constructive quest for new approaches to the solution of cardinal economic, political, and social problems. Those who took the floor at the plenary meeting spoke frankly of the difficulties and omissions in our work and of what had to be done to transcend them. Proceeding from objective requirements, the plenary meeting put forward the concept of the country's accelerated social and economic development as a vital condition for Soviet society's further, comprehensive progress, for a successful advance along the road of communist construction. This concept received the unqualified support of the Communists, of millions of working people. It permeated the party's entire pre-congress work and was in the focus of attention at the congress, being further elaborated and concretised in the CC Political Report, the new edition of the Party Programme, the Party Rules, and the Guidelines for the Economic and Social Development of the USSR in the 12th five-year period and in the period up to the close of the present century.
The congress adopted and endorsed the general line for the party's domestic and foreign policies, a line towards the country's accelerated social and economic progress and the consolidation of peace in the world. "We are aware,'' Mikhail Gorbachev said at the congress, "of the enormous responsibility the CPSU is taking upon itself before history, of the huge burden it is accepting in advancing the strategy of acceleration. But we are convinced 12 of the vital need for precisely such a strategy. We are convinced that it is realistic. By drawing upon socialism's inexhaustible potentialities and advantages, upon the live, creative work of the people we shall be able to carry out all that has been planned.''
The party regards accelerated social and economic development as its long-term, strategic line aimed at fundamentally renewing the entire material and technical basis through the use of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution; perfecting social, in the first place economic, relations; profoundly changing the content and character of labour, and the people's living standards and cultural level; and vitalising the entire system of political, public, and ideological institutions. Having advanced the concept of acceleration, the party told the people clearly and definitively how and through what this will be achieved.
First, in perfecting socialism's economic system it will be necessary to give new and powerful impulses to the growth of the productive forces, to scientific and technological progress, and set the colossal,potentials of the country's economy into motion.
Second, in linking the rise of the people's living standard and all-sided concern for people with consistent compliance with the principles of social justice, there must be a vigorous and robust social policy.
Third, in deepening democracy, steadfastly promoting socialist self-administration by the people, and extending publicity in the life of the party and society, scope must be given for the initiative and independent activity of each working person.
Fourth, in linking ideological and organisational work more intimately with,life's actual needs, this work must be brought close to each individual and directed towards the surmounting of difficulties, the practical fulfilment of the tasks, confronting us.
The party's economic line and social policy, all its practical work in organising and mobilising the people to,carry out the tasks involved in the building of communism, and all,its work in educating the people ideologically and politically is directed towards the attainment of these aims.
In order to accelerate social and economic progress 13 there have to.be meaningful changes chiefly in the decisive sphere of human activity, the economy, in which there must be a drastic growth of development rates.
Stably high development rates have always been a characteristic of the Soviet economy. Using the advantages of its planned system, advantages that ensure stable growth rates, the party and the,people have rapidly achieved outstanding progress in all areas of economic and social construction. The Soviet Union has ,a highly developed economic complex, a powerful production, scientific, and technological potential, skilled workers and highly trained scientists and engineers capable of tackling the most difficult tasks. In many indicators of production, science, and technology the Soviet Union firmly holds leading positions in the world. It is now the world's,largest producer of oil, gas, pig-iron, steel, cement, mineral fertilisers, tractors, and many other items.
However, during the past decade there has been a tendency towards a slow-down of the rate of economic and social development. To halt this tendency and achieve a significant acceleration of economic growth rates it is vital to ensure economic growth on a fundamentally new technical, organisational, and economic level, to shift the economy to the highroad of intensification; to move into first place in the world for the productivity level of social labour, the quality of output, and production efficiency; to build an optimally structured and integrally balanced economic complex; to raise significantly the socialisation level of labour and production. Precisely this is the main objective of the party's economic strategy of ensuring the transition to a more highly organised and more efficient economy with all-sidedly developed productive forces. The production potential is to be doubled and qualitatively renewed from top to bottom as early as by the next century.
The party's economic strategy concentrates on adiieving a cardinal acceleration of scientific and techno/ogica/ progress. The objective is to ensure a new technical reconstruction of the national economy, the rapid renewal of the production apparatus with the use of advanced technology, and the enlargement and effective utilisation of the scientific and technological potential.
14On this foundation there is to be a further rise of labour productivity. A major target on the road to higher labour productivity in the course,of 15 years is that it is to be increased by 130--150 per cent. It is the party's aim to draw upon scientific and technological .progress to ensure the rational utilisation of natural resources, raw and other materials, fuel, and energy at all stages of production and consumption.
As the party sees it, one of the central objectives of its economic strategy is to secure the utmost improvement,of the technical specifications and quality of output, so that it embodies the,latest achievements of scientific thought, is consistent with the most exacting technical, economic, aesthetic, and other consumer requirements, and becomes competitive in the world market.
All this will require modifications in structural and investment policy. These modifications, it was said at .the congress, will shift the focus from quantitative Indicators to quality and efficiency, .from intermediate to end results, from augmenting productive assets to their renewal, from building up fuel and raw materials resources to improving the ways and means of using them, to the accelerated development of science-intensive industries, of the production and social superstructure.
The new tasks in the economy cannot be tackled without a major restructuring of the economic mechanism. This means substantially increasing the productiveness of this mechanism through a consistent application of the Leninist principles of democratic centralism, expressing the unity of both its .elements-enhancement of the efficiency of centralised management and a considerable extension of economic independence, of the responsibility of amalgamations and industrial facilities.
In parallel, there will be more emphasis on the economy's social orientation and a steady turn towards the ever fuller satisfaction of the Soviet people's growing requirements. Everything that is to be achieved in accordance with the party's economic strategy must ultimately ensure a continuous rise of the people's living standard and cultural level, an uninterrupted advance towards "full well-being and free, all-round development for all the members of society".^^1^^ 15 This has always been and remains the party's programme aim.
The CPSU's social policy is linked inseparably to its economic strategy. The party regards this policy as a powerful lever for speeding up the country's development, promoting the people's labour and socio-political activity, moulding the new citizen, and asserting the socialist way of life as a major factor of society's political stability. The basic aims of social policy are: a constant improvement of the people's living and working conditions; a steadily fuller implementation of the principle of social justice in all areas of social relations; the drawing together of classes and of social groups and strata, and the surmounting of the essential distinctions between labour by brain and labour by hand, and between town and countryside; closer relations between nations, the strengthening of fraternal friendship among all the nations and nationalities inhabiting the country.
The purpose is to raise the living standards of the Soviet people to a qualitatively new rung, to ensure a level and structure of the consumption of material goods and social and cultural services that would be in keeping with the interests of forming a harmoniously, culturally developed individual, and to create the conditions under which the abilities, gifts, and talents of each person would unfold to the fullest possible extent. The volume of resources used to satisfy the people's requirements is to be doubled within the next 15 years.
The party attaches cardinal significance to reinforcing the creative content, collectivist character, and efficiency of labour. For this purpose it considers that there must be a significant reduction of manual labour, a visible decrease and, in the long term, abolition of monotonous and arduous physical and unskilled labour. By the year 2000 it is planned to reduce the proportion of manual labour in production to 15--20 per cent.
The population's real incomes will rise in parallel with the growth of the country's economic potentialities. It is expected that within the next 15 years they will rise by 60--80 per cent. This will be fostered by an improvement of the system of remuneration, a rise of wages, and a growth 16 and improvement of the distribution of social funds. The population's growing demand for diverse high-quality consumer goods is to be satisfied in full, there is to be a further growth of trade and public catering outlets, and steps are to be taken to build up a modern services industry.
The party attaches special social significance to speeding up the solution of the housing problem. By the year 2000 practically every Soviet family will have a separate dwelling---apartment or house. Housing space of no fewer than 2,000 million square metres is to be built within the next 15 years.
A series of measures is planned to provide the Soviet people with more health protection facilities, improve the care extended to mothers, satisfy the requirements of young people more fully, and give labour and war veterans greater material insurance.
The CPSU sees unflagging concern for resolving the social problems of labour, everyday life, and culture, for the interests and requirements of the people as a duty of all governmental and economic bodies and of public organisations.
It is the view of the CPSU that no acceleration of the country's socio-economic development is conceivable without the utmost unfolding of socialist democracy, without the perfection of society's political system. It is doing everything to ensure socialist self-administration by the people to the fullest possible extent and is the leading force and guarantor of this process.
In keeping with Lenin's postulate that "living, creative socialism is the product of the masses themselves'',^^2^^ the party considers that it is vital to ensure the effective utilisation of all forms of representation and direct democracy, the steady extension of the people's participation in the drawing up, adoption, and implementation of governmental and other decisions. Accordingly, the CC Political Report and other documents of the congress define the main areas for improving society's political system and the steps to be taken to vitalise the Soviets of People's Deputies, the trade unions, the YCL, all public organisations, the work collectives, and people's inspection bodies.
It is acknowledged that there has to be an efficient 17 system under which local government executive committees, members of the judiciary, ministers, and heads of other administrative bodies would report regularly to work collectives and meetings of the population, and various forms of inspection of the operation of the administrative apparatus would be used by the people.
In order to give the trade unions, the YCL, the creative unions, the voluntary societies, and the women's organisations a still larger role the congress found that there has to be a widening of the range of issues that governmental bodies can resolve only with the participation or prior agreement of the relevant public organisations, and that these organisations should have the right to halt the implementation of administrative decisions.
The party gives special attention to the development of all forms of direct democracy, chiefly to enhancing the role of work collectives, the creation of an atmosphere of socialist mutual assistance and exactingness in them, and to fostering in the working people the sense of being the unchallenged masters of production. In this context the task has been set of achieving a cardinal improvement of the mechanism of implementing the democratic principles and norms enshrined in the Law on Work Collectives, extending the range of matters on which the decisions of work collectives are final, and giving general meetings of factory and office workers a larger role to play. The recommendation to set up councils of work collectives and of gradually extending the electivity of executives at industrial facilities has been accepted.
The party feels it is important to continue improving the practice of nation-wide discussions of and voting on major issues concerning the life of the country, of the population discussing the drafts of decisions to be passed by local government bodies, and of making better use of other channels for the promotion of direct democracy: meetings of citizens, voter mandates, the mass media, letters from working people, and all other means of learning public opinion. Fundamental importance is attached to extending publicity in the work of government and other bodies, to keeping the population informed about the decisions being adopted and about how these decisions are being carried out.
18The congress envisaged a steady strengthening of the legal foundation of the life of state and society, strict compliance with laws, the extension of the Soviet citizens' rights and freedoms, and the reinforcement of the guarantees of these rights and freedoms.
The 27th Congress provided further compelling evidence of the CPSU's genuinely internationalist character. At the Kremlin reception for its foreign guests, Mikhail Gorbachev stressed that whatever domestic or foreign policy question the party works on, it always regards itself as an inalienable component of all the revolutionary, democratic, and progressive forces. "We take into account,'' he said, "the fact that each of our successes, every victory in the struggle for the aims and ideals of the October Revolution reinforces the potentiality of peace and social progress.''
The CPSU sees its prime international duty in doing everything to strengthen friendship and promote and perfect the Soviet Union's links to the countries of the socialist community. Noting that new positive qualities have appeared in the relations with fraternal countries since the April (1985) Plenary Meeting of the CPSU Central Committee, the congress reiterated that the soul of political cooperation among them consists of interaction between ruling communist parties, of the improvement and renewal of its forms and methods, which allow for prompt consultations on the entire range of problems of socialist construction.
The CPSU champions open relations with all communist parties, and with all countries of the socialist world system, and welcomes every step that draws them closer together and every positive change in the relations between them. The Resolution adopted by the Congress on the CC Political Report notes with satisfaction that there has been an improvement of the USSR's relations with its great neighbour, socialist China, and points out that despite the distinctions in the approach to some international problems there are immense potentials for cooperation between the two countries for whose peoples the most cherished ideals-socialism and peace---are indivisible.
In considering questions related to the Internationa/ communist and working class movement, the congress noted 19 that the conditions under which Communists work change rapidly and that new problems arise that require the ability to reassess much on the basis of Marxist-Leninist theory and take objective realities into account scrupulously. One of these is the diversity of the communist movement and of the tasks confronting it. This sometimes leads to disagreement and divergence. The CPSU does not dramatise the fact that among communist parties full unanimity does not exist always and in everything, but neither does it regard diversity as a synonym of divergence in the movement. The CPSU continues to do everything in its power to foster the consolidation of class solidarity and equitable cooperation among all the communist and workers' parties for the sake of the main things-peace and socialism.
An unusually wide spectrum of revolutionary democratic, socialist, social democratic, and labour parties was represented at the 27th Congress. Also present were representatives of the main public anti-war movements and currents. The CPSU's staunch solidarity with the forces of national liberation and social emancipation, and its policy of closely interacting with socialist-oriented countries and the nonaligned movement were stated clearly at the congress. Practice shows that despite the deep ideological differences between the Communists and the Socialists, an unbiased study of the postures and views of each other is useful to both sides, chiefly in the context of further vitalising the struggle for peace and international security.
The CPSU believes that the tendency towards a change of the alignment of forces on the mternat/ona/ scene in favour of peace, reason, and goodwill is enduring and in principle irreversible. It is within the power of the world's forces of peace and progress to neutralise the military threat emanating from imperialism, to halt the world's slide to the brink of a nuclear abyss, to prevent outer space from being turned into a battlefield.
The 27th Congress of the CPSU drew a conclusion of immense theoretical and practical significance, namely, that today not only a nuclear war but the arms race as well cannot be won, that the confrontation between capitalism and socialism can proceed exclusively in the form of peaceful competition, of peaceful rivalry.
20For that reason, the congress noted, the principal direction of the party's efforts on the international scene will continue to be the struggle against the nuclear threat and the arms race, for the preservation and consolidation of world peace.
A creative analysis of the state and prospects of presentday world development has brought the CPSU round to the conclusion that it is crucial to find ways for closer and more productive cooperation with governments, parties, and public organisations and movements that are in fact concerned about the destinies of peace in the world, with all peoples in order to build an all-embracing system of international security. The congress formulated the fundamental principles of such a system, in which military, political, economic, and humanitarian aspects are fused for the first time. These principles are quite rightly seen in the world as a new word in international politics. They stem logically from the provisions of the CPSU Programme, and are entirely consistent with our concrete foreign policy initiatives, the most important of which was the Statement of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee of January 15, 1986. In this Statement the Soviet Union suggested addressing the entire range of disarmament problems, concentrating in the first place on the abolition of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. It suggested a phased plan of action, strictly scheduled in terms of time. The congress pointed out that the efforts to carry out the programme spelled out in the Statement must be the central direction of Soviet foreign policy in the coming years.
The CPSU's course on the international scene springs from the humanitarian nature of socialist society. It is inseparably linked to the party's basic, strategic aims in the country and expresses the unanimous aspiration of the Soviet people to engage in creative work, to live in peace with all nations. The 27th Congress compellingly reaffirmed that socialism and peace, that peace and creative work are indivisible.
All of the work conducted by the CPSU and the plans mapped out by it are eloquent evidence that it is the political vanguard of the people in the true sense of the word. In the new historical conditions, when the country is 21 confronted by important tasks, the CPSU, naturally, has a growing leading role to play in the life of Soviet society. This springs from objective domestic and international factors that are clearly marked out in the new edition of the Party Programme and are constantly taken into account in policy and in the day-to-day work of directing communist construction.
All of the congress documents proceed from the fact that the factors of acceleration can only be mobilised by a party that is motivated by the interests of the people, has a scientifically substantiated perspective, and by its work asserts its confidence that the aims it has set will be attained. The party can fulfil new tasks successfully if it is in continuous development, free of the ``infallibility'' complex, critically assesses the achieved results, and clearly sees what has to be done.
The present stage is one of society's qualitative transformation, and it dictates the need for constantly enhancing the political, organisational, and ideological level of the party's work among the people, for perfecting the style and methods of its leadership of communist construction. This requires a substantial restructuring of all of the party's work. The essence of this restructuring is that every party organisation should be active in implementing the party line and live in an atmosphere of creative quest. This restructuring can only be accomplished through the efforts of all the Communists, the utmost promotion of democracy within the party itself, the application of the principle of collective leadership at all levels, and the promotion of criticism and self-criticism, control, and a responsible attitude to the work at hand. This is being ensured by the relevant guidelines adopted by the congress, the provisions on party building in the new edition of the Party Programme, and the amendments introduced into the Party Rules. These reinforce and enlarge upon the Bolshevik principles, worked out by Lenin and tested in practice, of party building, the style and methods of party work, and the moral norms governing the behaviour of Communists. The CPSU regards strict compliance with and the consistent implementation of these principles as a vital condition of the success of all its work.
22The party's development at the present stage, as was distinctly demonstrated by the congress, is characterised by the further growth and strengthening of its ranks and by the perfection of inner-party relations in keeping with the principle of democratic centralism.
The party's strength and its roots in all strata of the population are growing steadily. During the past five years it has admitted nearly 1,600,000 new members and now it is 19-million strong. In terms of its social composition, 45 per cent of the party's members are factory workers, 11.8 per cent are collective farmers, and 43.2 per cent are whitecollar workers, chiefly engineers, technicians, scientists, creative intellectuals, members of the teaching and medical professions, and cultural workers.
By and large, the party's composition is formed and its ranks grow in accordance with the Rules. The CPSU considers that in its social composition the leading place should be held by workers. This is entirely in keeping with its class nature and people's character. In terms of per hundred new members, 59 per cent or just under two-thirds are workers, and 26 per cent are trained specialists working in different branches of the economy, while of all those admitted four-fifths are young people and roughly onethird are women.
Having noted the positive changes in the party's composition, the congress made it clear that the process of admittance to membership required further upgrading in all party organisations, set the task of showing tireless concern for the purity of the party ranks, of dependably closing the party to uncommitted persons, and stressed the importance of an unflagging struggle for the purity and integrity of the party member. By enhancing the responsibility of party members to the utmost and making stricter demands for compliance with party discipline and the unequivocal fulfilment of the Party Rules by every member, the CPSU proceeds from the premise that there is no vanguard role of the Communists generally, that this role is expressed in practical deeds.
The congress drew the attention of all party bodies to the consistent implementation of the principle of collective leadership. The party sees this as a key condition for a 23 healthy life in each party organisation, for the adoption of considered and substantiated decisions. It strives to ensure the further enhancement of the role of plenary meetings and bureaus of party committees, and of party meetings as collegiate leadership bodies, and create in them an atmosphere of free and businesslike discussion of problems.
As was noted in the CC Political Report, we will not move forward a step if we do not learn to work in a new way, do not put an end to inertness and conservatism in any of their forms, if we lose the courage to assess the situation realistically and see it as it actually is, to call things by their names, and judge everything openly. In this context the congress noted the need to promote criticism and selfcriticism, step up the efforts to remove window-dressing, complacency, and smugness. In the party, the Political Report states, there should be no organisation outside the pale of control and closed to criticism, nor should there be leaders fenced off from party responsibility. This requirement is recorded in the new edition of the CPSU Programme and in our Party Rules, and henceforth is an immutable law of the life of the entire party and of each of its organisations.
The congress focused much attention on questions related to improving the style of work. The style that we need today is concreteness, a businesslike attitude, consistency, unity of words and deeds, the choice of the most effective methods and means, careful consideration for the opinion of people, and skillful coordination of the actions of all the social forces. The party is doing everything to assert precisely this style ever more firmly in its work, in all areas of state and economic administration. A responsible role is played here by primary party organisations, of which there now are over 440,000 in the CPSU. The congress directed party committees to rely constantly on these organisations, to promote independence in work, to ensure that each party organisation lives a full-blooded life characterised by openness, publicity of plans and decisions, humaneness, mutual exactingness of Communists, and their tireless concern for the common cause.
The party links better and more efficient leadership and the successful fulfilment of all tasks indivisibly to the further 24 improvement of work with cadres, to the utmost promotion of their initiatives and responsibility. Of lote, many sectors of party, state, and economic work have been reinforced with cadres, and many new, energetic people, who think in modern terms, have been appointed to high positions. Having unanimously approved the measures taken by the Central Committee to improve the qualitative composition of cadres and to replace persons who have compromised themselves or failed to measure up to present-day requirements, the congress made it binding upon all party organisations to continue pursuing a principled personnel policy consistently and perseveringly, to ensure unqualified compliance with the Leninist principles of selecting and assessing cadres in accordance with their political, professional, and moral qualities.
The party considers that it is imperative to continue pursuing the line of combining experienced and young cadres, improving the organisation of work with cadres, training a dependable reserve for promotion, and giving more publicity to decisions related to cadres.
The CC Political Report clearly and lucidly defines the essence of party leadership. It notes that the party provides political leadership and defines the general prospect for development. It formulates the main tasks in socio-- economic and cultural life, selects and places cadres, and exercises general control. As regards the ways and means of resolving specific economic and socio-cultural questions, broad freedom of choice is given to every management body, work collective, and economic cadres. While improving the forms and methods of leadership, the party is emphatically opposed to confusing the functions of party committees with those of state and public bodies.
__*__The 27th Congress of the CPSU enriched the Communists and all the Soviet people with new ideas, and gave them clear-cut guidelines on what and how things should be done to accelerate the country's social and economic development. The decisions adopted by the congress and the plans of communist construction mapped out by it were warmly approved by the party and the people, generating a 25 universal political and labour upturn. The party now sees its duty in ensuring their consistent implementation, in turning the energy of plans into the energy of concrete actions.
The Political Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee defined concrete measures aimed at fulfilling the Resolution of the 27th Congress and the guidelines spelled out in the CC Political Report to the congress. It stressed the need for promptly drawing all the elements of the Soviet political system into energetic efforts to carry out the important tasks set by the congress. A series of measures has been charted for resolving key issues of economic development, social policy, state construction, and ideological work.
It is envisaged, in particular, that every branch of the economy and every enterprise draws up long-term programmes for the renewal of production, that the steps are taken to improve planning, that the branch and territorial elements of economic management are correctly combined, and that a law is passed on the quality of the output. Great attention was devoted to the implementation of the party's social policy.
As Mikhail Gorbachev noted, any plans we make will hang in limbo if people remain indifferent, if we fail to awaken the labour and social activity, energy, and initiative of the people. In line with these injunctions, the party organisations are giving wide publicity to the documents of the 27th Congress of the CPSU so as to bring home to every Soviet citizen the spirit and substance of its decisions. This is not a question of explaining the fundamental provisions spelled out by the congress but of efficiently organising the implementation of its decisions.
In discussing the work of the party's highest forum, all party committees and primary organisations and all work collectives are drawing up and implementing measures to carry out the plans for the current year and the 12th FiveYear Plan as a whole, step up production on the basis of the achievements of science and technology, of advanced knowhow, and reinforce discipline, order, and organisation. Already today this is yielding fruit, exercising the most positive effect on economic and cultural construction. Thus, penetrating ever deeper into the minds of the people and 26 winning them, the ideas put forward by the congress are, to quote Marx, becoming a material force.
The CPSU has entered the postcongress period more organised, united, and more efficient than ever before, with a well-considered long-term policy. Whatever the magnitude and complexity of the tasks confronting it, the party, relying on socialist society's huge potentialities, on the creative energy of the people, is determined to carry out all it has planned and mapped out.
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works. Vol. 6, p. 54.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol.26, p. 288.
[27] __ALPHA_LVL2__ Some ReflectionsJohn Reed chose an evocative title for his eyewitness account that went down in history: Ten Days That Shook the World. We have no intention of comparing the 27th Congress of the CPSU, an event not too remote, timewise, from the storming of the Winter Palace, with the close of the "social prehistory of humanity''. Nevertheless, one cannot fail to recognise the tremendous importance of the fact that today, almost seven decades after the dawn of the new age inspired by the genius of Lenin, the Soviet Communists are preparing---while making very harsh demands on themselves-to turn the next fifteen years into a radically new stage in their economic and social progress towards communism. In other words, to reach new and decisive frontiers of developed socialism while upholding continuity, correcting mistakes and introducing the necessary adjustments.
The scientific and technological revolution is to be the principal means of accelerated development, of perfecting social relations. It will also encourage firmer and broader ties between the state and the people by enhancing democracy and socialist self-government, by further promoting direct and organic mass participation in the exercise of political power, in the administration of vital benefits in the fields of welfare, housing, health, education, meaningful leisure, etc. The incomes of working people and pensioners will increase substantially, and the social consumption funds will grow steadily. All-round physical and intellectual 28 development of the personality will enhance the humanistic essence of the Soviet system. For, as Marx wrote, the human essence is inherent in man himself.
Yet again in the relatively short history of their social exploration, the Soviet Communists, trail-blazers armed by science, people who have "made dreams come true'', worked miracles of heroism and, at times, had to overcome mistakes and withstand severe trials, are fighting their way into the coming century with three five-year plans that can "shake the world''. And all this in our twentieth century, when peace is essential for such accomplishments for, "on the one hand, the swift advance of science and technology has opened up unprecedented possibilities for mastering the forces of nature and improving the conditions of the life of man. On the other, the `enlightened' 20th century is going down in history as a time marked by such imperialist outgrowths as the most devastating wars, an orgy of militarism and fascism, genocide, and the destitution of millions of people. Ignorance and obscurantism go hand in hand in the capitalist world with lofty achievements of science and culture. That is the society we are compelled to be neighbours of, looking for ways of cooperation and mutual understanding. Such is the command of history".^^1^^
Considering the tough deadlines and the tremendous scope of the radically new tasks set by the congress, their follow-up must truly be described as epic. Indeed, such plans are simply unthinkable in a society allegedly "in crisis" and in a "desperate race" against capitalism. Besides, they can only be implemented with vigorous and selfless involvement of the entire people. That is why the 27th Congress of the CPSU was a major forum of initiative, criticism and self-criticism, of enthusiasm which the masses displayed in performing their history-making task and which had previously been sometimes frustrated or diluted.
This vast country with its numerous ethnic and national groups is advancing along its chosen path. Achievements of this scope are nothing new for socialism, although slowdowns in the rates of growth and the negative trends exposed at the congress are not ruled out. Socialist society has overcome a series of great difficulties and secured universal recognition.
29Consider the awe-inspiring record of the country of Lenin: the world's first socialist revolution, the foreign intervention, the first five-year periods, the anti-fascist war that saved human civilisation, the rehabilitation period and the subsequent development. In other words, the ideas of Marx and Engels have become part of historical practice. The Soviet people have come a long way from eliminating illiteracy to space exploration, from the shamanism of `` godforsaken'' peoples to advanced science, from the wooden plough to electronics, nuclear energy and biotechnology, from the Asiatic and feudal ways of some areas to socialism which, having triumphed, discharged its historical mission of eliminating social and ethnic oppression.
As Lenin foresaw, our age has become an era of major change in social systems. Socialism is being built on four continents, and whole nations are inspired by socialist ideals. This qualitatively new stage in connected with the participation of the whole socialist community in these developments.
For all the differences in the development level of socialism, for all the local difficulties, distinctive national features and the like, issues connected with the intensification and ``scientification'' of production were also discussed at the congresses of other fraternal parties of the socialist community. The most important step in this direction was taken at the 1984 CMEA conference which charted the overall path for the development of integrated automation, the introduction of new-generation computers and other electronic devices into the economy, the promotion of nuclear power, biotechnology, etc. Together with other changes foreseen by Marx, all this bears out that as a direct productive force, science is acquiring a leading role in production. Since the 1960s, the Soviet Union and the socialist countries in general have been the decisive factor of the historical process. One can imagine that in the world of the year 2000, socialism will have tremendous appeal as a maker of history, with the motive forces of our age in full swing.
The "strategy of acceleration'', the main factor of development in the Soviet Union at the current stage, hinges on two conditions: (a) a scientific and technological 30 restructuring of the economy with subsequent changes in society itself, particularly in the political and intellectual spheres, and (b) a transition from the "peace of fear" to the principles of peaceful coexistence and universal security, advanced in specific terms by Mikhail Gorbachev.
No wonder that the capitalist centres which manipulate public opinion keep spewing the same old propaganda fare. They have barely got over their shock, but they are already switching to the tactics of hushing up the advances and stressing the shortcomings of the Soviet Union. They cannot conceal their delight at the self-criticism aimed against the deficiencies, mistakes, entrenched dogmatism and spiritual passivity of certain leaders, against red tape, backlogs in technological reconversion, slowdowns in the renovation of personnel, shortfalls in education (which, incidentally, leads the world in polytechnic training), and the stubborn reluctance of some executives (reluctance that sometimes lasted for years) to respond effectively to new phenomena which hampered growth rates in conditions of mature socialist social relations. But who, under capitalism, would dare convene such a representative forum to expose all shortcomings so incisively? The fact speaks for itself, despite the antagonism that separates the two systems. Self-criticism and the ability to take a critical look at reality are the happy mission and credo of the strong who can look the nation in the eyes and foresee the future.
Of course, self-criticism is no novelty in Marxism-Leninism, Marx regarded it as a distinctive virtue of socialist revolutions. Lenin elevated it to the status of a method and style of leadership and government. Lenin's disciples were never afraid of speaking the truth and nothing but the truth. Sometimes, after impressive victories, they even enhanced the explosive force of self-criticism. Today, we are not dealing with any ``failure''. It is equally wrong to allege that the congress supported those who believe the inspiring creative potential of socialism exhausted. The modern age itself and the successes scored by the revolutionary movement in virtually all parts of the world are the best evidence refuting this lie.
Nothing is more alien to an idyllic view of the world than the Communists' profoundly critical way of thinking. Why 31 was the time devoted to the assessment of even obvious successes limited so sharply and deliberately at the congress? One reason is self-evident: in order to correct mistakes and be merciless to all that is negative; our Earth is no paradise, and history is made by people. The other reason concerns the very essence of the issue: se/f-cr/tic/sm is an essential element of preparations for qualitative social transformations; this is why se/f-criticism is a spirit that must permeate above all the leadership of the party and the government. Without a critical understanding of reality, one cannot concentrate one's strength to a degree which is necessary for the tackling of tasks that are both material and subjective. Within socialist society, conditions have matured for a more demanding attitude to things, an attitude that is to ensure further perfection of socialism.
At the current stage in the development of socialism, in the peaceful race against its historical rival, one cannot change strategy without making great demands on oneself, without consulting with the party and the people-the principal actors of the heroic prerevolutionary struggle and of all the accomplishments of the postrevolutionary period. These people, in rags, built the first legendary monuments of socialism-the Dnieper Power Station and Magnitogorsk. These people triumphed over Nazism and blazed the trail into space. And these are not only heroic but also largely intellectual people-if one recalls UNESCO statistics on the spread of education and culture among the Soviet people. The 27th Congress was held on their behalf, and Mikhail Gorbachev expressed their aspirations at it.
From the purely theoretical point of view, the Political Report, the new edition of the Programme, the amendments introduced into the CPSU Rules and other documents of the congress exemplify a Marxist-Leninist generalisation, with the organic unity of principles and their practical implementation its principal virtue. As far as the form of these documents is concerned-an aspect invariably of interest to Marx and Lenin-one is glad to see a fresh style and 32 an abhorrence of hackneyed stereotypes. It pays to dwell in greater detail, albeit briefly, on some of the many innovative aspects that help to understand the essence of the questions raised:~
First, one should pay attention to the conceptually essential section on the principal contradictions of today's world. Although its provisions do nothing to change the Marxist view of the matter in general, this part of the document contains, aside from profound generalisations, new aspects in the assessment of the development of imperialism (that is, of capitalism that is not of the nineteenth or the first half of the twentieth century)-the character of state-- monopoly capitalism with its extreme Intel-nationalisation of production, transnationalisation of the monopolies, emergence of a neocolonial system and loss of imperialist domination over one-third of the world's population.
The influence of the mi/itary-industr/a/ complex is treated as a general problem. Methodologically-not structurally--- and with due regard for the peace struggle, a distinction is drawn between the role of this complex (described in greater detail in the Programme) and of monopoly capital as a whole. And, echoing the view Lenin expressed in his works that have become classics, attention is focused on the monstrous hypertrophy of militarism. The report examines the continuous economic and structural crises, the way the law of uneven capitalist development operates in our age, the forms of capital exports, the critical level of exploitation of nations and the special impact of the external debt. This section also analyses the increasingly reactionary development trend of imperialism; spotted by Lenin, it is now leading to extremes such as unbridled savagery, fascism and calls to win back the lost social privileges. Finally, a comparison is drawn between the global consequences of the scientific and technological revolution in both antagonistic systems. It is also interesting to note the conclusions about the increasingly critical level of the total exploitation of the so-called Third World, including reference to the point Lenin made about the use of enormous superprofits for reducing social tensions in the centres of industrialised capitalism.
Second, the report deals with the cardinal problem of 33 war and peace in a bold and innovative way which calls for a change in the way of thinking. The report reiterates the classical point about imperialism being the principal source of aggressive wars. At the same time, the spectrum and the opportunities of those who can change the alignment of forces in their favour and prevent nuclear catastrophe are increasing inexorably. These forces keep submitting new proposals. Today, we are no longer dealing with epidemics-something Engels used to write about-but with a world-wide nuclear conflagration which can destroy indiscriminately both the rich and the poor. There is no doubt that mankind itself will then turn to ashes-as Soviet and US scientists have warned repeatedly. That is why the number of those who advocate destruction is contracting steadily, while the mass action undertaken by the advocates of human survival is sweeping the world. That is why the 27th Congress spoke about peace in a manner that differed somewhat from the way the CPSU had discussed this question earlier, since Lenin's famous Decree, for now we are referring to the survival of the human race itself.
The initiatives advanced by Mikhail Gorbachev prior to the congress were also consonant with this new reality-the proposals on ending nuclear weapon tests and eliminating nuclear weapons by the year 2000 (which Reagan rejected with an air of a macabre buffoon). At the congress, the Soviet leader put forward a series of basic guidelines for peaceful coexistence and security, designed to facilitate a practical transition from the "balance of terror" to goodneighbour relations and multilateral cooperation worldwide.
The Soviet proposals mark a major new frontier which is open to all who love life and which is closed only to the military-industrial complex, its political agents and the brazen ``gold-plated'' elite of monopoly capital with its extremely aggressive imperialist groups which once gave birth to Nazism.
Even Dwight Eisenhower, himself an imperialist and a reactionary, spoke about this monster with alarm when he was stepping down as President; he was the first to refer to it by the now well-known name "military-industrial complex''. This conglomerate has concentrated in its hands 34 superprofits which run into hundreds of billions of dollars, are the source of military tensions and threaten people with nuclear, bacteriological and chemical destruction. Today, there is also the insanity of Star Wars. One might recall the words of the great Goya about monsters being born while reason is asleep.
Pithy phrases from Gorbachev's report pinpoint the essence of the problem: there is no alternative to the struggle against the nuclear threat, the character of present-day weaponry leaves no country any hope of safeguarding itself solely with military and technical means, nuclear weapons make man a hostage of chance.
All this means that one must fight for peace tirelessly and with imagination, with a new mentality that rules out ``door-slamming'' at each deliberate^^1^^ provocation. It is imperative to assist constructive international cooperation on a global scale so as to resolve the global contradictions mentioned in the report and affecting the very foundations of civilisation---problems such as environmental protection, hunger in newly independent developing countries or even peaceful exploration of the seabed and of outer space.
This frank and profoundly humanitarian approach was welcomed sincerely by all people of goodwill despite the frantic efforts of those who tried to distort it. At the same time the congress had occasion to realise that Mikhail Gorbachev was right when he said that "the USA, its military-industrial machine remains the locomotive of militarism, for so far it has no intention of slowing down''. Naturally, the Sbviet leader added, "the interests and aims of the military-industrial complex are not at all the same as the interests and aims of the American people"^^2^^ (emphasis added here and thereafter.-R. A.).
President Reagan rejected the Soviet proposal on ending nuclear testing and, acting in concert with the notorious doctrine of neoglobalism, took up the task of adding fuel to the flame of conflicts and acts of aggression.
According to the logic of the President's shameless assertions, George Washington has acquired new ``disciples''--- such as Jonas Savimbi, other butchers operating in all latitudes, Somoza's thugs and the mercenaries who attack Nicaragua and whom the ex-cowboy of the movies has 35 called, with perverse pleasure, his "spiritual brethren''. Neoglobalism, a smokescreen put up to evade a peaceful dialogue and spur on the arms race, has turned into a truly global strategy of aggression, armed interference and counter-revolutionary ventures. Reagan has even ordered the bombing of Libya, sent warships into Soviet territorial waters and is dispatching more troops to the Nicaraguan border. At the same time he dares cynically mock the efforts of the Latin American heads of state who represent the Contadora process and the group that supports it.
This means that the world sees the US President as a spokesman of domination, aggression and war, as a sworn enemy of progress and freedom. After Geneva and the Soviet proposals that followed, Reagan again flaunted his obsessive desire to lord it over the world and (if only he could) decapitate socialism on the altar of His Majesty the Dollar. It is the task of all mankind, of all nations who are for peace and against the nuclear monster to curb the aggressor. The current millennium which is drawing to a close has the means to do it. And they are named in the CPSU Programme: "the main motive forces of social developmentworld socialism, the working class and communist movement, the people of the newly free states and the mass democratic movements".^^3^^ All who are guided by reason are on the side of these motive forces.
Like drunk and overconfident gamblers, the leaders of imperialist reaction are staking the future of life itself on nuclear conflict. The militant message of the 27th Congress to all people of goodwill is a call to build a system of peace and universal security and thus save life on Earth.
Third, the strategy of acceleration stems wholly from the unity of practice and theory and is clearly the most important creative contribution to the decisions taken at the congress.
However, there arises in this connection a question that should be answered: has the 27th Congress raised, in a specific manner, the issue of the phases, that is, the issue of the complete maturity of socialism and its advancement to the ``threshold'' of communism? The answer is contained in the very title of the second part of the Programme: "The CPSU's Tasks in Perfecting Socialism and Making a Gradual 36 Transition to Communism''. The text that follows offers a definition of communism and reiterates what Marx and Lenin said about the two phases: "There is no distinct line dividing them: the development of socialism, ever fuller revelation of its possibilities and advantages, and consolidation of the general communist principles characteristic of it is what is meant by the actual advance of society to communism.''^^4^^ Meanwhile, in the Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the congress we can see that the new edition of the Programme "reasserts the main goals of the CPSU, the basic laws governing communist construction, and at the same time shows that the accumulated historical experience has been interpreted in a creative manner, and that the strategy and tactics have been elaborated to suit the specificities of the present turning point".^^5^^ As for the category of "developed socialism'', the Programme recognises it and states that the Soviet Union is currently going through this stage.
Our great appreciation of the results achieved by the congress is obvious, and we could have concluded our comment right here. However, one must also note that Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Communists, farsightedly conducts criticism on two fronts-against those who dreamed of ``skipping'' stages of development and advanced unrealistic and almost Utopian tasks (these have been deleted from the Programme) and against tolerance of old and new mistakes, with the culprits seeking to hide behind trite references to the "objective difficulties" of the socialist phase. I think that the Political Report and the new edition of the Programme have abandoped the primitive idea of "sprouts of communism" which were sometimes identified with a certain level of social security, with inexpensive or free services (from housing to education). Today, the task is to grasp more profoundly the process of the communist phase maturing organically in the womb of socialism, to view their interrelationship in toto, in dialectical unity, as charted by Marx and Lenin.
On the theoretical plane, this appeal to realism and confidence in the future exemplifies a critical approach to reality. On the plane of practical action, it is connected with the issue of the material and technical basis, of 37 developing mature socialist relations and of bringing about a profound change in man's attitude to labour and in his striving to overcome age-old human contradictions and weaknesses. This explains why, under the Soviet five-year plans for the future, acceleration, mature socialist relations and involvement in labour will be essential for the transition to communism. Particularly specific emphasis is laid on a series of tasks ranging from a change in the way of thinking to comprehensive expansion of socialist self-- government. In this connection one would be well advised to examine, in organic unity, all provisions of the Report and the Programme setting concrete tasks for the period through the year 2000-from a complete scientific and technological restructuring of the economy, which is the essential first step to an abundance based on the highest possible rise in the efficiency of the productive forces and in labour productivity, to the new attitude to work; or from introducing machinery into rural areas to a profound scientific, technological, intellectual and moral restructuring of the rural dweller who will be overcoming the main differences between urban and rural areas, between work by hand and by brain.
One should note that the Programme sets the specific task of overcoming the substantial differences ( contradictions) between town and country mainly "in the historical framework of the first, socialist phase of the communist formation".^^6^^ All this will occur in the course of a process that will lead to the abolition of classes and the elimination of differences between industrial workers, farmers and intellectuals. In other words, we are witnessing an organic connection that already exists between our age and the prospects outlined by Marx in his Critique of the Gotha Programme and by Lenin in The State and Revolution.
The fact that these major future transformations were discussed at a congress which dealt with practical issues of perfecting socialism may have seemed to some divorced from reality and thus of little practical value, even though the congress stressed the need to fully apply the laws governing remuneration and distribution in concert with the principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his work" and although other important matters were 38 also examined-such as the extirpation of parasitism and other social ills or the mission of promoting an attitude of masters of everything society has among the masses. Still, one would be shortsighted not to notice the profound connection linking the strategy the CPSU has charted for the period through the year 2000 with the creation, even now, of very tangible conditions for a transition to the communist phase. "The party,'' the Programme says, "always correlates its policy, economic and 'social strategy, and the tasks of its organisational and ideological work with the communist perspective.''^^7^^
The fact that the Programme reiterates the classical precept about a gradual transition from the state to the ``non-state'' (Engels and Lenin) and about the withering away of political and coercive functions at the latter stagea theoretical question whose solution is complicated by the division of the world into two antagonistic systems-does not remove the need for more vigorous popular participation in the management of society but imparts a new and powerful impetus to this necessity. This lends a modern significance to the more or less forgotten precept about the transition from government for the people to government by the people. I would say that in this context, it is imperative to read anew everything Lenin wrote about the distinctive features of the Soviets as a form of government of a new type, with particularly broad and profound democracy.
Fidel Castro has said that without the October Revolution, there would have been no Cuban Revolution. Naturally, he was not referring to the accomplishments and progress of the insurgent movement which owed its successes only to the Cuban people and their leader. He was speaking in broad historical terms-and not only because later, under the very nose of the imperialist monster, the Soviet Union and other socialist countries contributed decisively to the defence and consolidation of the new system in Cuba, but also because the very existence of socialism and its victories that changed the world alignment of forces furthered the 39 consolidation of the socialist community, the collapse of colonial empires and the emergence of many newly liberated nations. This also made possible an upsurge of the national liberation movement in Latin America. A continent which, according to Lenin, offered a classical example of dependence became a protagonist in the revolutionary transformation of the world. We have repeatedly stressed certain fundamental truths about the current situation in Latin America, and I would like" to recapitulate some of them.
First, the Cuban Revolution, which made the Island of Freedom a member of the socialist community and the mainstay and lodestar of the Latin American peoples' movement towards unity in the name of economic and political self-determination, was the most important event in the history of the continent since the War of Independence. The innovative character of the Cuban events has shaped two intertwined features of the Latin American revolution: on the one hand, a diversity of national manifestations and, on the other, a distinctive and essential unity which makes it possible to refer to a single revolutionary process at the continental level and shapes a common strategy vis-a-vis US imperialism. This became especially evident after Cuba. Today, it would never occur to anyone-as it sometimes did in the 1960s-to regard the Cuban Revolution as an isolated phenomenon without any direct connection with the future of the continent, as a historical accident similar to an earthquake in one of Latin America's seismic zones. This revolution was truly the dawn of a new age, an accomplishment that broke one of the principal links in the chain of US imperialist domination. It was the triumphant beginning of the second war of independence. In other words, it ushered in a new era of national, democratic and socialist revolutions and liberation movements which can now spread throughout all countries south of the Rio Grande. For this reason, and because it was an authentic revolution, Cuba is waging its struggle at a profoundly new historical juncture, with due regard for the dialectics of revolution and counter-revolution-counter-revolution that is imposed on the Latin Americans by the United States on which we depend as its biggest ``backyard''.
40If we begin to analyse the events from the mid-1950s, when revolutions occurred in Bolivia and Guatemala, even the most incorrigible of dogmatists and the most recalcitrant of Eurocentrists will be unable to deny that the subsequent three decades of the stormy socio-political history of Latin American peoples have borne out both the diversity and the unity of our revolutionary process, as well as its harsh dialectics in which anti-imperialism and the class struggle have intertwined so closely.
During the deliberations of the 27th Congress which noted the different levels of capitalist development and the ruthless exploitation of Latin American peoples, one was struck by the marked changes in the "social temperature" of our region, by the diversity of political situations, of the tactical goals and methods of the working class, other revolutionary forces and communist parties, by the different degrees of their appeal in different countries and zones. But the unity of the continent-wide process is even more obvious: we are facing incessant offensives and counteroffensives of US imperialism, and this demands that Latin American peoples and governments adopt common positions.
The counter-revolutionary and predatory nature, the unbridled greed and brutality of the Reagan administrationNicaragua and El Salvador are now the prime victims (although one must not forget the protracted and futile ``war'' against Cuba and the rape of Grenada)-are making themselves felt in all republics of Latin America, sometimes assuming different disguises. The support of Pinochet and Stroessner, the displays of military might, the conspiracies against democracy and the national sovereignty of the countries lying to the south of the United States, the economic plunder, the psychological warfare, the ``infiltration'' of Latin American armed forces, the often undisguised financing of fascism---these are only some of the facts confirming the acuteness and complexity of the struggle against imperialism.
On the other hand however, the Latin American revolution, our patriotic and democratic movement have also entered a new historical period. The wind of revolutionary and democratic change, the striving of our nations for 41 economic and political self-determination, the exacerbation of antagonistic contradictions with, imperialism, above all US imperialism, are harbingers of decisive battles to be fought in this new period.
The counter-offensive of imperialism and fascism whidi, at the dawn of the 1970s, hit Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia (aside from the military dictatorship in Brazil and the tyrannical regimes in Central America and the Caribbean that were already in existence) has been frustrated. There were those who underestimated the danger of this continental and international onslaught of fascism and diffidently described the regimes that were installed as "right-wing dictatorships''. The extremely reactionary forces have been routed as a result of far-reaching historical changes. The Nicaraguan Revolution was the first of the changes that spread throughout the continent: an armed struggle was launched in El Salvador, the Chilean people awakened, the Guatemalans displayed epic heroism, the fascist dictatorships in the Southern Cone countries collapsed resoundingly, and popular indignation exploded in Haiti. Add to that-and note its importance-the growth in the contradictions between the peoples and governments of Latin America, on the one hand, and, on the other, the Reagan administration with its savage, cynical and brutal policy, particularly with regard to Nicaragua. For, although the position of the Contadora countries and of the group supporting them cannot be described as consistently or at least openly anti-imperialist, it is nevertheless a new phenomenon in Latin America. Even the Organisation of American States has condemned the blockade of Nicaragua!
In fact, all democratic governments of South America as well as Mexico are involved in resisting the policy of Reagan and the US military-industrial complex. The external debt has aggravated the situation. One should also stress that those Latin American countries that employ democratic forms of government have reached particularly high levels of capitalist development; in some of them, the activity of workers and of the popular masses is quite pronounced. In the grim years when several brutal fascist dictatorships tortured and butchered the peoples of South America, we said that although the advent of these regimes was a 42 serious setback for the liberation process, the peoples of the continent would resist them, and that the very existence of these tyrannies served to narrow the social, political and ideological base of imperialist domination. Life has confirmed our forecasts concerning the scope of the battles to be fought at the national and general democratic level as well as the urgent demand to link this struggle with the creation of anti-imperialist fronts and the consolidation of communist parties.
Second, today it is abundantly clear that the movements which have been springing up everywhere---from the broad mass action in Uruguay, Chile, Peru and other countries to genuine and far-reaching socialist and anti-imperialist revolutions (such as those that won in Cuba and Nicaragua or were defeated in Chile and Grenada)-are not isolated phenomena or accidental twists of ``provincial'' Latin American history. It would be an even greater fallacy to believe that this process lacks a necessary and growing material base or the required level of subjective national and democratic maturity with certain socialist elements.
The masses of industrial workers are involved in the struggle; the agrarian movement exists, although it is lagging behind; the intellectuals who have made a political choice are becoming increasingly active; the multitude of students and young people is in ferment; millions of women are joining the struggle heroically and selflessly. From Cuba to Nicaragua and Central America, a store of positive and negative political and military experience is accumulating, including both the 1960s school of the guerrilla struggle and the obsession with exclusively guerrilla methods, both successful efforts to overcome routine-bound thinking and cases when revolutionary vision has been lost. One should single out yet another sign of the maturity this process has reached: there is now increased understanding of the need for unity among the democratic and anti-imperialist forces. Suffice it to recall the insurgent movement in El Salvador or the emergence of entities that carry political weightsuch as the Broad Front in Uruguay, the United Left in Peru, the People's Democratic Movement in Chile, the Patriotic Union in Colombia and the like.
What about the material potential of our struggle? In 43 Latin America, capitalism has grown up and will continue to grow despite the fact that it is deformed by the backward agrarian relations (latifundismo), by precapitalist holdovers and by dependence, particularly on the United States. In conditions of transnationalisation and of the monstrous external debt so brilliantly exposed by Fidel Castro as the extreme expression of dependence, the crisis of Latin American society has acquired global dimensions and can only be overcome through revolution. This is an incontrovertible truth. It does not prevent one from saying that, to a certain extent, it is also possible to fight against the crisis by carrying out structural reforms, rejecting the external debt and IMF policies, effecting general democratic transformations and thus promoting social progress and the struggle for Latin American integration and a new international economic order (here one should note Mikhail Gorbachev's words about the "new capitalist centres of power" and the passage in the CPSU Programme where direct reference to Latin America is made in this connection).
The democracy that has re-emerged on our continent must not only gain strength but also advance. Our profoundly national objectives must not come into conflict with the strategy of peace and anti-imperialism. One cannot pay in blood for the solution of the social problems plaguing the Latin Americans who, facing US imperialism and an explosive situation, are upholding their political and economic independence and democracy. The Latin American peoples who see Cuba as an example of socialism do not want to be "beggars on thrones of gold'', as Alexander Humboldt once called them.^^8^^ Fidel Castro's profound analysis of the extremely acute problem of the external debt is sounding the alarm. For his part, Mikhail Gorbachev speaks of "bags of money" that "are liable to become kegs of gunpowder".^^9^^ This is a figure of speech, but it sums up the situation aptly.
The dynamics of Latin American politics, objectively accelerated by the threats of US imperialism, particularly against Nicaragua, make it incumbent on us Communists to work out a definite strategy, just as we did during the struggle against fascism. This strategy should dialectically 44 combine broad scope and profound meaning. Broadness implies the creation of a front comprising peoples and governments; depth refers to the ability to rally all motive forces of the democratic and anti-imperialist revolution around common objectives. This is how we are proceeding in Uruguay: the entire nation rallied together in its rejeo tion of the dictatorship, and the glorious and heroic Broad Front and the Communist Party were in the front ranks.
The example of the socialist system and the recent 27th Congress of the CPSU will give a new impetus to the struggle the Latin Americans are waging. Let the year 2000 become a dawn for us, a dawn free from the dark thunderheads coming to overshadow us from the "tumultuous North'', as the great Marti called the United States.
^^1^^ Mikhail Gorbachev, Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 27th Party Congress, Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow, 1986, p. 10.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 73.
~^^3^^ The Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (A New Edition), Politizdat, Moscow, 1986, p. 22.
^^4^^ Ibid.
~^^5^^ Mikhail Gorbachev, op. cit., p. 106.
^^6^^ The Programme of the CPSU, p. 43. i Ibid., p. 26.
^^8^^ Alexander Humboldt (1769---1859) was an outstanding German naturalist, geographer and explorer.---Erf.
~^^9^^ Mikhail Gorbachev, op. cit., p. 20.
[45] __ALPHA_LVL2__ Along the Leninist PathHungary regained independence and embarked on a course of social progress four decades ago. Since then our workers, peasants, intellectuals and other working people have achieved significant results; they have established and consolidated people's rule, socialised the means of production, gone over to a planned economy with full employment, made gains in industry and reorganised agriculture on socialist principles. Socialist democracy is the rule everywhere, national unity has become closer, culture and education have been developing on a guaranteed basis and the dayto-day living conditions have undergone a radical change. Our road was not always straight. We arrived at the current stage in socialist construction after suffering reverses and overcoming errors. Reorganised on Marxist-Leninist lines, the HSWP^^1^^ did away with the deformations and mistakes of the early years of the new society's construction and took this experience into account in its further activity. The confidence which our party enjoys among the people today was won by sustained effort, by loyally serving the interests of the working class and other working people. Under the leadership of the HSWP, building a developed socialist society became a national programme in Hungary.
The fulfilment of this programme over the past years has been going on in more difficult conditions than earlier. A tense international situation, the need to make up for changes in the world economy unfavourable to us, the difficulty of moving on intensive economic development exacted additional efforts from the people. We preserved our 46 socialist gains: durable people's rule, national unity and a secure life-and increased the wealth of the country. These are most tangible results, since we had to stand many a test. Thanks to the industry, skill and devotion of the people and the collective effort of party, government and social organisations, the development of society followed the line approved by the HSWP early in this decade; the main goals set by the party were attained.
The 13th HSWP Congress (March 25--28, 1985) reaffirmed the party's general line and carried it forward in accordance with new exigencies. The Congress expressed the conviction that there is a dependable basis in Hungary for continuing the construction of the new society. The paramount task for the years ahead is to go on building a developed socialist society on the basis of our historical achievements. This means ascertaining and using the potentialities of our system, building up the economic might of the nation and creating the prerequisites for a further consolidation of the economic balance and a tangible improvement of the standard of living, advancing science, culture and education and thereby helping people use their creative abilities, improving democratic institutions and achieving closer national unity in keeping with socialist aims.
The central thesis of the Congress was "Forward along the Leninist path''. It guides the everyday activity of the HSWP, which is pursuing a principled Marxist-Leninist policy built on confidence between the party and the people. Our approach to international and national problems combines socialist patriotism with proletarian internationalism. We Communists are accountable to history for the realisation of our people's national programme: building a developed socialist society. The HSWP creatively applies the general laws of building the new society; it takes account of the distinctive characteristics of Hungary and draws on the vast experience gained by fraternal parties. Serving the interests of the country and people is combined with the struggle for peace, socialism and progress.
The party, which is the revolutionary vanguard of the working class and other working people of Hungary, plays the leading role in society. In keeping with its historical mission, it guides and organises socialist construction 47 ideologically and politically. It carries on its policy through the Communists working in government agencies and social organisations, respecting the autonomy of these entities. The degree to which party policy is put into practice shows how real the leadership provided by the party is. In the process, every Communist is faced with a task of his own, for the principal method of implementing the party line is persuasion, ideological influence and mobilisation of the people.
The party's guiding activity encompasses all key spheres of public life. The party is building up its links with the masses, winning their support again and again. "The party's guiding thought and idea,'' said HSWP General Secretary Janos Kadar, speaking to the Congress, "consists in its aspiration to continue justifying the confidence of the working class and other working people, a confidence won in historical struggles. The party fully believes in our working class, our working peasantry, all our working people, and relies on their support... Our party is guided by lasting principles and not by dogmas. It searches for correct, socialist answers to new questions raised by development. After all,-life moves fast and at higher development levels there arise new questions which cannot quite be answered in the same way as they were decades or even ten or twenty years ago. This calls for a constant renewal of our policy... We see our ideal in a party having firm principles, circumspect and thoughtful in its everyday policy and always ready for renewal.''^^2^^
The party's entire activity, including its organisational work, is increasingly permeated by democracy. Preparations for the Congress included two meetings in every party branch. The first meeting assessed on the basis of the party leadership's report the work done in the previous five years and elected the chairman of the second meeting plus two commissions: a commission for the nomination of candidates and a tellers' commission. In between the two meetings members of the former ascertained the Communists' opinion about those eligible as secretaries and members of the new bureau. The second meeting discussed the Congress theses, whereupon the nomination commission proposed candidates for election to the new party bureau. 48 Following an open debate the meeting resolved to include definite name in the ballot-paper and then elected by ballot a new leadership and delegates to the pre-Congress conference of the higher party body. Similar preparations preceded elections in all other party bodies, including the highest. Thus compliance with party democracy made it possible to select for leading positions on all levels persons whom the membership considered the most competent. It is essential that decisions passed by a majority vote are unfailingly carried out.
The theses, the most important political document for the preparations for the 13th Congress, were published and submitted to the people for discussion several months before the Congress met. This was done in line with a longstanding practice that had proved its worth, the purpose being to ascertain the more fully the views of the party membership, non-Communists and the people as a whole, verify the party's assessment of its previous effort and the correctness of the concepts and plans proposed by it. Mass organisations and scientific institutions were consulted and their opinions and experience taken into consideration. The praise and criticisms voiced in the course of the debate helped the Congress adopt resolutions on the tasks listed in its agenda and on a fitting continuation of our fortyyear advance along the socialist road.
The Communists thus play an active role not only in the drafting and adoption of decisions but also in their fulfilment. Free discussion, confrontation of opinions, criticism and self-criticism in party organisations and at party congresses contribute to the unity of our ranks and provide a basis for joint action. All party members participate in general meetings and the meetings of elected bodies on an equal footing and have equal duties; what determines the outcome of any discussion is not this or that speaker's office but the credibility of his argument. Extending party democracy is an essential requisite for fostering socialist democracy.
We attach special importance to greater centralism in the HSWP's activity and the enforcement of discipline, which is binding on every Communist. The policy of the party and the resolutions of its leading bodies must be carried into 49 practice everywhere. This depends to a considerable extent on how well execution is organised and supervised. We are going to give this matter closer attention in order to enhance the party's role in the management of society, its preparedness for action and its efficiency. We also consider it necessary to inform Communists better and better and to insist that they should implement the party line resolutely and competently, in accordance with socialist goals and ideals. The HSWP will ensure in everyday practice, as it has done in the past, compliance with Leninist norms, including collective decision-making and personal accountability for the fulfilment of decisions.
Party unity was put to a serious test in recent years, against the background of a worsened international situation and under the impact of certain economic and social problems. The party stood the test. Most of its members live and work according to the provisions of the Rules and meet their civic and party obligations. We think highly of Communists who serve our common cause, the cause of all working people, with devotion.
The party considers it very important to continuously renew itself and strengthen its ideological and organisational unity as well as its unity of action. It is not enough to merely accept definite principles. The criterion of real unity is action, the consistency with which Communists defend party policy, and their active participation in its realisation. Ideological work and political education are prerequisites for solving social, political and economic problems. It is hard to see clearly and take one's bearings in a complicated situation; public opinion does not always react correctly to the contradictions and economic difficulties of society's development.
The HSWP strives to concentrate its ideological activity on forming a judicious way of life which respects labour, vindicates social justice and induces people to guide themselves by socialist and humanist values. At the same time we consider it important to resist selfishness, foster a collect ivist spirit, strengthen civic discipline, help mould a really national consciousness and self-respect and socialist patriotism, and oppose nationalism and cosmopolitanism. The party brings it home to the people that a major 50 guarantee of their future is to contribute to universal social progress, respect and apply the principles of proletarian internationalism and identify themselves with the international communist and working class movement.
Loyal to Marxism-Leninism, we safeguard the purity of its ideas and reject all distortions of it from either the right or the ``Left''. We see the chief task in disseminating these ideas among the people. With socialist construction going on, the HSWP adds new elements to its policy that may not be immediately appreciated by everybody. This makes it a standing task of our explanatory work to answer in time the questions that arise.
Imperialist propaganda is particularly aggressive in today's tense international situation; it is doing its utmost to oppose socialist countries to one another. This is why we attach great importance to ensuring that Hungarian Communists resist and defeat such attempts, proceeding unanimously and consistently.
The party's policy expresses the fundamental interests of all classes and sections of society. It takes account of social relations and brings into the open contradictions that arise in the course of development. The party initiates the people into its plans and takes their opinion into account. This enabled the 13th Congress to set realistic tasks, spur the unification of the forces committed to the country's progress, strengthen the political mainstay of people's rule---the worker-peasant alliance-reaffirm its policy of alliance and make relations between the party and the people based on confidence closer still.
Building socialism requires joint efforts by the whole nation. Our policy of alliance reflects the alliance between classes. The workers, or the leading social class, make up 56 per cent of the working population and the cooperative peasantry, 14 per cent. The role of intellectuals and office employees (26 per cent) is growing as society develops. Small producers, handicraftsmen and small traders (four per cent) are engaged in useful activity. Further, the policy of alliance reflects the alliance of the Communists with peopJe professing other world-views. Socialist construction has forged national unity by uniting Communists and non_ Communists, believers and non-believers, Hungarians and 51 members of other nationalities, all who feel responsible for the destiny of the country and in working for its good ensure their own welfare.
The party could not accomplish its mission-building socialism-singlehanded. "The idea of building communist society exclusively with the hands of the Communists is childish, absolutely childish,'' Lenin pointed out. "We Communists are but a drop in the ocean, a drop in the ocean of the people.''^^3^^ He also stressed that "a number of capable and honest non-party people are coming to the fore from the ranks of the workers, peasants and intellectuals, and they should be promoted to more important positions in economic work, with the Communists continuing to exercise the necessary control and guidance. Conversely, we must have non-party people controlling the Communists".* Our principle is that non-party people can be entrusted with any functions (except party functions, of course) that correspond to their abilities. Many of them hold leading positions in diverse spheres of life, showing high proficiency and political and moral qualities corresponding to their responsibilities.
Mass and other social organisations have an important rale to play in the implementation of the policy of alliance and the consolidation of socialist national unity. Our party relies on the support of the trade unions, the Youth League, the Fatherland Popular Front and other movements, associations and alignments adhering to socialism and operating independently in conformity with the laws of the republic. The HSWP counts on their participation in the working out and implementation of its line at all stages. The fact that in forming socialist national unity problems of development were resolved with the participation of the mass of non-party people may be regarded as a major achievement of our policy of alliance. This policy has truly become a cause of the people as a whole. The search for new solutions and new forms and methods of socialist construction is hot carried on within the party alone and goes far beyond its framework. This is highly important for encouraging the initiative of the various enterprises, organisations, and industrial facilities in the localities and hence for making them more accountable for their work.
52The views of the overwhelming majority of the people on key problems of socialist construction are similar. We will continue building up this unity, seeing to it that everybody know the tasks facing society and that these tasks are fulfilled jointly. The party's effort to give correct answers to new questions-answers which crystallise as a result of constructive discussion-prompts the people to do their duty conscientiously. The Communists' ideas find response among the working people, as the fruitful mass emulation movement launched in honour of the 13th Congress showed.
To carry out the decisions of the Congress, the party must raise its activity to a higher plane, must perfect its working methods, so that every party committee or organisation may meet the higher exigencies of today. We are set on fostering selflessness in party work, on raising the membership's militancy. Besides, we consider it important not to overburden lower echelons of the party with obligatory subjects for discussion at meetings, with instructions, and to reduce the number of written accounts and various conferences. Party branches need help to be able to carry out the instructions of central bodies, doing it not dominally but with due regard to local conditions and requirements, and to decide and carry out their tasks themselves.
The economy is the key sphere of socialist construction. Although external economic conditions have become more complicated, we have succeeded over the past years in maintaining economic stability and preserving the main social achievements. We have not only kept the economy balanced but strengthened it from the point of view of the state budget, the workforce and investments; goods supply has been abreast of solvent demand, the national income has grown and a substantial part of this increase has been used to reduce the foreign debt.
Industrial production in Hungary went up by ten per cent in four years, or less than planned. However, we may record it as a notable achievement that industrial exports grew faster than production for export in spite of difficulties in marketing. The import requirements of industry decreased. The tasks set before industry were fulfilled by using a smaller workforce than before, that is, by raising labour 53 productivity. The utilisation of material and power resources improved.
Agricultural production increased by 12 or 13 per cent over the average of the previous five years. Results achieved in harvesting and processing cereals and industrial crops made it possible to both meet domestic requirements and increase exports. Recurrent droughts notwithstanding, the past years saw wheat and maize harvests average 4.6 and 6.1 tons per hectare respectively. Stock-farming exceeded plan targets; in 1983 it produced as much as had been planned for 1985.
Management is being transferred to intensive methods, but much remains to be done to resolve this problem on the scale of the whole economy. We have yet to bring about the needed increase in profitableness, raise the competitive capacity of our products and quicken the pace of technological progress. We are still slow in applying scientific achievements in practice.
On making an in-depth analysis and assessing the external and internal conditions of the country's economic development, the party came to the conclusion that this process will have to be stepped up in the years ahead. As far as the foreseeable future is concerned, the situation on the world market is unlikely to become more favourable, hence we will have to improve the internal conditions of social production to an extent enabling us to continue making it more balanced. After the Twelfth HSWP Congress there were positive trends in raising labour productivity and mobilising resources. This provided the basis for expanding production at a higher rate and creating funds to be spent on more rapid technological progress and a tangible rise in the standard of living.
We estimate that the national income will go up by 14 to 17 per cent under the seventh five-year plan (1986--1990), with industrial production increasing by 13 to 16 per cent and agricultural output by 12 to 14 per cent. If we maintain the economic growth rate we have set, we will be able to increase internal consumption by 13 to 16 per cent and stabilise the foreign economic balance still further. This will require the concentration of a substantial part of material and mental resources in the more promising fields: 54 electronics, computerisation, automation and robotisation, the application of up-to-date methods of production organisation, the output of chemical products, the manufacture of progressive types of machinery and equipment for agriculture and the food industry, the introduction of material-- saving technologies and biotechnologies, and the comprehensive and effective use of natural wealth.
The republic's industries are a decisive factor in increasing the national income but so far their share is smaller than needed. Dynamic development, effective production and a higher competitive capacity of our output will depend heavily on whether we succeed in moving our industries to the fore in world technical and technological progress.
Our industries currently employ too many people. The size of staffs must be determined in accordance with considerations of profitableness. Many more people than before will be transferred from abolished jobs and unprofitable enterprises to other work places; we will have to encourage them to change their jobs and possibly their professions. Full employment is a tremendous achievement of socialism. But in the future too it will be important for us to use the workforce efficiently, which is a responsibility of industrial facilities. One of the tasks of government bodies is still to provide the prerequisites for full employment.
An economic priority now as in the past is to coordinate the development of agriculture and the food industry. The natural conditions of the country and the means which major farms command make it possible to supply the population with high-quality food products and to increase exports in keeping with the market demand. While the introduction of intensive methods in agriculture has proved its worth, this branch still has untapped resources. There are large possibilities for cutting production costs, increasing crop yields by making better use* of and renewing the material, technical and biological basis for food production, exploiting soil fertility judiciously and processing farm produce to a higher degree.
All this will depend, above all, on major socialist farms, that is, cooperatives and state farms. Ancillary and subsidiary husbandries will go on playing a notable part, with 55 large-scale production assisting them. While giving largescale production every support, we consider it advisable to make fuller use of personal and family reserves of labour in various spheres.
The economic management system introduced in Hungary in 1968 is one of the systems of this nature evolved and being used in fraternal socialist countries. It effectively performs its function by serving to attain the socialist goals we have set before ourselves, for it takes account of the general laws governing the construction of the new society as well as of Hungarian conditions. This system encourages the working people's initiative. Economic management is developing within the planned socialist economy and is based on combining the economic plan with the commoditymoney, market relations existing under socialism. We strive to make central management by the state more efficient, allow the enterprises greater autonomy, offer them greater incentives for the development of production and give them a bigger share of the responsibility for it. With these ends in view, we are perfecting planning, economic regulation and the organisational structure.
Hungary's participation in CMEA activity, including socialist integration, plays a decisive part in working out our economic plans and our foreign economic strategy. The Soviet Union is our most important economic partner. We will seek more extensive cooperation with it and enhance the effectiveness of our mutual relations by making better use of opportunities for specialisation and cooperation in production.
Hungary takes energetic steps to fulfil the decisions of the 1984 CMEA Economic Summit, which will make it possible to coordinate the member-states' economic development better than before. We are certain that closer cooperation in science and technology, the satisfaction of power and raw material requirements, economic and political consultations on a regular basis and the promotion of economic methods of cooperation will make for more rapid and intensive progress in fraternal countries and strengthen their positions in the world economy. We are ready to continue building up cooperation on these lines with all socialist countries.
56The HPR advocates more extensive mutually beneficial economic, scientific and technological ties with industrial capitalist countries. However, this is hampered by the measures these countries are taking to inflict damage on us. As for our relations with developing countries, we promote cooperation in production, rendering these countries technological aid and training their specialists.
The main principle of party policy towards the standard of living is that every person should enjoy material benefits according to his work. Socialism provides the necessary means of subsistence through the right to work and the social security system. We see an important prerequisite for balanced and steady economic development in distributing only what has been produced, for the living standard of the population depends solely on economic productivity.
After the Twelfth Congress of the HSWP real incomes and consumption in Hungary have risen by 6 per cent but real wages and part of the real amount of pensions and social allowances have declined; life has become harder for some population groups. The tasks set by us to improve living conditions were basically accomplished: the population was steadily supplied with goods, more apartments were built, the supply of household durables improved. The medical and cultural services and social security are comparable to those of countries whose economies are on the same level. We now have a five-day working week.
Our next five-year plan is aimed at accelerating economic growth and raising the standard of living, if modestly, by managing the economy more efficiently. We want to augment per capita real incomes and consumption by 10 to 13 per cent in the 1986--1990 period and at the same time to increase real wages.
An effort will be made to improve goods supply and extend the service sector in accordance with growing incomes. The provision of housing is a most important socio-- political task. When specifying the conditions on which family can obtain an apartment, we intend to take fuller account of distinctions in the financial and social positions of the family.
The HSWP is of the opinion that the growth of the economy will depend largely on consistent application of the 57 principle of distribution according to work. In perfecting current methods of economic management, we set out to provide conditions making it possible to remunerate labour better than at present, to ease social inequality, distribute the common burden more evenly and offer greater incentives for development. It was found necessary to grant more in the form of allowances and benefits to those who need it. The party gives much attention to the living conditions of large families, young people and pensioners who are worse off than other population groups. It has been decided to increase the government's share of expenditures for the upbringing of children. The child care allowance, which is now paid over a period of three years after the child's birth, will be gradually transformed into a cash allowance equalling 75 per cent of the wages of the person concerned. Grants for children are being increased and the housing conditions of large families will be improved. Young people beginning an active life will be offered easy terms to obtain an apartment and set up a family. An important task is to offer elderly people greater security. Since the right to a pension is acquired through work, additional efforts will be needed to preserve the real pensions and increase low ones. Consistent application of the principle of distribution according to work also makes it necessary to prevent or stop the acquisition of unearned incomes, incomes out of keeping with the work done and unlawful profits. Party, government and social organisations take a firm stand against anyone who gets benefits unearned by conscientious work and hence damaging other people's interests. A blind eye cannot be turned to this. Conduct alien to the socialist system will be punished under the law regardless of who is involved or what office he holds.
The foundations of our social system are solid. Almost all means of production are socialist property, being owned by the state or cooperatives. To augment, protect and make increasing use of its advantages are a fundamental condition of the new society's development.
There are advances in the economy and nearly all other fields. These are clearly evident in political relations. Extending socialist democracy is a programme demand of our party and a permanent component of its policy. We see in 58 democracy an important condition and motive force of the new society and will therefore work to strengthen it in every sphere.
A general orientation of this work is to enhance the independence and responsibility of people's representative bodies, public organisations, industrial facilities and other enterprises.
Our electoral system was perfected some time ago by introducing a national list on which people vote for those who hold particularly important positions, well-known statesmen and other public figures. It was decided to nominate in every constituency several candidates for election to government bodies. They all support the electoral programme of the Fatherland Popular Front, which is based on the main guidelines for development formulated by the 13th HSWP Congress. The nomination of several candidates enables the electorate to select and support those who will, in their opinion, show particular energy in defending the voters' interests and contribute better than others to the attainment of both national and regional goals. We expect the revised electoral system to help strengthen the socialist national unity of our people and enhance the democratic character of our system. Greater harmony between the functions of the State Assembly, local councils and their concrete activities will strengthen people's power.
The newly elected State Assembly and councils are gaining in significance, with their activity acquiring new features. The Hungarian parliament will become a still more important factor in solving political problems through public debate; it will discuss more often concepts and plans relating to government measures; its role in control over the functioning of central government bodies will grow. The character of local councils as bodies representing the people and self-government will come out in greater measure. They will take greater account of public opinion and make independent decisions on a wide range of issues, being less inhibited than in the past.
Roughly two-thirds of state enterprises will gradually change to new forms of management. Councils are being set up in large factories. Most of their members will be elected for five years by the workers or their delegates; the 59 rest (not more than one-third of the total membership) will be appointed by the management. In conformity with the principles of the party's personnel policy, the council will elect a manager by ballot. As for smaller factories, they will have leaderships; their members and the manager will be elected by a general meeting of the staff or a meeting of delegates.
All new forms of management have a noteworthy characteristic in that enterprises will use property and labour independently, without violating, needless to say, legal standards. The main right and duty of collectives will be to effectively use and increase the material and mental resources at their disposal. This will make higher demands on leaders and help managers and subordinates realise that they are the masters and induce them to make the best possible use of funds and objects of work. We want to ensure that as many workers as possible take part in management, social control and public affairs. This is why we are working to improve their general education and vocational training.
The heads of an increasing number of institutions are elected by open competition. Managers elected in this way will have to perform their functions over a definite period; they will have to show political reliability, professional competence and capacity for leadership. We devote special attention to promoting democracy as a motive factor of the agricultural cooperatives. This is helping to find efficient managers of production and ensure a skilful coupling of the interests of each given cooperative, of its members with those of the state.
The management system is intended to serve more fully than before as a means of raising efficiency, and encouraging autonomy and initiative in order to allow greater scope for the application of creative energy and bring public and personal interests into closer harmony.
The international communist and working-class movement is a dependable bulwark of socialist construction in Hungary; it is through it that the life of our country merges into the general stream of human progress. The HSWP helps strengthen the cohesion of our movement and contributes to the success of the common cause, including the 60 preservation of world peace and social progress. Our party attaches vast importance to the struggle to bring about closer unity among communist and workers' parties by supporting creative, public, comradely exchanges of opinion on a bilateral or multilateral basis.
The Hungarian people have been living and working in peace for forty years now. Peace is the chief prerequisite for socialist construction; by the same token, our creative effort is the most dependable contribution to the preservation of peace. Unfavourable trends have lately gained strength on the international scene. The main reason for stepped-up tensions is the bid of the reactionary imperialist forces in the USA to upset the military balance between the WTO and NATO and achieve military superiority. In common with its allies Hungary will do everything possible to keep this balance at the lowest possible level of armament, to preserve peace and humanity's security.
The present situation confronts Communists and other anti-war forces with the historic task of doing all in their power to preserve peace and the security of humankind.
Our foreign policy proceeds from the interests of our people and the ideas of proletarian internationalism. We are operating in close unity with the Soviet Union and other socialist community countries. We are working to contribute to the fraternal countries' cohesion. We express solidarity with developing countries, with all the forces fighting for the freedom and independence of their peoples. Prompted by the principles of peaceful coexistence, we favour mutually beneficial cooperation with industrial capitalist countries. With the interests of socialism and peace in mind, we back efforts aimed at lessening international tensions, preserving the results of detente, continuing the East-West dialogue and maintaining relations between states irrespective of social systems, all of which is conducive to better mutual understanding and greater confidence between nations.
~^^1^^ Prior to October 1956 there was a Hungarian Party of Working People.-£d.
~^^2^^ Nepszabadsag, March 26, 1985.
~^^3^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 290.
~^^4^^ Ibid., Vol. 32, p. 388.
61 __ALPHA_LVL2__ To AccelerateThe thoughts and the work of the Communists and of all people of socialist Czechoslovakia are now oriented on the fullest possible implementation of the strategic programme for our country's development approved at the 17th Congress of the CPCz, held in March 1986. Preparations for it received a vibrant and creative impetus from the ideas and documents of the 27th Congress of the CPSU.
Speaking at our congress. Comrade Gustav Husak, General Secretary of the CPCz Central Committee had this to say on behalf of all Czechoslovak Communists: "We subscribe to the conclusions and spirit of commitment of the 27th Congress of the CPSU. For us this means that we have to make a more thorough study than before of the experience built up by the party of Lenin, that we should not rest content with what has been achieved, ensure that in our party criticism and self-criticism have all the rights of citizenship, tackle existing problems with more determination, and reinforce the links between the party and the people.''^^1^^
A feature of the preparations for the congress was the prior discussion of its draft documents by the Communists and the whole of society. Attention was centred on the draft Guidelines for the Economic and Social Development of Czechoslovakia for 1986--1990 and Until the Year 2000. The assignments formulated in it are not simple but they are entirely realistic, and their fulfilment will assure the nation's all-sided development accompanied by a further rise of the people's living standards and their active contribution to social progress and to the strengthening of world peace. 62 Moreover, before the congress opened the draft amendments in the CPCz Statute were also published and discussed.
The party drew up these documents in a Leninist spirit. It proceeded from an analysis of socio-historical processes in all their complexity, without succumbing to illusions and without closing its eyes to shortcomings. The situation in the country and the world, as well as our own potentialities, were assessed realistically and constructively. Far from backing away from difficulties, our guideline calls for doing everything to transcend them.
In the discussion the Communists and the other citizens approved the draft documents, offering many suggestions and comments. These were taken into consideration when the documents were finalised.
The preparations for and the proceedings of the 17th CPCz Congress harmonised with the overall course of events in our life over the past years, the results of which incontrovertibly bore out the party's policy. The congress noted that after the serious crisis generated in the party and in society at the close of the 1960s by revisionists and right-wing opportunists with the backing of international reaction was overcome, socialism developed steadfastly and comprehensively in the country. The life of the people improved steadily and their social confidence was fortified. Czechs, Slovaks, and the other peoples inhabiting Czechoslovakia in fact enjoyed equal rights. In its foreign policy, which leans upon the fraternal alliance with the USSR and other socialist community states, Czechoslovakia has made a large contribution to the struggle for peace and social progress in the world.
Through the dedicated work of the people significant progress was made by the republic's economy, with particularly substantial results produced by the fulfilment of the Seventh Five-Year Plan (1981--1985). These successes did not come easily. Considerable difficulties caused by external and internal circumstances, by various shortcomings in work had to be surmounted. It is worth emphasising that our socialist system compellingly reaffirmed its advantages at precisely the time when capitalism was hit by severe crises. A yardstick of social wealth is that during the 63 past years Czechoslovakia's national income has increased by 81 per cent and the volume of its industrial output has grown by 97 per cent. The upgrading of agriculture has been a major factor stabilising the economy. Its output has more than trebled, and this has enabled the country to ensure the production of staple foodstuffs in quantities meeting a high level of consumption.
Economic advancement has been the foundation for attaining the party's targets in social policy. Essentially speaking, the distinctions between the urban and rural standards of living have been erased. An end has been put to unemployment once and for all. In the course of 15 years per capita consumption has gone up by 44 per cent and the volume of benefits and services provided gratis by the state has risen by 109 per cent. In per capita meat consumption Czechoslovakia has outstripped Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, and Britain.
During these same years the republic, with a population numbering 15 millions, has built 1,800,000 modern flats. Their furnishings are in keeping with high standards. Our people are among the best shod and dressed in the world. On the basis of an all-sided analysis of social development, the 17th Congress responsibly put it on record that in the /after half of the 1980s Czechoslovakia emerged as a consolidated, politically strong, and economically and socially developed state, with its people enjoying a high living and intellectual standard.
A hallmark of the Communists in their approach to reality is, however, that they do not give themselves over to complacency. From the rostrum of the 17th Congress it was declared that our achievements could have been greater. It was noted that the processes of the intensification of the economy, the growth of labour productivity, and the use of the latest breakthroughs in science and technology were in practice much too slow. This was due chiefly to subjective reasons, mainly related to management. The trouble is that the thinking and actions of some executives are, regrettably, largely the same as in the period of extensive reproduction. At that time its expansion depended on, in the first place, a growth of the volume of raw materials and energy brought into use, on enlisting the labour of a growing number of 64 people, and starting up more and more production capacities. To intensify the economy there have to be entirely new methods of work. This received priority attention at the congress.
The congress approved the general strategy of accelerating society's development, socio-economic development in the first place. The soundest foundation for acceleration is progress in science and technology, the attainment of higher productivity and efficiency in the national economy. The need for acceleration is dictated not only by domestic but also by international reasons. It will be remembered that Lenin said that "we are now exercising our main influence on the international revolution through our economic policy... The struggle in this field has now become global. Once we solve this problem we shall have certainly and finally won on an international scale".^^2^^
Moreover, acceleration is needed to continue promoting the people's welfare, reinforcing their social confidence, enlarging the possibilities for qualitatively satisfying their steadily growing requirements, improving working and living conditions, and more vigorously solving ecological problems. Concern for people's welfare has been and will be at the heart of the party's policy. What is meant here, and I emphasise this, is by no means solely material interests but the all-sided development of the individual.
To carry out the social assignments set by the congress means increasing, by the year 2000, individual consumption by 50 per cent, taking into account, of course, the substantial growth of the population's requirements by that time. It will be vital to raise the people's education and training level, update the health services, build or renovate 1,500,000 flats, and achieve much in the way of protecting and improving the environment.
At the same time, funds will have to be procured for investment, chiefly to modernise the material and technical basis and further our participation in socialist economic integration. Investments in the services industry are to be increased. We estimate that the outlay on investments will amount to over 28 per cent of the national income.
Large expenditures will have to be made in order to settle foreign credits quicker and to enlarge the country's 65 potentials for extending loans. Here the intention is, above all, to aid developing nations.
Not least, there will be expenditures to strengthen the republic's defence capacity. As long as imperialism and, consequently, the danger of it starting wars of aggression exist the defence of the people's gains will remain one of the central obligations of the socialist state.
In order to carry out far-reaching plans it is also necessary to tap resources that will allow increasing the national income by more than two-thirds by 2000. These include raising social labour productivity in the same proportion and making perceptibly better use of raw materials and energy. Provision is made for cutting back the energy-- intensity of the national income by one-third and reducing by 40--50 per cent the outlay of the ferrous metals needed for creating this income. Radical changes are to take place in the fuel-energy balance, in which the role of nuclear energy and natural gas is to rise while the share of solid fuel is to be diminished. This restructuring is also a political objective as its attainment will, in particular, help to cope with serious ecological problems, with the pollution of the atmosphere in the first place. A major prerequisite for this is the envisaged increase of supplies of natural gas from the USSR. Being interested in these supplies, we are participating in the building of the Progress Gas Pipeline and cooperating in the development of the Soviet gas industry.
Attainment of the imperative targets for reducing industry's metal-intensity necessitates largely a readjustment of its structure, enhancing its technological level, and upgrading it in terms of quality. Hence the special attention given today to the precision-tool industry, electronics, and new structural materials. We shall have to make fuller use of our own raw material resources and recycled materials, promote fine chemistry, increase the output of high-quality steels, and reduce the overall volume of metallurgical production.
Agriculture will continue its course towards making the country self-sufficient in staple foodstuffs and deepening the industrial character of production. Here more effective use has to be made of investments, the quality of output 66 has to be improved, and production costs have to be reduced. The necessity for an upgrading of quality concerns, above all, output to meet food requirements.
In carrying out our long-term economic plans special importance is attached to ensuring visible advances in the course of the current, eighth five-year plan period (1986--- 1990). This means, among other things, increasing the national income by 18--19 per cent, of which at least 92--95 per cent is to come from a growth of labour productivity without any extension of the consumption of energy, raw materials, and other resources.
The congress defined the basic ways and means of accelerating socio-economic progress in the next five years. This involves a more persevering intensification of the economy by promoting science and technology and consistently introducing their achievements in practice. The congress called this task an imperative of the day, the principal condition for attaining a higher technological and efficiency level of production. Intensification is taken to signify not merely a renewal of technical and technological processes, but a change in the relations of production, in the character of labour. For instance, by automating production we are eliminating heavy physical, health-hazardous labour. With this are linked the higher requirements being made of the training and skill of workers and the reshaping of their technical and economic thinking in order to further vitalise the quest for rational ways of carrying out production assignments. In addition, this gives the working people wider opportunities for an all-sided application of their creative abilities in their work.
In promoting science and technology, it was stressed at the congress, we cannot rely exclusively on the maximum mobilisation of the country's own resources. We have to take into fuller account what can be furnished by the integration of the scientific, technological, and production potential of the socialist community, in which a particularly large role is played by the Soviet Union. Hence the immense significance that our party attaches to the fulfilment of the Comprehensive Programme of Scientific and Technological Progress of the CMEA Member-Countries Until the Year 2000, in which the conclusions of the 1984 Economic Summit 67 have been enlarged upon. This programme defines the main hallmarks of the qualitatively new stage of socialist economic integration. Its purpose is to ensure the attainment by science, technology, and production of the highest world standards in the most important areas. This will give socialism stronger positions in its competition with the old world. The economic and technological invulnerability of the new society will be reinforced relative to imperialism. The comprehensive, uninterrupted, and stable advancement of our countries will be accelerated and their economic and social development will be steadily levelled up.
A cardinal advantage of the socialist system is society's programmed progress. The foundation for this progress is the economy's planned and proportionate development and the corresponding management. Since the capacity of the productive forces expands rapidly as a result of scientific and technological progress, growing significance is acquired by the state plan as the main instrument of management. Committed to perfecting the economic mechanism, Czechoslovakia, as the other socialist countries, is looking for the most effective forms of relations between central and local production units and managerial bodies. The purpose of these quests is to boost the initiatives of industrial facilities and give them a larger incentive for satisfying the requirements of the whole of society. Here it is important to fortify state and plan discipline and perfect the methods of economic management. This means upgrading the organisation and quality of labour and enhancing the responsibility and socialist enterprise of cadres. Much has to be done to make remuneration more just, to take the quantity and quality of invested labour more fully into account.
The following words spoken by Mikhail Gorbachev at the 27th Congress of the CPSU, "the new economic tasks cannot be solved without an in-depth readjustment of the economic mechanism, without creating an integral, effective and flexible system of management that will take fuller advantage of the possibilities of socialism"^^3^^ have our full support and are entirely in keeping with our intentions.
The CPCz sees the reinforcement and development of the Leninist principle of democratic centralism as the 68 foundation for improving the system of management. This implies a strengthening of central bodies, an improvement of their work in tackling the most important, fundamental problems, and a simultaneous extension of the independence and responsibility of industrial facilities on the basis of cost accounting. This approach has nothing in common with ``market'' concepts, with a debilitation of the relations of socialist ownership and the party's guiding role in the economy. We are trying to achieve harmony between the terms of reference and responsibility of all links of the leadership of the economy.
We are giving unflagging attention to improving matters related to production quotas and standards and to the wide use of such economic levers as prices and credits. We shall continue reinforcing the functions of economic contracts as a major criterion for assessing the work of industrial facilities in satisfying society's requirements.
The building of developed socialism is inseparable from providing people with a material incentive for the results of their work. The socialist principle of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his work" counterposes egalitarian tendencies in distribution and is consistent with the interests of social justice. This calls for differentiating those who, with a sense of responsibility, give society skilled, high-quality work from slackers, from those who work inefficiently. If as an effective stimulus for work material incentive is correctly oriented and put into effect consistently, it will have a most direct influence in getting people to display their abilities and resourcefulness more fully and use advanced experience.
Further, in its policy the CPCz proceeds from the repeatedly proven premise that the initiatives of the working people and their participation in the leadership and administration of society are an inexhaustible motive force of socialist progress. The sense of socialist democracy is to draw the people more actively into public life and into management, and steadily extend and deepen the implementation of the political rights and freedoms of every citizen. Our democracy gives the working people an ever larger role to play in drawing up and fulfilling state plans, in accelerating scientific and technological progress, and in making 69 rational use of materials, energy, funds, and other resources. All these functions of work collectives manifest themselves concretely in the fulfilment of commitments, the organisation of socialist emulation, the reinforcement of discipline and order, and the improvement of management methods and of working and living conditions. Evidence of the working people's vital interest in the party's policy has been the new upsurge of workers' initiatives that marked the 17th Congress and the commemoration of our party's 65th anniversary in May 1986.
The programme adopted by the congress is further confirmation that the party is able to pave scientifically substantiated, realistic paths for society's development correctly and opportunely, in keeping with our resources, potentialities, and specific domestic situation and international position, and in line with the interests of all the working classes and social groups. Progress along these paths makes new requirements of the party itself as the force guiding and uniting society, of its educational political work, and of how the Communists help to prepare people to carry out new challenging tasks. Every primary organisation and every member of the CPCz, it was stressed at the congress, has the duty of working on a higher level of skill and efficiency.
Our party is now a huge force. It has over 1,600,000 membars, in other words, one in every seven citizens of Czechoslovakia over the age of 17 is a Communist. There are party organisations in all sections of society's life. The 17th Congress devoted special attention to enhancing the party's capability, strengthening its ideological cohesion and unity of action, broadening the rights and duties of its members, and promoting criticism and self-criticism, which have justified themselves in rectifying serious errors and in combating subjectivism. We say that there must be more criticism and self-criticism. This means, in particular, that they must be constantly in evidence in day-to-day life. Various shortcomings make themselves felt in different areas of life. Of course, not all criticism and all suggestions can be put into effect immediately. But they are essential, for they indicate what merits attention. For that reason such suggestions must be unfailingly taken into account and generalised. Many 70 justified demands are also articulated and there can and must be an immediate response to them. There can be no justification if the relevant body is slow to respond. A critical approach should, it was noted at the congress, permeate all the work of the party and the government from top to bottom.
We consider that it is particularly important for the party to focus constant attention on matters related * its ideological influence among the people, to combine organisational and educational work with the requirements of socioeconomic development, and strengthen unity between the party and the people. These orientations predicated the amendments in the CPCz Statute adopted at the congress. Its purpose is to help give each Communist a higher sense of responsibility for the work of his or her organisation and make it obligatory for the Communists to be in the forefront of the efforts in behalf of our cause and set an example in implementing the party's policy. The Statute requires the Communists to act with determination against breaches of party and state discipline, against mismanagement, slipshodness, irresponsibility, departmentalism, and parochialism, against inflexibility and inertness, against everything that hinders socialist construction.
At the present stage one of the party's priorities is work with cadres. The main thing here is to ensure that executive posts are held by persons who make high demands of themselves and of others, are competent, enterprising, are unafraid of responsibility and capable of carrying out the political line of the party and the government without retreating in the face of difficulties, and tackle new tasks uncompromisingly and boldly. The congress noted the significance of continuity in the work with cadres. It is our objective that in all sectors young and promising people should work side by side with experienced comrades, learn from them, and take over their expertise.
The 17th Congress significantly enhanced the role of the National Front as the foundation of our political system. The Front unites all of the country's political parties^^4^^ and mass organisations, whose members are active in building the new society. The purpose of the National Front is to foster a broadening of the people's constructive 71 involvement in management and state administration, in consolidating the socialist way of life.
The Communist Party forms the core of our political system. Surmounting all obstacles and difficulties and correcting errors, the CPCz has been tirelessly championing the vital interests of the working class and all other working people over a period of more than six decades. Despite the persecution to which it was subjected under capitalism, the party staunchly and confidently headed the struggle against the bourgeoisie and fascism. During and after the Second World War it was the decisive force in the Czechoslovak Republic's renewal and then headed the socialist revolution and the building of the new society. Without the CPCz the working people would have been unable to vanquish the bourgeoisie in February 1948 and arrive at their socialist present.
The Czechoslovak Communists are justly proud of their past, but they are well aware that the party's ability to be the vanguard of the people has to be reaffirmed by deeds again and again. This is the only way that the people's confidence in the party's policy is sustained and strengthened. This is fostered also by our efforts to fulfil the resolutions of the 17th Congress. Their widespread approval, the vigorous work that has been started to achieve what has been charted, and the support for the party programme by voters at the elections to representative bodies of all levels in May 1986 are tangible confirmation that the chosen path is correct.
Persons dedicated to the cause of socialism, devoted to their work, and possessing lofty moral qualities are being elected deputies to the Federal Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Czech and Slovak national councils, and the local national committees. Each constituency has its election programme drawn up in keeping with the basic guidelines for Czechoslovakia's social and economic development specified with account of the mandates given by citizens to their delegates. In effect, these programmes are concrete plans for building our future in rural communities, towns, districts and regions, plans, that have been coordinated with the people. Electors have all the rights and possibilities for verifying what the deputies are 72 doing to carry out what has been mapped out. In other words, the fulfilment of plans is controlled by the people. This is yet another effective instrument of our democracy, which fortifies the confidence of the people in the prospects for the republic's all-sided progress.
In conclusion, let me note that at the congress there was a broad discussion of problems of international relations, at the heart of which is the struggle for peace, for eliminating the nuclear threat. Entirely in line with the opinion of the people, delegates expressed unqualified support for the Soviet peace initiatives articulated with renewed force from the rostrum of the 27th Congress of the CPSU. In April 1986, immediately after our party forum completed its proceedings, the working people of Czechoslovakia stated their approval of the Message from the Warsaw Treaty States to European Nations, the USA, and Canada on the Creation of Nuclear-Free Zones in Europe. This and many other initiatives of the socialist community are evidence that the Communists are sparing no effort to fulfil humankind's hopes that the planet will be delivered from the threat of a nuclear war, that a civilisation is built up in which friendly relations and peaceful cooperation will become the norm of international relations.
This aim, which meets with the interests and aspirations of all of the world's revolutionary and progressive forces, has been and will always be central in the foreign policy of our party and government.
^^1^^ Rude pravo, Mardi 25, 1986.
^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 437.
^^3^^ Mikhail Gorbachev, Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 27th Party Congress. Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow, 1986, p. 37.
* Apart from the CPCz, there are another four parties in Czechoslovakia.---Ed.
73 __ALPHA_LVL2__ Upward DevelopmentThe 13th Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party held in May, 1986 was a significant event in the nation's life. With its sights on the future, it concretised and enriched the party's Programme for Building Developed Socialism^^1^^ under the new conditions prevailing in the country and on the international scene and mapped out a long-term strategy for the further all-sided advancement of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
The congress proceeded on a high ideological, organisational, and practical level, in an atmosphere of wide publicity, creativity, initiative, and social optimism, in a spirit of exactingness, criticism, and self-criticism. It reaffirmed that the BCP was pursuing a correct policy. The proceedings were marked by a wealth of fresh ideas and an innovative approach to formulating and resolving pressing problems. This forum strikingly demonstrated our party's Marxist-Leninist maturity and the continuity of its profoundly class, internationalist foreign policy of peace.
The congress approved the BCP's line toward comprehensive cooperation and closer relations with the CPSU and the Soviet Union, which have entered a qualitatively new phase of development, toward upgrading its full-- blooded and productive relations with the other socialist countries, and the further consolidation of our fraternal community.
Actually, the 13th Congress opened a new stage in implementing the general line endorsed by the CC Plenary Meeting in April 1956. Thirty years ago, under Todor Zhivkov's direct leadership, we surmounted the difficulties 74 created by the personality cult and subjectivism, restored the Leninist principles of party life and leadership, and turned to address the objective regularities in the economy, in politics, in fact in all areas of life, the requirements of the Bulgarian people and the questions being asked by them. This opened up wide vistas for accelerating the country's development.
Between 1956 and 1985 the growth was 10-fold in the economy's basic funds, 8.4-fold in labour productivity, 8-fold in the national income, 3.3-fold in annual average wages and salaries, 4.3-fold in the population's real incomes, and 12-fold in the social consumption funds. The socialist way of life has been consolidated, culture, science, and education have made headway, the processes enabling every citizen of socialist society to become all-sidedly developed continued, and the consciousness and behaviour of millions of people increasingly came to be determined , by Marxism-Leninism, by the integral social theory underlying the new society.
A notable contribution to these achievements was made by the eighth five-year plan (1980--1985). Despite the adverse climate and the subjective shortcomings in management the growth rate of our national income during those years was again among the highest in the world. This is what in the past five years gave us the possibility of increasing per capita real incomes by 19.5 per cent, enlarging the social consumption funds by 31 per cent and building 343,000 new flats. Wages rose by an average of 17 per cent, the minimum wage was raised by 20 per cent, the initial pay of young specialists with a secondary school or higher education was increased by 20 per cent, the pay of doctors, teachers, and farm-machinery operators was brought up by 25--30 per cent, and of mining and power industry workers by 40 per cent. Minimum long service and old-age pensions were increased, the increase to such pensions being particularly large for peasants. The allocations for pensions were 42 per cent larger than in 1980. There was a 30 per cent rise of the additions paid to parents, and the additional paid leave for the care of small children was extended to two years. There was a 21 per cent increase in the volume of goods sold by retail outlets. 75 Working conditions were improved. There was a further enlargement of everyday services, medical care, and facilities for holiday recreation, mass physical culture, sports, and tourism.
All this is evidence of Bulgaria's material and intellectual renewal. The resolutions passed by the 13th Congress create the conditions for the republic to become, within a short span of time, a highly developed socialist state capable of fittingly responding to the challenges of the twenty-first century.
The scientific and technological revolution was in the focus of the proceedings at the congress. Todor Zhivkov said from its rostrum: "The main thing for us today is to promote the scientific and technological revolution and, on that basis, show the advantages of the socialist social system and socialist democracy and satisfy the people's material, social, and intellectual requirements more fully.''^^2^^ The target that we have set ourselves is not to overtake this or that country in terms of scientific and technological development but to move into advanced positions in this area. This is now our course. It is the party's new socio-economic strategy for the country's development up to the year 1990 and, further, up to the year 2000.
Growth rates are central to this long-term national strategy. Our aim is to accelerate socio-economic development, make it more dynamic, and keep in step with advanced socialist states in indicators not only of quantity but also of quality. The national income and labour productivity are to grow 2-2.5-fold by 1995 and 3-3.5-fold by 2000. High growth rates are now the cardinal condition for the accelerated building of developed socialism in Bulgaria. In them must be expressed the course toward furthering scientific and technological progress and on them will depend how the advantages of the socialist system will unfold. Consequently, the significance of the strategic objective of growth rates is not only economic but also political, ideological, and social. Its attainment will require substantial qualitative changes in production and the entire social organism, a readjustment everywhere-in the economy, in policy, in culture, in the way of life, and in social administration.
The party attaches considerable importance to giving 76 shape to intensive reproduction. The task is to make the maximum use of what we have and is in the economic turnover, and work toward a greater saving of raw and other materials, fuel, and energy in keeping with the most advanced world achievements in these areas. In parallel, we have to build up a qualitatively new raw materials and energy base.
The accelerated development of science and the deepening of its links to production will be the locomotive of our progress. We plan to turn it into a universal productive force inexorably forwarding all areas of society's life. In line with the selective approach elaborated by the party, effort is to be concentrated mainly in fields of science most closely related to the development of principal structuredetermining spheres of the economy and to our participation in the international division of labour.
There is to be a significant enlargement of the material resources at the disposal of science, the organisation and management of scientific work are to be upgraded, the no man's land between R&D and the practical implementation of its results is to be erased, and the line toward an ever closer relationship with the scientific and technological potential of the Soviet Union is to be continued.
The present scientific and technological revolution impels technological progress in the first place. By virtue of this the 13th Congress outlined an integral conception of the country's comprehensive technological renewal ensuring the needed growth rate of the national income and labour productivity and enhancing the efficiency of the economy as a whole. This means not simply replacing morally obsolete machinery and technologies but also renewing morally outdated principles of production. An unprecedented transition from mechanical to non-mechanical technologies is currently under way. That is why we shall give priority to technologies radically reducing energy consumption and ensuring the production and use of new materials as well as electronic and biotechnological equipment.
Renewal in this area of science and technology is inseparable from the structural policy that in the ninth fiveyear period and in the period up to the year 2000 will allow putting important changes into effect: switch industry to 77 science-intensive output requiring small outlays of energy and raw and other materials; significantly raise the automation level in production, making it more flexible and adaptive and boosting the efficacy of the entire chain of the aggregate reproduction process. The development of new .strategic orientations ensuring the manufacture of output of the highest technical and economic standards is to be accelerated. This means that the principal criterion of our progress must be the attainment of the highest world standards in everything and everywhere.
The importance of engineering will grow steadily, with its progressive sectors given priority accelerated development. Much attention is also being devoted to the chemical and power industries and metallurgy.
In agriculture, too, provision is made for continuing the scientific and technological, or green, revolution. This must create the potential, to put it metaphorically, to feed not one but two or three Bulgarias.
Investments, designing, and construction are to be brought into line with the requirements of the scientific and technological revolution and the new rates of our progress.
Endorsed by the 13th Congress, the Guidelines for Economic and Social Development envisage creating the conditions, by the close of the century, for taking the country's material and technological base to a qualitatively new stage consonant to the maximum extent with mature socialism and raising the level of labour productivity close to the highest in the world.
All this will be predicated on the further expansion of foreign trade and economic relations. We shall continue focusing much of our effort on carrying out the decisions of the 1984 CMEA economic summit held in Moscow and the Comprehensive Programme for Scientific and Technological Progress up to the Year 2000. Fulfilment of the provisions recorded in collectively agreed documents will allow deepening the specialisation and cooperation of production in the fraternal countries, extending and reinforcing direct economic links, and continuing setting up joint ventures with socialist partners, notably with the Soviet Union. Cooperation with developing nations will expand. 78 Moreover, we want mutually beneficial links, /ncluding production cooperation, with industrial capitalist countries.
Concern for the welfare of people is at the root of all the plans and work of the Bulgarian Communist Party. I have already mentioned the satisfaction of the people's vital requirements. Regardless of sex, religious belief, and nationality, our people enjoy full and equal political and social rights such as, for instance, the right to work. Significant progress in the social sphere permitted the 13th BCP Congress to chart new targets in this sphere and plan its further development, placing social policy on a qualitatively new level, which will signify comprehensively assessing how the individual shows his or her worth in all interrelated areas of social life, how the material and intellectual requirements of people rise and how these requirements are met. In other words, social policy will embrace everything that facilitates the individual's perfection and intellectual growth. As a result of this policy's implementation people will, from year to year, from one generation to another increasingly change from being the object of concern by state and society for their all-sided development to the subject of this many-sided process of self-perfection, enabling them to apply their diverse capabilities.
This social policy will rely on being put into effect vigorously by the working people, by the builders of the new system, enjoying all its advantages to the maximum. It " concretely and tangibly links together what a person gives to and receives from society".^^3^^ It is aimed at further consolidating and perfecting the socialist way of life, the comradely, collectivist relations among people. This is the only approach that ensures the assertion of the human factor as the motor of all-sided progress.
We shall continue developing the key principle of socialist society, in the name of which this society has been created and is developing---the principle of social justice. In the People's Republic of Bulgaria citizens enjoy equality relative to the means of production and to work as the source and universal measure of their incomes. The economic foundation of exploitation of man by men has been abolished. In socialist Bulgaria today people stand shoulder to shoulder, not against one another.
79The main area for the application of the principle of social justice will continue to be the distribution of material goods in accordance with the quality and quantity of the labour invested by every member of society, and this is incompatible with levelling, impingement on socialist pr-> perty, and unearned incomes. The drive against negative phenomena of this sort will be conducted not from time to time, as a shortlived campaign. It will become part and parcel of the work of the party and the government in creating a situation consistent with the above-mentioned requirements. A person's labour contribution is the criterion for distinguishing between one who is decent and conscientious and one who is not. In society every person must occupy th<? place that he has earned by his personal qualities and deeds.
In this context considerable significance is acquired by the question of enhancing the role played by remuneration as an incentive and a mobilising factor. A system of remuneration is now being established whereby the wages fund will depend on the aggregate result of the labour of a work collective, and the individual's earnings will correspond to his or her contribution.
In parallel, social consumption funds, which include diverse benefits and allowances from the state, will be increased and used to a fuller extent. These funds help to straighten out the condition of the different social groups and strata of the population and are spent largely in proportion to social requirements. But their enlargement should not prevent the effective application of the principle of material incentives. In the documents adopted by the congress it is noted that the people's material and cultural requirements will be satisfied more fully and comprehensively in keeping, chiefly, with the growth of their purchasing power. In other words, the rise of the living standard will depend primarily on earned income. To improve the quality of his life a person has to work better and display his creative abilities. Material incentives are an effective way of promoting this attitude to work.
We want to enhance the nation's viability, the population's capacity for work and creative longevity. This will be promoted by satisfying housing requirements, which is to 80 be done in the coming years. Health facilities, where the physical condition of people is to be under constant observation and maintained at the proper level by different means, from physical culture to preventive medical care, are being set up at industrial enterprises and educational institutions. These facilities will help medical centres, economic establishments, and organisations concerned with labour protection, recreation, physical culture, sports, and tourism to coordinate their work on a higher level. Provision has been made for improving the demographic situation in the country-encouraging a higher birth-rate and reinforcing the role played by the family. Urgent youth problems linked to the conditions of life and the opportunities for showing their energy and abilities are to be addressed in their totality.
The 13th Congress of the BCP called for a higher qualitative level in socialist society's intellectual life. This is to be achieved through the integration of science, culture, and education on the basis of the intrinsic unity of their aims and tasks.
Noting that artistic creativity is becoming an increasingly more active factor of all-sided social progress, the congress stressed that explicit communist ideological commitment, class and party criteria, socialist humanism, and historical optimism should continue to be constantly asserted and deepened in art and literature. The growth of the ideological level of art and literature should be closely coupled to the further assertion in them of the principles of socialist realism, the promotion of the professional skill of people engaged in the liberal professions, and the encouragement of a greater diversity of artistic styles and techniques.
The congress set important tasks also in education. Its main designation is to train cadres staunchly committed to communism, capable of actively fostering the scientific and technological revolution and, on that basis, helping to accelerate Bulgaria's socio-economic and intellectual development.
The new strategy, framed by the 13th Congress, for the country's all-sided progress, envisions radical changes in society's basis and political superstructure. In the period since the 12th Congress the BCP Central Committee 81 elaborated some key problems of socialist construction. These include: the upgrading of the relationship between the state and the work collective as the administrator of socialist property; the growing role of direct democracy in the system of socialist people's power; the extension of the principles of election and competition in the promotion of cadres to the different levels of social administration; the extension and enrichment of the rights and duties of individuals, work collectives, and lower production units; the ways and means of giving the individual a more active role in management.
The new stage of social development is marked by an increasingly broader unfolding of socialist democracy and an enhancement of its efficacy. The question now is not simply of the people's participation in administration but of "self-administration, of a new, epoch-making advance in turning the working person and the work collective from the object to the subject of social administration".^^4^^ The purpose here is to create the conditions for a gradual transition from "power in the name of the people" to power exercised by the people themselves. We have adopted a new Labour Code in which a large role is assigned to principles of management in work collectives. The new element is that general meetings of factory and office workers (or meetings of their representatives), economic councils and team councils are no longer consultative organs of the heads of industrial facilities and offices. They are vested with the authority to direct the work of these facilities and offices jointly with the management. Personal responsibility and collectivism are thus combined more effectively in management.
There are now new elements also in the consistent implementation of democratic centralism in management. While qualitatively and quantitatively enriching socialist property, which is in constant development, our society is setting itself an innovative aim, that of reinforcing the role of central management bodies in formulating and resolving questions of strategy and of creating all the conditions allowing production, scientific, and managerial bodies of all other levels to function at top efficiency on the basis of socialist management.
82This means that while managing the socialist property entrusted to them and being guided by the assignment given to them by the state, each such body has all the rights for, among other things, adopting decisions independently on planning, enlarging production, conducting research and experiments, making practical use of such scientific work, and marketing output. Thus, in our social policy we shall be guided by Lenin's following precept: "Centralism, understood in a truly democratic sense, presupposes the possibility, created for the first time in history, of a full and unhampered development not only of specific local features, but also of local inventiveness, local initiative, of diverse ways, methods and means of progress to the common goal.''^^5^^
Self-managing economic organisations will be the motor of our economic activity. In order to remove everything that hinders and fetters their work the higher echelons of state administration have been substantially restructured. Fundamentally new organs have been set up to replace many central ministries. These are the Economic Council, the Social Council, and the Council for Science, Education, and Culture. They are not concerned with day-to-day management, nor are they super-ministries. They are ancillary bodies of the Council of Ministers and allow ensuring a correct coupling of centralism and democracy, and the effective implementation of state policy in keeping with the requirements and interests of the entire economy rather than with departmental and parochial requirements and interests.
This will be the foundation for shaping horizontal and vertical relations between self-managing economic organisations, thereby permitting them to be the actual commodity producers along the entire chain of reproduction. The conditions will thereby be created for a more consistent utilisation of commodity-money relations in the economy; for finding in economic practice the correct combination of the law of value with the law of planned, proportionate development; for the efficient use of the plan as a basic instrument of managing social processes in the presence of a socialist market.
Furthermore, there will be the possibility of organising genuine economic competition between socialist commodity 83 producers and, by means of this competition, removing in the country itself and in the international market what Todor Zhivkov aptly called the hothouse conditions in which they are working. Once that is achieved every enterprise will have the possibility ofeffectivelymakingthemaximumcontribution ta attaining high rates of socio- economic progress.
In tackling these new problems of improving our system of management, problems that, if seen in a broader context, are related also to the sphere of the people's power, it will remain crucial to continue strengthening the socialist state and to show its democratic essence more and more fully. The 13th Congress noted that it is vital to continue drawing legislative and executive authority closer together, upgrading representative and direct democracy, combining them more harmoniously, and enriching the functions of the National Assembly, the State Council, the Council of Ministers, and the people's councils. Special attention is given to improving the work of the Fatherland Front, the trade unions, and the Dimitrov Young Communist League. Provision has been made for further reinforcing their significance as the social quarantors of the implementation of the party's new socio-economic strategy of promoting the scientific and technological revolution, further enhancing the role of the working person and the work collective, and developing socialist democracy.
The congress highly evaluated the contribution made by the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union to the building of mature socialism and the consolidation of the people's moral and political unity, and expressed the firm belief that this party would continue to be a staunch ally of the BCP in the administration of the country and in the building of socialism.
The profound changes in society's basis and superstructure projected by the party congress require a fundamentally new economic mechanism consonant with the requirements I have mentioned. It is believed that under the influence of the state, economic conditions and normatives will give economic units the incentive to foster scientific and technological progress, reduce labour, material, and energy outlays, and take steps to set high economic targets at the stage of drafting the plan.
84It is thus a matter not merely of organisational or structural changes but of giving shape to more mature relations of production that would provide wider scope for the operation of the objective laws of the society being built in Bulgaria and of the scientific and technological revolution, and for bringing to light and using the colossal potentialities and advantages of existing socialism. In fact, we are talking of a major economic reform that is vital for the country's further all-sided development.
The 13th Congress of the BCP ushered in a new stage of the development of the party itself. This is a stage witnessing the consolidation of the party's unity, the heightening of its guiding role in society as a result of the more marked scientific and transformative character of the party leadership, an improvement of inner-party life, especially through the accentuation of democratic principles, and a further vitalisation of its ideological work. The congress documents indicate that qualitatively new elements have to be introduced into the forms, methods, and style of party work. Here special significance is being acquired by a political approach to decision-making in all areas of society's life.
In restructuring the party's work we shall rely not on extending and reinforcing directive methods but on giving a more pronounced scientific character to the work of central party organs, on encouraging initiative by party committees and organisations, and on a scrupulous study of public opinion.
The party's leading role will grow chiefly through the enhancement of the importance and responsibility of its lower organisations and a further vitalisation of their practical work. Every Communist should, to the extent of his knowledge and possibilities, actively contribute to the implementation of the BCP's socio-economic strategy.
The congress mapped out the course to be followed in improving the work with senior party and government cadres. It was stressed that in selecting and placing such cadres the long-term planning of the entire range of the party's work should be taken into closer account. Work with the reserve should be conducted more vigorously, the renewal and changeability of members of the leadership body should 85 be practised more consistently, and those who have not justified the trust placed in them should be recalled.
The party regards more innovative and purposeful ideological work as a major factor in introducing radical changes in society's basis and superstructure and in improving the work of the party itself. The basic objective set by the congress in this area is to give the human factor a larger role to play in all walks of life. It is vital to give people a clear idea of what scientific, technological, and social progress means for every person. All government bodies and all social forces and organisations are oriented toward safeguarding the purity of our theory and ideals and continuing to weed out survivals of the past, negative phenomena, and formal and unconscientious attitudes to labour and social duties. Responsible attitude, greater orderliness, and discipline are the order of the day.
The party's strategy endorsed by the 13th Congress is a strategy of peaceful development. It provides every person with the point of departure for judging our unflinching determination to remain firmly in the front ranks of the world's anti-war front. We are wholeheartedly in solidarity with the Peace Programme of the CPSU and the new peace initiatives of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Treaty nations, and shall continue helping to remove the threat of a nuclear war, achieve disarmament, promote detente and consolidate international security, normalise the situation in the world, and promote fair and mutually beneficial relations among all countries.
The congress reaffirmed that the fraternal alliance and close interaction of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the People's Republic of Bulgaria with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have been and remain the cornerstone of our foreign policy. In its approach to basic sectors of domestic and foreign policy our party abides by the same stand as has been adopted by the CPSU. The strengthening of the unity and cohesion of the socialist community and the deepening and enrichment of friendship and all-sided cooperation with the parties and peoples of the countries of that community constitute one of the key directions of the foreign policy of our party and government.
86A significant role in this work is played by Bulgaria's relations with the other Balkan states. We shall continue doing everything in our power to maintain in our peninsula a climate of mutual understanding, promote a constant political dialogue, including a dialogue at summit level, ensure the implementation of the initiatives aimed at turning the Balkans into a zone free of nuclear and chemical weapons, and seek wide-ranging agreements with neighbouring states covering, among other things, the code of goodneighbourly relations, and also agreements on environmental protection in the region.
In its foreign policy Bulgaria attaches considerable significance to expanding and deepening cooperation with developing nations, especially with those that have adopted the socialist orientation. We shall steadfastly continue to pursue a policy of peaceful coexistence with industrial capitalist countries.
In its relations with communist parties, the BCP firmly abides by the principle of proletarian internationalism, in which revolutionary solidarity and respect for the full independence and equality of each party are closely combined. We stand for the steady deepening of mutual links promoting the unity of the international communist movement, for the strengthening of solidarity with the different currents in the working class movement, and for all-sided interaction with socialist, social democratic, and agrarian parties, with revolutionary democratic, national liberation, anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, and with international trade union bodies, youth, and women's organisations. We are bound to this policy by above all, the imperatives of our epoch, which are to preserve and consolidate peace.
It is only in conditions of peace and under the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party that millions of people of our country will carry out the large-scale socio-- economic tasks set by the party's 13th Congress and achieve new and more impressive successes on the road to the great cherished aim-communism.
871 Adopted at the Tenth Congress of the BCP in~^^1971^^--£d,
2 Todor Zhivkov, Opening Address and Closing Speech at the 13th Party Congress, Sofia, 1986. p. 6 (in Bulgarian).
3 Ibid., p. 27.
4 Ibid., pp. 32--33.
5 V. I. Lenin, Co//ected Works, Vol. 27, p. 209.
[88] __ALPHA_LVL2__ New WaysThe 11th Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was held in Berlin from April 17 to 21, 1986. A report on the Central Committee's work was delivered by SED CC General Secretary Erich Honedcer, while Will! Stoph, SED CC Political Bureau member and Chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers, argumented the five-year plan directives for the development of the GDR national economy from 1986 to 1990. The party's governing bodies were unanimously elected by the 2,683 delegates to the Congress.
Summing up the proceedings, Erich Honecker said: "Our Congress has proceeded successfully and has done much work. Its guideline decisions mark the start of a qualitatively new phase in the further building of a developed socialist society in the German Democratic Republic. Consequently, we are steadily implementing our party's Programme.''^^1^^
The Eighth Congress of the SED (1971) worked out the general line in building developed socialism, so opening up a higher phase in attaining the goals of the new society. The Congress formulated these tasks in the light of the historical achievements of the working class and the other working people of the republic, led by the SED, and of the fact that the triumph of socialist relations of production signified the successful fulfilment of the tasks of the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. From then on, the basic economic law of the socialist society could operate more fully and with unlimited scope. Accordingly, the Congress elaborated the idea of the central element of the party's course, of the principal task whidi needed to be tackled in ensuring a coherent economic and social policy. 89 This task was formulated in the Congress documents as follows: "To ensure a further rise in the material and cultural standards of the people's life on the basis of high production-development rates, greater efficiency, scientific and technical progress, and growing labour productivity."^^2^^ The principal task had to be tackled under the ongoing scientific and technical revolution (STR). That is why at the time, fifteen years ago, Erich Honecker drew attention to the need to switch from the mainly extensive economic development to intensive development.
In the subsequent period, the party's line acted as the moving spirit in our country's socialist development. Its economy was consolidated, and the people's material and social condition was drastically improved. True to Ernst Thalmann's precepts, the SED consistently and imaginatively applied in practice and developed the Marxist-Leninist theory, further strengthening its ties with the masses. The people's socialist consciousness, and the society's moral and political unity were enhanced.
The Ninth Congress of the SED (1976) took account of the advance and set the aim of resolutely carrying on socialist intensification and making all-round use of the qualitative factors of production. The theoretical and political conclusions drawn from earlier development and the new requirements were written by the Congress into the party Programme: "A developed socialist society means the creation of a powerful material and technical base ensuring stable economic growth, high productivity and efficiency of social labour. The main way to it lies through intensification of social production, and its crucial condition, an organic blend of the achievements of the scientific and technical revolution with the advantages of socialism. A developed socialist society means implementing economic policy in organic unity with social policy.''^^3^^
The Tenth Congress of the SED (1981) was held at a time when, on the one hand, the STR was proceeding apace, and on the other, the international situation was being aggravated. It laid down ten guidelines for the party's economic strategy and urged utmost use of the potentialities and latest achievements of scientific and technical progress to ensure optimal growth of the country's economic might.
90Finally, the 11th Congress of the SED summed up the results of the fifteen-year advance along the way of intensifying production and implementing the party Programme. Looking back one could say that the years since the Eighth Congress have been a period of especially successful development of the socialist society in our republic.
The way was not a smooth one. The party tackled new and complicated tasks and overcame the difficulties through vigorous effort, with clarity of purpose and a wellconsidered Marxist-Leninist policy. The delegates to the Congress heard with a sense of pride the following words from the CC Report: "With reliance on our economic strategy, we have succeeded in making the intensification of production the crucial basis for building up the economic potential, and reliably ensuring the necessary economic growth.''^^4^^ This is borne out, among other things, by the fact that 90 per cent of the national-income increment (and in 1985 it came to 1.087 trillion marks) came from higher labour productivity.
We have gained valuable experience in such matters as the ever greater interpenetration of science and production, the concentrated application of STR results, rational use of equipment, and economies in energy, raw and other materials, and working time. Cooperation with the USSR and other socialist states has deepened, especially in the crucial fields of scientific and technical progress on which the further growth of our community's weight in the world depends, and which are the pledge of our continued joint advance.
Since the Eighth Congress, and especially over the past years, the SED has also gained a wealth of experience in perfecting central planning and economic administration and management, and development of the initiative of enterprises and the territorial organs of power. The combines have found modern methods for the coherent management and organisation of the entire reproduction process (in application to the specifics of the various industries)---from research and development to the marketing of the finished product.
The working people's living standards in town and country have risen on the basis of ever higher labour productivity. 91 The realities in our country are full employment, the wellbeing of the masses, equal education for all, and health for the people. From 1971 to 1985, 2.4 million flats were built and modernised, so that housing conditions were improved for more than 7.2 million citizens. In that period, the real incomes per head of the population doubled. Their growth was promoted by the stability of retail prices for the basic consumer goods; rents, transport fares and service prices were not increased either. With the wide-ranging scientific organisation of labour, seven million working people were transferred to a new remuneration scheme: in accordance with quantity and quality combined with various forms of bonuses. In those 15 years, annual pensions rose from 9.7 to 17.4 billion marks.
The internal political situation in our republic has continued to strengthen. Despite the enemy's stepped-up antisocialist propaganda and subversive activity, relations of solid trust have been established between the party, the state and the people. Socialist democracy has been developing in a vibrant and creative way on the basis of democratic centralism.
The CDR is well established among the top ten industrialised countries of the world, while having a well-- developed modern socialist agriculture. It is an economically robust, stable and peaceable state lying in the heartland of Europe, along the line dividing the two worlds: the socialist and the capitalist. It has faithfully done its class duty, for its strengthening and flourishing demonstrate the potentialities of the socialist system. In this way, our people help to translate into life the ideals of the working class, which, in alliance with the peasants and the other working people, has proved again and again that it is capable of running the state and the society more efficiently than the bourgeoisie.
The global challenge of our day has already been more appropriately met by the socialist society in areas which have the greatest bearing on the human condition. Erich Honedcer told the Congress: "When replying to the question often asked in the international arena about what existing socialism is, we can point with pride to our handiwork.''^^5^^ The positive assessment of the way traversed 92 provides the basis for our decision to continue our course in fulfilling our main task, while further pursuing our coherent economic and social policy.
For all the satisfaction over what has been achieved, the Congress delegates stressed that more can and must be done. Very high demands are being made on us by time, because socialism has the historic mission of proving that, as a social system, it is better than capitalism. Through its policy and ideology, its practical actions and social gains for the benefit of the working people, socialism has ever more manifestly demonstrated that it is addressing the challenge of the epoch. It has made the crucial contribution to ensuring peace over the more than four decades since the Second World War. By maintaining the militarystrategic parity, the socialist community has prevented the most aggressive imperialist circles from turning the globe into a nuclear inferno.
The fraternal countries' policy is now also aimed to make new use of the potentialities inherent in our new system in the economic sphere, i.e., the sphere in which we have up to now had to catch up with capitalism, because of the peculiarities of our historical development, and to change the balance of forces in our favour by winning the leading positions in labour productivity. It is simultaneously our response to the need to preserve peace throughout the world. Those who advocate confrontation with socialism will be forced to acknowledge not only that they have no chance of attaining military-strategic superiority, so long as the parity is there, but also that their attempts to bring socialism down to its knees by means of the arms race are futile, and that peaceful competition between socialism and capitalism is the only common-sense alternative.
The 11th Congress renewed the assurance that the Communists of the GDR are fully resolved to meet this challenge in a fitting way. The switch of the national economy to socialist intensive expanded reproduction over the past several years, and the attendant improvement of the whole of social development have created the prerequisites for the start of a qualitatively new phase in the further shaping of developed socialism.
The Congress formulated a task of primary importance: 93 all-round intensification and acceleration of production. For this, the advantages of socialism need to be meshed with the results of the world-wide career of the STR, so ensuring swifter and more efficient development of our society's productive forces for the benefit of the people. The goal is to master the key technologies, or the high technologies, as they are called in the West. That is now the crucial element of the SED's economic policy. Microelectronics, flexible automated systems, computers, robots, automated workplaces, modern information technologies, laser facilities, and biotechnologies are becoming ever more important, and that is why the five-year plan envisages their accelerated application.
``There is a constant growth of the pace of development of the productive forces in the world, which means that for us they are preset,'' Erich Honecker stressed at the Congress. "For us, this means the need to stand our ground in the race against time, to forge ahead on a number of key indicators, thereby ensuring the attainment of higher positions in the economy and the social sphere.''^^6^^ From 1986 to 1990, national income is to go up by 24--26 per cent; net product and labour productivity at ministry-run industrial enterprises are to go up by 49 and 51 per cent, respectively, while per-unit inputs of the basic raw and other materials are to go down by 4.0 per cent, and of energy resources by 3.3 per cent a year.
High rates of growth have been planned for the lines of production which determine the pace of the STR and the overall technical level of production in our country. In the five years, the manufacture of microelectronic components and instruments is to increase from 30 billion to 42 billion marks' worth. There was not a single robot in our industry in 1970, but in 1985, we already had 57,000 in operation. By the end of the current decade, another 75,000--80,000 robots are to be installed to boost labour productivity and ease labour. There is to be a rapid growth in the number of automated workplaces: there are to be 85,000--90,000 of them by the end of the five-year period.
But the Congress warned that the solution of future problems should do nothing to obscure our everyday problems. Efforts must be made to complete what has not yet been 94 done. At the new phase of our advance, we shall also have to tackle new social tasks, and this demands greater consciousness on the part of the working people in the first place.
Man is the crucial factor of success in all-round and accelerated intensification of production and the mastery of high technologies, and the Congress took account of the fact in a concrete form. With the revolutionary shifts in the development of socialism's productive forces, its builders can and must apply their creative powers, qualifications and talents ever more fully, consciously and productively. It is highly important that the latest scientific advances should serve to raise not only the level of production, but also the people's well-being, and help further to mould the socialist way of life.
The Congress delegates spoke of the citizens' growing commitment to labour and conscious action through which they bring new insights into their work, when they feel that it is highly fruitful and yields tangible and stable results, for it acts as a powerful motive force in mastering the STR, for which socialism creates adequate social conditions.
Together with the economic strategy, the 11th Congress further elaborated the conception of the SED's ideological activity. There was a detailed discussion of the tasks in party work, and of ways to tie it in more closely with the life of the working class and the whole people. The CC Report says: "In the light of all the tasks we set ourselves for the years ahead, we are even more strongly convinced that the party's leading role in building socialism has continuously grown ... There is a need now, more than ever before, to encourage the working people's labour elan, solid knowledge and professional craftsmanship, to induce them to yearn for what is new, and to develop such traditionally inherent features of our working class and intelligentsia as their sound work ethic, reliability and sense of discipline. Revolutionary deeds and intentions are nowadays manifested in committed support for scientific and technical progress and implementation of our economic strategy.''^^7^^
The higher tasks in developing the socialist superstructure, worked out by the 11th Congress, are, therefore, in 95 line with the consolidation of the economic basis of our system. That is why the CC Report and the Congress discussion gave such serious attention to national education, science and the communist upbringing of the rising generation.
The Congress called on the Communists and all the other working people of the GDR to deepen and strengthen the time-tested fraternal alliance with Lenin's party and country, and with the other communist and workers' parties of the socialist-community countries. Close cooperation with them has been and continues to be the pledge that the party's decisions will be fulfilled.
We were inspired to fresh successes by the presence at the 11th Congress of a CPSU delegation led by Mikhail Gorbachev. The SED and the CPSU are unanimous on the long-term goals of economic and social development, and the practical solution of the pressing problems, and the long-term objectives of foreign policy and defence. Today, at the new phase of our advance, fraternal cooperation between the USSR and the GDR in the economic, scientific, technical, spiritual and other spheres is raised to a higher level.
At their latest congresses, both fraternal parties decided on the steps required to attain, through joint efforts, an intensification of production, the key element in the shaping of developed socialism. The decisions of the 27th Congress of the CPSU are of fundamental importance for perfecting social relations in the USSR, and for enhancing the power and influence of socialism throughout the world.
The directives of the 11th Congress of the SED set the task of raising scientific and technical cooperation to a new level, and implementing the decisions of the economic summit of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) countries (Moscow, 1984). That will take tremendous efforts. The SED gives the assurance that its activity has proceeded and will continue to proceed from the assumption that, more than ever before in the past, the prospects for social progress and stronger peace are now determined by the unity and cohesion of the socialist community. The conditions for the fraternal countries' cooperation have become more favourable. The acceleration of economic and 96 social development and the substantial boosting of labour productivity will enable socialism to win qualitatively new and more solid positions in the crucial areas of the struggle and competition with imperialism.
The Congress stated that the international situation has been aggravated over the past several years. The piratical US attack on Libya just before the party Congress opened bore out the justice of Erich Honecker's warning: the world situation in our day is liable to sudden changes. The most aggressive circles of monopoly capital in the United States and other NATO countries have been trying to invalidate the results of the meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in 1985 and to bury the spirit of Geneva. They are spiralling the arms race and preparing to militarise space step by step. They have staked everything on their maniacal notion that they have the strength to gain military superiority over socialism, to defeat the new social system, and to stem social progress on the Earth. The most reactionary circles are even prepared to jeopardise the existence of mankind as a whole.
The delegates to the 11th Congress demanded that the aggressive imperialist politicians should be deterred, and regarded "the preservation of peace, which holds the prospect of a secure future'',^^8^^ as the party's most important task. Erich Honecker showed that this was a realistic task. The prerequisites for its fulfilment consist, first, in the rapid growth of socialism's economic might to ensure its internal development and the maintenance of the military-strategic parity, and second, in our community's fresh peace offensive. Its impressive programme for ridding the world of nuclear and chemical weapons by the year 2000, and the proposal to set up a comprehensive international security system, and reduce armed forces and conventional armaments in Europe is an inspiration to the peoples, and they are ever more actively committed to the preservation of peace.
There is a spread across the globe of anti-war movements, joint actions by groups of states, and by various circles of the international public against the adventurist US confrontation line. This invests the struggle for peace with new features. Imperialism has undoubtedly become 97 more aggressive, but there is a rapid growth of the forces resisting its vicious militaristic policy. There is a gradual shaping of a world-wide coalition of reason and realism.
It is not a fist, but an open hand that we hold out to the West, Mikhail Gorbachev said at the Congress. In confirmation of this, the CPSU CC General Secretary came out with a new major initiative on limiting conventional armaments and on disarmament. In so doing, he emphasised: "We seek ways to mutual understanding, to a limitation of the arms race, not out of any weakness. We need peace, but then everyone else needs it as well.''^^9^^
Considering that the Reagan administration and the reactionary circles of the other imperialist states are behaving most aggressively, socialism is doing its utmost to ensure peace. Our call has a powerful ring, and it is impossible not to hear it: the destinies of the world and of mankind cannot be farmed out to imperialism! That is why the GDR Communists believe that their task is "to seek and take every opportunity, however slight, to stop the tendency of the constant growth in the danger of war, and to reverse it towards a steady stabilisation of peace".^^10^^
The international policy of the SED and the first workers' and peasants' state on German soil is designed for more active and concerted action by all the forces of peace, reason and realism so as to avert a nuclear war and prevent the militarisation of space by means of effective steps in limiting armaments and in disarmament. The GDR will work purposefully to develop its fraternal alliance with the USSR and the other socialist countries, actively to promote the strengthening and growth of the might of socialism, and enhancement of its international authority. Our republic displays solidarity with all the peoples fighting for their national liberation and social emancipation, develops equitable and friendly relations with all the newly-liberated states, and gives them assistance in the struggle for a new international economic order based on the principles of equality. We intend to take a consistent stand for broader relations of peaceful coexistence with the capitalist countries, and to maintain and deepen the political dialogue and mutually advantageous cooperation on the basis of 98 the principles and norms of international law and reciprocal consideration of legitimate interests.
The 11th Congress gave a fresh impetus to the wellproved policy of dialogue and joint action with all the forces concerned in the maintenance of peace. It fully endorsed the Soviet initiative on ending nuclear tests as the first step in ridding the world of nuclear weapons. It stressed the pressing need to stop the deployment of these weapons in the heartland of Europe, which has the world's highest concentration of weapons, gradually to dismantle all the nuclear weapon systems already deployed on our continent, and to remove all the medium-range missiles already sited in the area. It was declared at the Congress that the SED is prepared actively to elaborate the joint initiative of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) on the establishment of a zone in Europe free from chemical weapons. We are also doing our utmost to get battlefield nuclear weapons out of the central part of Europe.
Delegations from 143 countries took part in the work of our Congress, among them representatives of 89 communist and workers' parties, 34 people's revolutionary and democratic parties, and also 19 social democratic and socialist parties. The guests set forth their stand on the problems in the struggle for peace, democracy and social progress. The Congress became a genuine rostrum of internationalism, a broad anti-imperialist forum with a valuable exchange of experience. This is of exceptional importance in our day when the struggle for peace is the focus of all actions by the Communists, whose cooperation with the anti-war forces is an ever more pressing need.
The Congress made it possible to expand and strengthen relations with the social democratic and socialist parties, which the SED has long been developing. Most of these parties are now prepared to cooperate with the communist parties of the socialist countries for the sake of peace and security. Our positions are identical on this paramount issue: security in present-day conditions can be ensured only if we act together, instead of against one another.
The SED CC Report said that the FRG government supports the US administration's destructive policy. This 99 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1987/CRCOT359/20080714/199.tx" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2008.07.14) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [*]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ complicates its relations with the socialist countries, including the GDR, and harms cooperation in Europe. The situation on our continent could be markedly changed for the better, if such a major state as the FRO takes the way of detente and actively works for arms limitation and disarmament. The Congress decided to go on developing all the ties between the GDR and the FRG in the spirit of peaceful coexistence underlying the treaty on the principles governing relations between the two German states. This is also evidenced by the joint statement issued by Erich Honecker and Helmut Kohl on March 12, 1985, which says that the most important prerequisite for the preservation of peace is inviolability of borders and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all the states of Europe within their present borders. Considering that inviolability of borders and the territorial integrity of states are the key issues in ensuring security in Europe, the inclusion of these ideas in the statement signifies a step towards establishing a climate of peace on the continent.
The 11th Congress of the SED has shown once again that existing socialism works to solve the acute problems of our day for the benefit of mankind as a whole. The German Democratic Republic is a solid bastion of peace and socialism, and a reliable ally of all those who strive for a world without weapons and without wars, for a world of freedom and progress.
~^^1^^ Neues Deutschland, April 22, 1986.
~^^2^^ Protokoll der Verhandlungen des VIII. Parteitages der SED, Vol.1, Berlin, 1971, pp. 61--62.
~^^3^^ Programm der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deufsch/ands, Berlin. 1976. p. 26.
~^^4^^ Ber/cht des ZK der SED on den XI. Parteitag der SED. Bericht- erstotter: Genosse Erich Honedter, Berlin, 1986, p. 21.
~^^5^^ Ibid., p. 6.
^^6^^ Ibid., p. 49.
~^^7^^ Ibid., pp. 83--84, 86.
~^^8^^ Ibid., p. 6.
^^9^^ Neues Deufsch/and, April 19, 1986.
~^^10^^ Bericht des ZK der SED ..., p. 10.
100 __ALPHA_LVL2__ Decisive FactorSix and a half decades ago Mongolia, where precapitalist social relations predominated, embarked on an economic, social and cultural renaissance. In a historically short time, virtually in the lifetime of one generation, our people achieved scientific, technological and cultural progress, rising from the depths of medieval darkness to the heights of modern civilisation.
It was socialism that made possible so steep an ascent, which today attracts the attention of many peoples still fettered by poverty and backwardness.
Operating on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and creatively applying in national conditions the objective laws of history discovered by it, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party evolved its strategy in line with Lenin's idea of the possibility for backward countries to advance from feudalism to socialism without passing through the capitalist formation. This idea was put into practice on Mongolian soil under the leadership of the MPRP. We are proud of the fact that we succeeded with the fraternal assistance of the world's first socialist state in proving that capitalism is not an inevitable stage in the advance of countries with a prebourgeois system.
This experience is particularly relevant in the context of the present balance of world forces, which offers once subjugated countries ample opportunities to reject capitalism and choose a socialist orientation. Its vital importance is confirmed by more and more new successes of people's Mongolia demonstrating the advantages of the socialist system.
101The 19th MPRP Congress (May 1986) summed up the historic achievements of the party and the people and defined the long-range home and foreign policy tasks of the country, in particular the main lines of economic and social development between 1986 and 1990. It was a political landmark in our advance towards completing the construction of socialism according to the party Programme adopted twertty years ago. Considerable headway has been made in this direction over the past years. The following data, cited at the Congress, speak for themselves.
The economic potential of the country has grown noticeably. Basic funds have increased sixfold against 1965 and national income, threefold. Industrialisation has resulted in expanding the complexes situated in the central economic area and the east of the republic. New capacities have been created in the fuel, power and extractive industries; export resources have increased substantially and the standard of processing of agricultural raw materials has risen. The republic has trained skilled workers and specialists in all economic fields. As a result, favourable changes have come about in the social composition of society and the role of the working class in it has increased. The growth of the productive forces has gone hand in hand with steps to perfect socialist production relations, intensify the communist education of the people and raise their living and cultural standards.
The CC MPRP Report presented to the Congress by CC General Secretary Jambyn Batmunh evaluated these successes exhaustively and realistically. However, it did not deal with successes alone but made an in-depth MarxistLeninist analysis of our potentialities, difficulties and unsolved problems, and specified ways and means of accelerating the socio-economic development of the country. Both preparations for the Congress and its deliberations were greatly influenced by the ideas and spirit of the 27th CPSU Congress, whose results Mongolia's Communists welcomed as a major creative contribution to MarxismLeninism in new conditions, as an inspiring example of courageous, scientifically sound and innovating approach to the solution of urgent problems of social progress.
Frankly and exactingly, our Congress discussed the results 102 of fulfilment of the seventh five-year plan for the economic and cultural development of the country. The past period has seen a relatively rapid expansion of social production: national income has gone up by 37 per cent, and industry has registered an annual increase in output averaging 9.2 per cent. Grain, potato and vegetable production has grown visibly. The tasks in raising the people's living and cultural standards set by the 18th MPRP Congress have been accomplished. Real per capita income increased by 12 per cent.
The dynamic socio-economic progress made by the MPR is a fruit of devoted effort by the people with the assistance of fraternal socialist countries, primarily the Soviet Union, and of the party's correct policy. This is not to say, however, that it was all smooth sailing or that there were no mistakes or shortcomings. We could have done much more, speakers said at the Congress, had we mobilised our reserves in greater measure and used the economic, scientific and technological potential and the people's creative energy more effectively.
Due to losses incurred in 1983 and 1984, stock-farming, the main branch of our agriculture, failed to fulfil plans for increasing the livestock population. Industry put out fewer important products than planned. While investments considerably exceeded the amount planned originally, assignments for the utilisation of basic funds were not carried out in full measure. Certain economic fields have yet to achieve proper efficiency and quality.
The Congress, stressing the need to consolidate all that has been achieved and to eliminate negative phenomena registered during the past five-year period, approved the Main Lines of the Economic and Social Development of the Country for 1986--1990. These take account of the proposals and criticism made by Communists and non-- Communists during the pre-Congress discussion of the draft document in which over half a million people took part. The chief task under the new five-year plan is to advance social production, raise its efficiency and bring about a further improvement in the standard of living on this basis.
The Congress specified the objectives of the party's economic and social policy and decided on ways and means 103 of achieving them. The national income is to grow by 26--29 per cent and capital investments, by 24--26 per cent. We will continue building up our industrial potential and expect to increase industrial output by 30--34 per cent. We must substantially improve power supply and fully meet the requirements of the economy in solid fuels. As well as expanding the industrial complexes in the central part .of the republic, we are going to build new enterprises in the west, which is needed to distribute the productive forces judiciously.
Much will change in agriculture, with gross annual output growing by an average of 18--20 per cent. Plans provide for a further extension of the material and technical base of the economy and for the utilisation of intensification factors in stock-farming. Output of cereals and vegetables is to increase noticeably; we want to achieve at least 40 per cent of the increase by raising crop capacity. The aim of the party's agricultural policy is to draw production level with the notable rate of population growth before long.
The welfare of the people is the highest goal of economic development under socialism. In the current five-year period, our people will realise more than ever that to consolidate the material and technical base of the new society is to create real prerequisites for achieving a higher standard of living, advancing society socially and culturally, and applying the principles and norms of the socialist way of life. Remuneration in the material production sphere and the service sector as well as the incomes of members of agricultural associations and minimum pensions are to go up. A good deal will be done to extend medical aid and general services and to improve the educational system and housing conditions. Public consumption funds are to grow by 20--25 per cent and the population's cash incomes, by 20--23 per cent.
In adopting a far-reaching economic and social development programme for the years ahead, the 19th Congress defined steps to raise quality and efficiency as a key task in all economic fields. This implies the following:
First, the economic situation today is such that while the growth rate of investments and basic funds is high, performance is still low. The party therefore sees the main 104 problem in making better use of the production potential, concentrating the greater part of new investments on building projects about to be completed and increasing the share of investments in the expansion, reconstruction and retooling of factories and farms.
Second, the expenditure of materials still exceeds half the value of the gross social product. The Congress called for effort to save raw and other materials, fuel, energy and other resources, introduce technologies involving little or no waste, improve the initial processing of raw materials and ensure full utilisation of reusable scrap.
Third, the rapid growth of manpower resources is not accompanied by measures to keep competent personnel in key economic spheres. The party regards proper use of manpower resources and higher social productivity of labour as important both economically and socially.
Fourth, efficiency depends directly on the quality of output, work and services. We consider it necessary to raise quality indices in the main industries to the level attained by fraternal socialist countries.
Fifth, the Congress pointed out that the problem of raising economic efficiency is closely linked with scientific and technological progress. The appreciably increased research potential of academic and industrial research centres, designing organisations and higher educational institutions makes it possible to heighten their role in the solution of pressing social problems. Research will be provided with greater experimental facilities with a view to working out major economic tasks on a comprehensive basis. Working people are to be offered greater material incentives and made more accountable for the prompt application of scientific and technological achievements in production and for steadfast implementation of the policy of fostering technological progress.
The new stage of economic development demands a different approach to the task of perfecting economic management. To encourage enterprises and economic organisations to attain greater efficiency, we have been carrying on a number of economic experiments with due regard to the progress made by fraternal countries. The purpose is to bring more working people into production planning and 105 management, offer work collectives stronger incentives to achieving better and results, and extend the rights and autonomy of economic entities. The Congress found it necessary to generalise the positive experience gained to date and to ensure that industry, construction, transport, communications and the service sector adopt new methods of economic management during the five-year period.
The party is set on greatly improving planned economic management. This means primarily making sounder and more balanced plans, interconnecting them at industrial and territorial level and coupling centralised planning more effectively with initiative from below. We therefore consider it important to widely use economic levers, such as economic contracts, operation on a self-supporting basis, the finance and credit mechanism, prices and wage rates. These factors must be used properly for work collectives to commit themselves more than ever to advancing production, must ensure that incomes distribution invariably follows the principle "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work''. Hence the greater necessity of fostering new economic thinking, initiative and enterprise among executives, specialists and workers. The party does much to bring about a healthy, creative atmosphere in every collective, seeing it as an earnest of fruitful effort towards increasing and improving output, tightening up discipline, enhancing everyone's sense of duty and achieving order.
Steadfast fulfilment of the tasks set for the new five-year period and later years, the 19th Congress stressed, will largely depend on closer cooperation with the Soviet Union and other fraternal socialist countries. This fruitful cooperation is based on the principles of socialist mutual assistance and proceeds in the spirit of the basic documents of the CMEA Economic Summit (Moscow, 1984). It is particularly important to our country, for it enables us to accelerate social, economic, scientific and technological progress. Participation in socialist economic integration helps us strengthen the material base of the economy and perfect its pattern, increase production and raise its efficiency, reconstruct existing enterprises, build new ones by joint efforts and extend the training of personnel.
106In promoting economic cooperation with fraternal countries, the MPR takes account of both its own interests and the common interests of the socialist community. This prompted the Congress to set the following vastly important task: using as effectively as possible the assistance which we receive within the framework of the CMEA and meeting our commitments to it in exemplary fashion. We now see this as a key criterion of socialist internationalism.
The bigger the social changes required in building the new society, the higher the demands made of the MarxistLeninist party as the political vanguard of the working class and the people as a whole. The MPRP is growing and gaining strength as a living organism. By the time it held its latest Congress, it had achieved closer unity than ever and extended its bonds with the people. Today our party has over 88,000 members, or 15.6 per cent more than during the previous congress. Workers account for 33.2 per cent of its numerical strength, members of agricultural associations for 16.8 per cent and office employees and intellectuals for 50 per cent. The MPRP has grown by admitting members of every section of the working population, especially youth. Its 19th Congress instructed party organisations to devote constant attention to the qualitative aspect of the party's composition as a means of ensuring that Communists play a vanguard role in every sphere of life, setting an example of principle, efficiency and creative initiative, of an uncompromising attitude to complacency, stagnation, red tape and other negative phenomena hampering the progress of society.
Unfailing application of the principles of democratic centralism and collective leadership is a prime requisite for raising the leading and organising role of the party and for safeguarding it against subjectivist shortcomings and miscalculations. The Congress noted the special importance in this respect of the Extraordinary Eighth Plenum of the CC MPRP (1984), which demonstrated the continuity of party policy, the close cohesion of the party and its keen sense of responsibility. The spirit of that meeting was carried forward in subsequent CC guidelines offering a truthful and critical analysis of the work done and calling attention to unsolved problems and to ways of overcoming difficulties.
107As the task of guiding society is more exacting than before, the Congress found it imperative to reshape the party's working methods. The main requirement in this respect is to discard bureaucratic routine and allow party organisations to assume responsibility and implement on their own the general line of the party and decisions of its leading bodies. It is also essential to end formalism and oversimplification, such as express themselves in awaiting instructions "from higher up'', in pledges for show, superficial accounts, speechifying and the compilation of all sorts of plans instead of real organising work.
The MPRP is the core and leading force of the political system of our society. This explains why its entire effort in leading government, economic and other organisations is intended to encourage initiative in these organisations, heighten their commitment to the implementation of party policy and check their performance through the Communists working in them. The party does all this without trying to substitute itself for them. Congress documents define accordingly the Communists' tasks in furthering socialist democracy, in perfecting the political system of society, in increasing the role and stepping up the activity of Hurals (councils) of People's Deputies on all levels, of their executive bodies, of other government agencies, the trade unions, the Revolutionary Youth League, women's and other organisations, working people's voluntary societies. What is needed first and foremost is to extend the democratic principles of their functioning and draw working people into the management of public affairs on a mass scale.
The party wants all government bodies, all ministries and central departments, to operate efficiently and to respond promptly to the people's problems and requirements, keeping in daily touch with them. We gear the mechanism of socialist democracy to unrelentingly combating every manifestation of red tape or complacency in the state apparatus. People's control bodies are to enlist the participation of a growing number of working men and women. This should make control more effective and encourage people to approach every problem from the standpoint of the public interest, which is the basis for promoting socialist democracy.
108Special attention was given at the Congress to the personnel policy of the party. The Congress demanded that all manifestations of an unprincipled, sectional or parochial approach to this matter be ended. In this sphere the party insists above all else on strict respect for the Leninist principles of selecting, placing and educating personnel, and on achieving efficiency and combining the experience of veterans with the energy of youth. It emphasised the importance of improving the training of personnel and of doing away with shortcomings that hinder criticism, especially from below, as well as self-criticism. The party proceeds from Lenin's advice which says that criticism should be "comradely and frank'', and free of "diplomacy and petty considerations".^^1^^ The Congress demanded that every attempt to resist fair criticism be defeated and that party bodies respond promptly to criticisms and proposals and make the results public.
The Congress approved the policy of tightening up party, state and labour discipline, improving order and organisation and rigorously enforcing socialist legality. It pointed out that party control should serve unrelenting efforts to ensure conscious discipline. Party branches will have to play a big role in this.
In the light of the new exigencies, the Congress decided on the main lines of reorganising ideological work, which should help provide a proper ideological, political, moral and psychological climate for the active implementation of party policy. We attach special importance to developing the party's theoretical thought on the principles of MarxismLeninism and according to its methodology. The Congress formulated the main problems requiring serious research. It is to be hoped that collective quests will produce results beneficial to society's progress.
The 19th Congress was characterised by proletarian internationalism reflecting the Mongolian Communists' growing ties with fraternal parties, with all fighters for socialist ideals, democracy and peace. It was attended by representatives of communist, labour and revolutionary democratic parties as well as of other progressive forces from 66 countries.
The MPRP, a component of the international communist 109 and working class movement, declares for closer unity of the movement on the unshakable internationalist principles of Marxism-Leninism. We will go on building up close relations with fraternal parties, comparing notes and cooperating with them in the struggle for the interests of the working class, for peace and socialism. From this point of view we attach great importance to the effort of World Marxist Review.
Our party sees its paramount internationalist duty in furthering its fraternal alliance and close cooperation with the CPSU and the ruling parties of other socialist community countries in various spheres and at all levels. The Congress reaffirmed the party's invariable commitment to the promotion of friendship and fruiful cooperation with all the countries building the new society. We wholeheartedly support the selfless struggle of all Communists and other revolutionaries and patriots, of the national liberation forces of various countries, against imperialism and exploitation, for peace, democracy and social progress. Our Congress emphatically condemned the arbitrary, terroristic and repressive practices of imperialist reaction, of racist and fascist regimes, against freedom fighters.
On behalf of the party and the Mongolian people as a whole, the Congress expressed unanimous support for the programme advanced by the Soviet Union with a view to safeguarding international security, for that country's peace initiatives and steadfast efforts aimed at reducing and eliminating weapons of mass destruction. The Soviet initiatives include the package proposals which Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU CC, set out in his Statement of January 15, 1986. The only way to spare humanity a nuclear holocaust is to unite all democratic and anti-war forces in order to seek implementation of these far-- reaching initiatives and curb the adventurist policy of imperialism, primarily US imperialism, directed towards escalating the nuclear arms race and militarising space.
Our Congress approved the foreign policy of the party, whose purpose is to provide favourable external conditions for our socialist construction and for the promotion of peace and international security. The MPRP has become much more active in the foreign policy arena and 110 strengthened its international positions. The UN has adopted on our country's initiative a number of important political decisions in favour of peace and disarmament, such as the Declaration of the Right of Peoples to Peace.
A key foreign policy activity of our party and state is to contribute to security in Asia, where there are many knotty political problems and trouble spots. It is to this end that the MPR has proposed to set up a mechanism ruling out the use of force in international relations in the region and that meetings of representatives of the parliaments, trade unions, youth and women's organisations of Asian countries have lately been held in Mongolia.
We believe the situation on the continent and the adjacent areas imperatively demand a meeting of Asian communist and workers' parties to discuss the problem of safeguarding peace and stability in this part of the globe. The 19th MPRP Congress expressed readiness to join actively in the convocation of such a meeting and was backed in this by the delegates of a number of parties attending it.
The plans for the dynamic economic, social and cultural progress of society contained in Congress decisions proceed from the chief goal set by the party Programme: accelerating the creation of the material and technical base of socialism as the main prerequisite for the advance of the country and a steadily rising standard of living. These plans were hailed by the Communists and other working people of the republic, whom they inspire with new ideas and give confidence in their strength and the correctness of party policy. Work has begun all over the country to accomplish the tasks set by the 19th' MPRP Congress. Our people see consistent fulfilment of these big tasks as an earnest of the further progress and radiant future of their socialist country.
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 12, p. 374.
111
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Clear Prospects
The Tenth Congress of the PUWP (June 29-July 3, 1986) was a major event for our party and the entire nation. It also generated widespread international response. Viewed in terms of its general significance, the congress took stock of the experience the party had gained working in an extremely complex and at times dramatic period of Poland's postwar history. The congress thus marked the conclusion of an important stage in the struggle to stabilise the sociopolitical fabric and consolidate the national economy; it also ushered in a new stage at which the policy worked out at the Ninth Congress of the PUWP (1981) and designed to ensure socialist renovation will continue at a radically new level. This policy will mean, first and foremost, a more consistent tackling of the tasks set, accelerated socio-economic development and improvement of the party's work. The goals of the new period are outlined in the Programme of the Polish United Workers' Party adopted at our congress.
The five years that elapsed between the Ninth and Tenth PUWP congresses were a period of high tension and anxiety, but also of production accomplishments. The nation still remembers the time when it went through a profound crisis and faced a great danger. There was discontent among the working class which protested against the distortion of socialism caused by the errors in the strategy and policy of party and government leaders in the 1970s. Assisted by imperialism, the counter-revolutionaries used this discontent and protest to attack the people's government and the foundations of the socialist system.
Inciting and directing the activities of anti-socialist 112 groups, the imperialist forces expected the destruction of the political structure in Poland to erode the world socialist system and change the alignment of forces in Europe.
The crisis at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s reflected both the backlog of socio-economic contradictions in our country and the highly complex nature of the competition between the two systems. The crisis accentuated the problems that face socialism at crucial stages in its development.
The previous party congress charted a course of national concord with all patriotic forces who accepted the foundations of socialism. It was a course of struggle against counter-revolution, of socio-economic reforms designed to consolidate the socialist system. In this way the party of the Polish working class demonstrated that it-and it alonecould offer a feasible programme of overcoming the crisis, lead the people in surmounting the existing difficulties and ensure the nation's progress.
On December 13, 1981 the constitutional authorities of our republic, proceeding from their legitimate duties and rights, adopted a sovereign decision on the imposition of martial law. Recourse to this extreme was essential in order to remove the threat of a civil war, a threat posed by the activities of the counter-revolutionary forces, to end anarchy, stop economic dislocation, ensure Poland's survival as a nation and prevent a deterioration of the political situation in Europe. Our party deems it its duty to defend Poland's revolutionary gains by drawing on its own resources and relying on the solidarity of our class allies. This task is rooted not only in our party's responsibility to our working class and the entire nation but also < in the fact that the PUWP is part of the international communist and workers' movement and the Polish People's Republic, an important element of the world socialist system.
The years that have passed since the Ninth Congress have proven that the course was chosen correctly and have brought about radical changes in the life of the nation and of the party itself, as well as in the functioning of the people's government and the socialist economy.
The Tenth Congress owed its particular importance above all to the fact that it adopted the PUWP Programme which 113 defined the party's objectives for the rest of the century. After the Ideological Declaration approved at the Unification Congress in 1948, this is the first document in the history of our party to formulate the long-term goals of socialist construction.
The Programme is the result of a Marxist-Leninist analysis applied to the development of socialist society in Poland, to the actual alignment of social forces, to the class structure of our society, to the nature and intensity of social contradictions. Drawing on the rich experience of the party and of Poland's entire organised workers' movement which is over 100 years old, the Programme exemplifies a creative application of general, historically tested laws of socialist construction to the specific, distinctive conditions of our country. In drafting its policy document, the PUWP used the collective theoretical and practical experience accumulated by the fraternal parties, the decisions of the 27th Congress of the Soviet Communists playing a particularly important part. As Comrade Wojciech Jaruzelski stressed at our party forum, "we connect our party's policy of socialist construction precisely with the long-term prospects of socialist development, the path it (the CPSU.-Ed.) is blazing boldly".^^1^^
The PUWP Programme also rises to the challenge of our age, the challenge posed by the progress of civilisation, primarily by the revolutionary advances of science and technology. Reaffirming communism as the long-term historical goal of the party, the Programme defines our immediate task-the building of socialism, the first phase of the communist social formation, and the complete establishment of socialist relations in all spheres of the social fabric.
Poland is at the close of a period of transition from capitalism to socialism, the foundations of which have been created in major areas. The socialist mode of production is dominant in our country. The political system is socialist. A Marxist-Leninist party is the leading force of our society. Socialist processes are penetrating deep into the spheres of democracy and public self-government. Poland is a firm link in the chain of the socialist community countries.
One must, however, note that social transformations have not affected the basis and the superstructure to the same extent. Along with public property which plays the decisive 114 role, there is also private property (small-scale producers in agriculture and handicrafts) and, on a minor scale, petty-capitalist property. This gives rise to different and even contradictory social interests. The history of people's Poland confirms that the transition from capitalism to socialism implies not only a simple accumulation of a socialist system's features and values but also a complex process of overcoming antagonistic and non-antagonistic contradictions.
The Programme sets specific goals for two periods to come. The first, which will end with the 1980s, will see the complete elimination of the aftermath left by the sociopolitical crisis. In the economy, we are to stop the obsolescence of production plant, speed up the technological and organisational restructuring, increase the efficiency of the national economy, balance the market, largely curb inflation, strengthen our export capacity and put the foreign trade balance of payments in order. With these tasks solved, we will be able to pass to the second stage-to increase the rates of intensive economic growth in the 1990s, thus securing a radical acceleration of our entire socio-economic development and adding faster to our national income. Widespread modernisation of production, far-reaching changes in the economic structure, the levelling out of development imbalances between different regions and a steady decrease of the external debt are to become salient features of this period.
Under the Programme, the national income is to rise by at least 75 per cent within 15 years-by the year 2000. This calls for labour productivity to grow at least 65 per cent and the energy intensiveness and material intensiveness, to decrease 30 to 40 per cent. Solution of these tasks will enable per capita consumption to increase 50 per cent and make it possible to accomplish major new social projects. The course and the essence of socialist transformations in society's class structure, political system and intellectual field have also been outlined.
A party-wide preccngress discussion centred on the Draft Programme and on a paper which was prepared for the congress and which specified socio-economic tasks for 1985--1990. At meetings and conferences, in person-to-- 115 person discussions and in the course of informal and free exchanges of views, each party member could express his opinion of these documents and make whatever points he wished to make. During the discussion, many critical, relevant and constructive proposals were submitted; this made it necessary to introduce radical changes into the original Draft Programme and to enrich its content. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Programme expresses the collective wisdom and the experience of the entire party, of all working people-the working class, the peasants and the intellectuals.
Attaining policy goals is no easy task. Socialist transformations and changes occurring in the world at large are complex and uneven; some spheres of activity marked time and even suffered retrogression due to the economic decline at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. Therefore, as the Central Committee reported to the Tenth Congress, "accelerated development is the paramount national task and a historical necessity. The time factor has acquired new dimensions for Poland. That is the principal and essential condition for implementing the PUWP Programme. We interpret acceleration above all as a process of profound and radical change both in material production and in social consciousness.''^^2^^
A radical modernisation of production and structural changes in the economy call for the speediest possible development of industries that rely on the latest advances of science and technology. To us, structural change implies not only a change in the correlation of the economic branches but also widespread application of electronics, automation, robotics and informatics, as well as the introduction of advanced technologies into the manufacture of materials and products; many of them are to display new properties and must be of the highest quality. The switch to face the exigencies of the day also demands that we achieve savings through the frugal and rational use of primary commodities, materials and energy-that is, resources whose growth will be considerably limited.
Advances of the scientific and technological revolution will be used in an organic connection with the advantages of socialism; this is to be the principal motive force of 116 socio-economic progress. In the current five-year period, allocations to science will double. The role of the nation's central economic agencies in directing basic research will increase; simultaneously, economic and legal conditions will be created for a more flexible organisation of research and of applying its results, with small enterprises also playing a role.
Man, his knowledge, expertise, commitment and initiative will be the decisive factor here. Poland has a great number of highly skilled personnel among the working class, peasants and intellectuals. These people are our greatest asset and a source of our optimism. To use their skills rationally is a major economic and political task.
The Tenth Congress recommended that all jobs and organisational structures in the national economy and government be evaluated and certified. This does not imply automatic cuts in manning tables for the sake of economy; the aim is to bring all elements of the economic and government mechanism into conformity with the actual level attained in terms of the forces and relations of production. The evaluation and certification drive will not be a shortlived campaign but the beginning of a continuous mass movement to improve the organisation of work and of the managerial apparatus.
At its previous congress, our party initiated changes in the financial and economic system; in other words, an economic reform was launched. It is essentially designed to strengthen the strategic role of central planning as a means of expressing the nation's interests; simultaneously, the autonomy of government-run enterprises is to increase in the creation and managerial use of economic tools such as profits, credits, taxes and prices. The reform is to free the initiative and activity of working people as collective owners of socialist property.
Introduced in 1982, the new financial and economic system has already yielded certain results. It has helped to increase labour productivity, reduce the consumption of materials and energy, and improve the supply of goods to the market. This has made it possible to lift rationing regulations (except those concerning meat and meat products) and to reach the precrisis level in the availability and 117 consumption of many goods. The reform has exerted a tangible impact on the way people think and act on the job.
Still, these innovations were introduced against the extremely complicated background of a profound slump and imbalance in production, of enormous difficulties in the supply of raw and other materials. As a result, the reform has failed to influence economic efficiency to a greater degree and turned out to be inadequate for eliminating the imbalances between the growth of people's incomes and the production of the necessary goods. Together with several objective factors, this is a source of our continuing high inflation which plays a destructive role in the economy and in the social fabric.
Naturally, the implementation of the reform is a longterm and involved socio-economic process. Its financial and economic tools and mechanisms must be constantly improved and adapted to the changing situation and to new economic phenomena. The Tenth Congress of the PUWP advocated that the reform be intensified and shifted to its second stage, essentially aimed at making economic management more efficient. This makes it necessary to reduce budgetary subsidies, to rationalise prices and to strictly observe the principles of self-financing. An added benefit is that this will make it possible to curb inflation, strengthen incentives to better work, increase the national income and improve the supply of goods to the market.
The congress accorded great attention to the development of agriculture and the food industry. The Party Programme envisages a considerable increase of agricultural output and, in the longer term, Poland's self-sufficiency at a relatively high level of food consumption. We are to reequip the agrarian sector and to introduce modern agricultural methods on a large scale.
The concentration of agricultural estates in Poland is an objective process. But land-our people's common assetshould be used as efficiently as possible. Bearing this in mind, the party advocates not only voluntary socialisation of land (based on sound economic principles), expansion of cultivated areas and the establishment of new state-run farms but also the strengthening of highly productive family farms linked through production with the socialist 118 economy. Care will be taken to enhance the role and the importance of state-run and cooperative agricultural enterprises in supplying the population with food.
The efforts to modernise the economy and make it more efficient will help to expand our export capacities and to involve Poland more vigorously in the international division of labour. The party believes that all-round economic cooperation with the other socialist countries, primarily with the USSR, is an important factor in the acceleration of our nation's development. Recent difficult years are added proof that these links are something we can rely on. At a time when Poland was subjected to discrimination and economic sanctions by the capitalist powers who brazenly violated the agreements concluded and went back on their foreign trade obligations, the Soviet Union and other sister countries helped to preserve the viability of our economy and save it from disintegration.
We attach great importance to radically new forms of cooperation with the CMEA, to more profound coproduction and specialisation, and to the expansion of direct economic ties between individual enterprises. Poland is active in the follow-up of the CMEA countries' Comprehensive Programme for Scientific and Technological Progress through the year 2000 and of a similar Polish-Soviet programme. Their implementation gives rise to radically new forms of cooperation, such as joint industrial design offices and science/production centres.
Our party is in favour of mutually beneficial and equitable economic relations and partnership in trade with the countries of the other social system-provided there is no discrimination or protectionism.
A steady rise in the standard and quality of life is the purpose of the strategy of intensive economic development. In the coming years, social policy will be aimed primarily at meeting more fully the food requirements of the population, improving housing conditions, bringing education closer to practical needs and consolidating its infrastructure, ensuring progress in the fields of health care and environmental protection, and equitably distributing the national income along the lines of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his work''.
119The working class has been and remains the leading force in socialist transformations. In Poland, it forms the main base of socialism and expresses the interests of all working people, of the entire nation. The party will see to it that the occupational skills, the cultural level, the social position and the comprehensive influence of the working class continue to grow.
The working class discharges its historical mission in alliance with the peasants and the intellectuals. This alliance forms the class-rooted base of popular government and underlies the PUWP policy of national concord. This policy stems from the point Lenin made to the effect that communism can only be built if all working people take part in this effort. Therefore, the policy of concord is not a transitory tactical line adopted for a difficult period but a steady course to form a broad alliance with those social forces which, despite their different philosophies and approaches to specific issues, recognise the constitutional principles of the socialist system and are ready to share the common responsibility for the future of the nation.
The new and complex tasks facing Poland have an impact on the evolution of the very concept of national concord. While previously, political understanding was particularly important, it is cooperation in the socio-economic sphere that is moving to the foreground today. Expressed in the activities of the Patriotic Movement for National Revival, the strategy of concord is the basis underlying the mode of governing the country in coalition with the United Peasants' Party and the Democratic Party. We have rejected the practice of regarding the allied parties as mere transmission shafts for the PUWP or as organisations dressing up the nation's facade. Recognising the leading role of the PUWP and accepting the programme of socialist construction, these parties act as our partners in the drawing up and implementation of the policy pursued by our people's republic.
The issue of the socialist state's relations with churches and religious denominations is an integral part of the national concord policy in Poland. There are fundamental differences between dialectical materialism, the foremost component of our party's ideological basis, and idealist 120 philosophy. We are consistently upholding the constitutional principles concerning the separation of church and state and, at the same time, ensuring religious liberty, the freedom to perform religious rites, and the equality of civic rights and duties irrespective of the citizen's attitude to religion. While opposing the trends of political clericalism and the attempts to play on the religious feelings of believers and to use places of worship for anti-socialist purposes, the party advocates constructive relations between the state and the churches. We face tasks common to all mankind and to our whole nation-such as the struggle to deliver the world from the threat of nuclear war, efforts to rebuff the West German revanchist forces, protection of the environment and of culture, as well as care for the moral health of our society; fruitful cooperation is possible in all these fields. In broad terms, the PUWP's policy in this area is directed at creating the moral and political conditions which will enable millions of believers to be active in the building of socialism.
Despite the difficult years we have lived through, values that are inseparable from socialism-such as social justice, democracy, equal opportunity, and social confidence-have struck deep roots in the mentality of the working class and all working people. As Wojciech Jaruzelski stressed, "in this sense, the ideas of Marxism-Leninism have entered the nation's bloodstream, and socialist values and forms have become an integral part of social consciousness".^^3^^
The result is the loss of social influence and the virtual political isolation suffered by the clandestine counter-- revolutionary groups and the subversive imperialist centres backing them which launched what amounted to psychological warfare against people's Poland. Polish society is increasingly grasping the anti-labour and anti-national nature of these "champions of workers and their rights'', the fact that they act as agents serving alien interests.
However, we do not idealise the social situation and the political moods prevailing in our country. We are waging a consistent and increasingly effective political struggle against those adhering to views and concepts that have sprung from alien soil and that are hostile to socialist ideology. This is of particular importance for work conducted 121 among young people. The party has launched a drive to clean up social relations, to ensure full respect of the law, to rule out any deformed or perverted social practices. A widespread educational campaign is going on to combat such disgusting things as alcoholism, theft of public property or gross violations of moral standards.
The progress of socialism is inseparable from the expansion of democracy, from the drive to perfect the forms and methods of participation by the working class and all working people in the management of economic enterprises and in the administration of communities, regions and the entire country. Since the Ninth Congress, progress has been registered both in institutions exercising social control over government activities and in public self-- government, in representative and direct democracy. The role, prestige and legislative activity of the Sejm are growing. The consultative Socio-Economic Council which comprises representatives of industrial enterprises, the agricultural sector and research agencies has come to play an important role in the work of our parliament. The powers of the national councils (local government bodies) have been strengthened considerably. These councils are becoming true masters of their districts and centres of public initiative.
The class-based trade union movement has re-emerged and currently affiliates 6.5 million members. It recognises the leading social role of the PUWP and truly represents the interests and protects the rights of working people. The party respects and protects the unions' independence of the government and their organisational autonomy, and firmly favours the movement's ideological and political unity.
Workers' management has emerged as a tangible form of socialist industrial democracy, playing an important role in the tackling of the factories' essential problems-in the approval of current and long-term plans, in the distribution of earnings, etc. The trend towards transforming workers' management into a form of political struggle is disappearing; conflicts between the specific interests of individual factories and national objectives are becoming less and less frequent. A system of cost/efficiency production teams 122 and partnership groups is developing. In them, the workers themselves are responsible for the organisation of work, for product quality and for lower production costs; this serves to heighten their sense of responsibility and to enhance their team spirit and social activity.
The congress has acknowledged that conditions are ripe for a further development and enrichment of the means of socialist democracy. Specifically, the democracy of the electoral system is to be strengthened. A new institutionthe guardians of civil rights-will be created under national councils at all levels; provincial national councils will have consultative bodies similar to those which operate under the Sejm. The party is working to make the social fabric more open and to broaden the legal and political framework for a constructive criticism of negative phenomena. We want the development of socialist democracy to lead to a fuller realisation of our working people's political, economic, social and cultural rights, to consolidate civil liberties and enhance their guarantees.
Being inseparable from the destiny of our nation, the PUWP is the principal guiding force of socialist progress. It has left behind a period of withdrawal and ideological confusion, rallied its ranks and strengthened its MarxistLeninist essence. Amid the acute political struggle which is still going on in our country, the Communists' political consciousness has heightened. Within the party, the Leninist principles of democratic centralism are observed firmly. The amendments and additions introduced into the PUWP Rules at the congress help to reinforce these principles. Pursuing a political course consonant with the interests of the working people, the PUWP is gradually but steadily raising its prestige and winning the respect and support of the masses. Consolidation of our ties with the working class has been and remains our principal task.
The leading and guiding social role of the PUWP depends above all on its ability to apply Marxism-Leninism creatively. This calls for an in-depth Marxist analysis of our realities and trends, for a scientific approach to the contradictions and problems that arise. The party deems it its duty to do all it can for Communists to gain a more profound knowledge of the theory of scientific socialism and be 123 better able to apply it in the difficult conditions of Poland, for the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin to dominate the intellectual life of our people.
Recent years have demonstrated the dialectical connection between the situation in our country and the international alignment of forces. These years have once again proven the inviolability of our allied ties; as far as the latter are concerned, our friendship and all-round cooperation with the USSR are of paramount importance. Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, had this to say at the Tenth Congress of the PUWP: "We have a comradely stake in the success of your projects and undertakings, in Poland being a strong, independent socialist state, an active member of our community, a firm link in it. This is consonant with the vital interests of the Polish people, our common cause.
``Close cooperation and alliance between Poland and the USSR-the two biggest European socialist nations-is essential for the successful development of our countries, for stability and peace in Europe.''^^4^^
To socialist Poland, this close cooperation and alliance are an important factor of our security and territorial integrity, an essential condition for the consolidation of our international position and our peaceful and harmonious development. The alliance draws its strength from the firm foundation of our common class and national interests, of our common internationalist purposes and aspirations. The PUWP fully shares the far-sighted, realistic, wise and fair course of the 27th CPSU Congress with regard to protecting the world against the threat of nuclear annihilation, an issue of the utmost importance for all mankind. We are working hard to support the Soviet initiatives aimed at freeing the world from nuclear weapons and creating a system of universal international security. We support the new philosophy of peace advanced by Lenin's party-a philosophy that asserts the responsibility of all countries for the future of humanity and the priority of the preservation of peace over national and bloc interests.
Peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems is not only possible but also historically inevitable; it is an expression of common sense and of the instinct of 124 self-preservation. The peace policy elaborated jointly by the Warsaw Treaty countries offers moral proof of the ideological advantages and humanitarian nature of socialism. History has taught Poland to pay close attention to the issues of peace and security in Europe. In a declaration on European security and cooperation, our party congress evokes the historic Final Act of the Helsinki Conference which, having recognised the inviolability of the postwar political and territorial arrangement, charted a long-term programme of Europe's peaceful development. We want these ideas to be implemented, we are for the practice of dialogue and cooperation, we are against the upsurge in the activities of the West German revanchist forces which try to wreck this arrangement. Poland is ready to make a vigorous contribution to the cause of peace and to accept all initiatives designed to achieve disarmament, defuse tensions and promote all-European cooperation.
The Tenth Congress of the PUWP paid tribute to the solidarity of the fraternal parties with the struggle of the Polish Communists. Our party strives to develop contacts and broad cooperation with all communist and workers' parties on the basis of equality, non-interference in each party's internal affairs and respect for its views on this or that question. We hold invariably that what unites Communists is of particular importance and that peace and social progress are their common cause. Our congress reiterated the PUWP view that it would be useful to convene a world communist conference to define the ways and techniques of fighting for peace.
The party forum was a time of critical and self-critical stocktaking for the PUWP. It highlighted our weak points and mistakes and showed how they should be corrected. We regard the promotion of criticism and self-criticism as an important factor in the struggle for socialism and its advancement. To lead is to serve the working class and the entire nation-such is our motto.
~^^1^^ Trybuna Ludu, June 30, 1986.
~^^2^^ Ibid.
~^^3^^ Ibid.
Trybuna Ludu, July 1, 1986.
125 ~ [126]
__ALPHA_LVL1__
THE WORLD
Humanity is confronted with a choice on which its further existence depends: peace or war? In an effort to halt the course of history, the aggressive forces of US imperialism and some of their NATO allies have taken the path of confrontation and arms race which leads to war. US imperialism has not given up its intention of crushing socialism, which stands as the main obstacle to its claims to world domination. Nor has it given up its design of crushing the national liberation movements. It has taken on itself the ``right'' of armed interference in the internal affairs of any state in the name of so-called national interests, actually the interests of the US monopolies. As a consequence, it continues exporting counter-revolution against Nicaragua. It threatens Cuba, the Middle East, and southern Africa. It supports the counter-revolutionaries in Kampuchea and Afghanistan. It pursues a policy of state terrorism on the pretext of combating terrorists.
But there is another path of development-the path of peaceful coexistence, of detente and disarmament based on equality and equal security, the path fought for by the Soviet Union and the entire socialist community of states, the communist and workers' parties, and the peace movement. Inseparable from this path is the aspiration of the peoples to assert their right to decide their own destinies, to control their own resources, and to consolidate the freedom and independence won by them. The resolution "The Road Ahead" passed by the 26th Convention of the Communist Party of Canada in April 1985, defines the priorities in today's world: halting the arms race, removing the 128 danger of nuclear war, and taking practical measures to achieve disarmament. It should be clear to all of us that social progress has no future if peace is not won.
On Soviet initiative talks are underway with the USA in Geneva on a wide range of issues related to space and nuclear weapons, all of which must be considered and resolved in their interrelationship. This approach is the key element of the talks. It implies compliance with the entire spectrum of understandings reached earlier, for the spread of militarization to outer space, which is what Reagan's Star Wars aim at, would destabilize the situation in the world, accelerate the arms race, and increase the danger of a nuclear confrontation. The Soviet Union is speaking not only for itself when it insists on the interrelationship of all these issues. It is speaking for the world's peoples, who ardently want the prevention of an arms race in outer space and its cessation on the ground, this being a vital guarantee of a peaceful life.
The Star Wars program proclaimed by Washington goes together with the continued development and manufacture of new types of strategic offensive armaments-the MX missiles, the Midgetman systems, the Trident Us, the heavy bombers, and the long-range cruise missiles. Moreover, the stationing of US intermediate-range missiles continues in Western Europe. These measures taken together, arising from the Reagan policy of confrontation, add to the danger of war involving the most destructive weapons. At the same time, they are evidence that the USA has not given up its effort to achieve military superiority, a first strike and winnable nuclear war strategy. It stands to reason that the Soviet Union, as it has repeatedly declared, will do all in its power to prevent the USA from attaining such superiority over itself and its allies. If the USA persists in continuing its space program it will jeopardize the negotiations in Geneva and the entire arms control process. A good beginning may prove unproductive because the US administration continues to pursue its dangerous course.
What is important for Canada is that the Conservative government be made to speak up against the US Star Wars program and confrontation, as some other NATO allies of the USA have done. Instead the Mulroney 129 government gives way to US pressure. It has undertaken the modernisation of the DEW Line (the North Warning System as it is now called) and the buiding of 52 radar stations. The Pentagon has included this system into its strategy for war in outer space. None other than the US Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger linked space militarization research with the modernization of the DEW radar line. He also declared that there might be a time when US launchers targeted on the USSR and other socialist countries would be placed on Canadian soil. Canada will thus become a launching pad for attacks on the Soviet Union, despite the weak denials of senior members of the government. If it is fully drawn into the Star Wars program, it will be a pawn in the hands of US imperialism. Capitulation to pressure from Washington opens up Canada to becoming a potential battle-field and bombing target.
All this is covered up with reassuring statements claiming that the research side of the Star Wars program is a ``prudent'' course. This is also the purpose of the hypocritical assertions that such research will reinforce international security and reduce the threat of a nuclear war. Actually, the SDI is neither a research nor a defensive program. It is an aggressive project for stationing nuclear weapons in outer space. The deployment of US nuclear missiles in Western Europe has not enhanced the security of Europe, and the Star Wars program will not enhance the security of the world. It will instead make the threat of war hanging over humanity more tangible.
Its tacit support of the Star Wars program and modernization of the DEW Line is part of the Canadian Conservative government's sharp turn towards more rapid integration into the US empire and towards militarization. It has declared its intention to support US foreign policy, to increase Canada's military expenditures and contribution to NATO, and to pursue a course of freer trade by lowering tariffs and other trade barriers. The dominant sections of Canadian monopoly have evidently opted for a policy of continentalism. Canadianization is being replaced by Americanization. This reorientation of direction mirrors the growing crisis of Canadian capitalism in a shrinking capitalist world system.
130The different factions of monopoly capital in Canada see two options open to them: one, to move deliberately towards closer integration with the USA or, two, the development of a comprehensive long-term strategy to develop and strengthen the Canadian economy. The latter option was pursued by the previous Liberal government under Pierre Elliot Trudeau. But the Conservatives claim that integration with the USA is an inevitable process. In the name of this inevitability they play down the significance of the nation's sovereignty and independence as a luxury it cannot afford. They assert that the orientation towards the American market is the only way out of the crisis, and that free trade with the USA is the solution to the ills facing capitalism in Canada.
This turn to Washington raises a question: is our program. The Road to Socialism in Canada, still correct when it speaks of an "antagonistic partnership" between Canadian monopoly and US imperialism or is there now more ``partnership'' and less antagonism in this relationship? This antagonism still continues, of course. It is an objective fact. However, it has now been subdued in the overall struggle of imperialism against socialism and the national liberation movement. In return for this line-up with US global strategy, monopoly interests in Canada hope to get substantial war orders from the Pentagon and "enhanced trade" with the USA. In this way they hope to overcome the economic and structural crisis afflicting the Canadian economy.
This reorientation of Canada towards integration with the USA comes not when US imperialism is in the ascendancy, but when historically, it is in decline. The partnership has no solid foundation and is doomed to failure. The high US balance of payments and trade deficit may lead to a serious economic decline in the USA. This would have catastrophic consequences for Canada: it would undermine manufacturing in Quebec and Ontario and destroy entire industries, thereby adding to already high unemployment.
The sharp turn by the Mulroney government to a surrender
of Canada's national interests, its sovereignty and
independence, has evoked widespread concern and opposition
131
in the labor und democratic movements, among patriotic
Canadians, and even among some bourgeois quarters.
Liberals and the New Democratic Party have condemned the
Conservative government's half-way support of the Star
Wars program and of US plans to deploy nuclear weapons
on Canadian soil. The struggle for an independent foreign
policy is gathering momentum.
Peace-loving and patriotic Canadians approve this criticism of the Tory pro-US orientation by the NDP and Liberals. But more than that is required to change the situation. As was clearly stated at the 26th Convention, it is the opinion of the Communist Party that the situation demands the formation of a Canada-wide alliance of all truly patriotic and democratic forces strong enough to stop the government's turn towards total subordination to US imperialism. A powerful people's movement is required outside of parliament to strengthen Canada's independence and sovereignty, a people's movement which would focus its attention on the battle for independent economic development through nationalization of US branch plants, banks, energy, and natural resources, opposition to free trade with the USA, and an independent foreign policy centered on peaceful coexistence and disarmament based on equality and equal security, a democratic Canadian culture, trade, scientific and cultural relations with the socialist countries, and economic policies leading to full employment. It is only nationalization of US holdings in Canada that can lead to the achievement of economic independence for Canada. This in turn would create new opportunities for extricating Canada from NATO and enable it to pursue a truly independent foreign policy of peace.
Of particular significance in this connection is the emergence of the Council of Canadians embracing non-- monopoly interests, professionals, and intellectuals, Liberals and NDP members, and sections of the trade union movement. The Council of Canadians arose in opposition to the sell-out of Canada to Washington. Its program calls for independent economic development, for opposition to free trade, and for an independent foreign policy and a strengthened Canadian culture. The new organization could have a significant role to play in asserting Canada's 132 national interests. It merits critical support by the progressive movement.
Another important event has been the meeting in Vancouver of peace representatives to explore the possibility of forming a Canada-wide Peace Coalition. This would be a step of great potential for uniting all peace movements around common demands, whose essence is support for an independent foreign policy for Canada and, more particularly, opposition to Canada's involvement in the arms race, especially in the Star Wars program.
Our party will do everything in its power to help strengthen this process of unity and cooperation among the peace forces and extend the peace movement to all parts of Canada. We see it as our task, with patience and tact, to help Canadians understand that imperialism, and more particularly US imperialism, means war and aggression, while socialism means peace.Our party gives increasing support to the regional peace councils and the Canadian Peace Congress. In today's situation we feel it is important to win more support among the people for their anti-- imperialist positions and extend their links to the other peace movements.
The prospects for the formation of a Canada-wide Peace Coalition and the many peace rallies that have taken place in the USA and Western Europe give the lie to the claim that the peace movement is on its last legs and is fading away. Rather than being on its last legs, one may expect a new upsurge of peace action in light of the adventurist Star Wars concept proclaimed by Washington. The slogan of action adopted some time ago by our party and made a central issue in the last federal elections-"Unite to stop US imperialism, for peace, jobs, and Canadian independence-Put Canada First"-has particular significance today. Our party aims to make it the slogan of the Canadian people in defense of Canada's sovereignty and independence and their struggle to prevent war.
The effect of the USA's selfish policies has been totally negative on the state of affairs in the capitalist world. With its high interest rates US imperialism is pumping capital from its allies and the developing countries into its own economy, funding at their expense its program for a 133 gigantic arms build-up, and thereby significantly cushioning the impact of its budget deficit. However, the enormous growth of this deficit and the high interest rates are creating a potentially explosive situation not only in the USA but in other capitalist countries as well.
Canada, like other capitalist states, is engulfed by the crisis of the capitalist world system and by developments in the USA. Despite talk of recovery in Canada, the economy has really not got off the ground, except for the big corporations and banks as can be seen in their rising rates of profit. In Canada cyclical crises and structural crises tend to merge. Cyclical crises have become deeper and last longer. Rates of production have declined. Excess industrial capacity continues. Bank and trust company bankruptcies, which have grown more frequent, are a relatively new phenomenon. The financial system tends to become more unstable and the budget deficit keeps growing.
It is indisputable that although ``recovery'' is almost two years old, unemployment continues to stay above ten per cent and experts now say that there are no prospects of reducing it until 1995, if then. More than ever before Canada is a society in which real wages and purchasing power are declining, poverty is growing, and living standards are deteriorating. Class distinctions in education, culture, public health, and leisure are becoming more pronounced.
Monopoly strategy uses two ways to get out of the crisisa sharper competitive struggle for markets and growing attacks on the condition of the working people and the rights of the trade union movement. The latter way is mirrored in the government policy of austerity and maintaining a high level of unemployment. The right to strike in the public service is being threatened. Reactionary sections of monopoly want to take the working class bade to the Stone Age, to deny them the rights they have won.
In the face of the monopoly offensive the conditions for the class struggle are changing. The times of ``easy'' corporate concessions have gone. The monopolies have steered a course towards confrontation with the working class, insisting upon further wage cuts, the imposition of a two-tier wage system.^^1^^ and the elimination of a number of benefits. Workers have been placed in a dilemma-either 134 make concessions and hopefully keep their jobs or fight back with the fear of losing jobs.
Experience is showing that gains cannot be maintained without battles, where necessary, on the strike front and without an organized battle for new economic and social policies, for the preservation of jobs and for full employment.
With the aim of heading off sharp class confrontation, the government is seeking to inveigle the trade union movement into some form of "social partnership'', some form of class collaboration. It is offering to hold consultations with them. But the consultations they are working for seek not to overcome unemployment, protect the rights of working people, or ensure that working people will become the beneficiaries of the scientific and technological revolution. Rather, they are aimed to get the agreement of the trade union movement to collaborate in overcoming the contradictions of capitalism at workers' expense. It is asserted that "we are all in the same boat" and must tighten our belts. But how and whose belts are being tightened? Workers' wage increases since 1977 have been below the rate of inflation, while in the past years wages have declined by over two percent annually. But corporate profits increased by 45 percent in 1984, while the banks reported a profit increment of 15 percent.
The critical economic situation places the working people before the need for greater unity and more militant action. At the grassroots level there is a growing tendency to reject class collaboration and to support cooperation among left forces with the Communist Party among them. For their part the Communists believe that the interests of the working class and its allies would be best served by a democratic alternative program that would unite them around the demands for preserving gains and for ensuring the right to jobs. We will therefore go on opposing class collaboration and concessions to monopoly, staunchly championing workers' interests, strengthening the left forces, and helping to draw up a program of joint action.
The line of thought is shared in the shops, mines, and the trade union movement. Provincial Labor Federation conventions, including the latest Canadian Labor Congress 135 convention have declared in favor of repulsing monopoly and government anti-labor policies. While many of the good resolutions that have been adopted unfortunately remain on paper, they nevertheless show the state of mind of the working class. Among working people there is spreading recognition that the monopoly offensive can be pushed only by united struggle. The temporary setbacks experienced by some sections of the working class are being replaced by rising militancy, by a more organized fightback as seen in the growing number of strikes. The trade union movement is pressing more energetically than ever for a reduction of hours of work with no reduction in take-home pay. The drive to organize the unorganized is being taken up with renewed vigor, with particular attention to organizing workers in the retail industry, which employs large numbers of women. The participation of women in strikes has tended to unite the women's movement and trade union movement. The fightback by pensioners has compelled the government to retreat from its intention to de-index pensions.
In the developing situation of growing fightback on the economic front, our party sees as a central task that of working to unite the working class and democratic movements, the NDP and Communist Party, on a common platform of struggle against monopoly power and for the elimination of US control over the Canadian economy. This could facilitate the formation of a popular majority outside parliament to beat back the offensive of monopoly and its Tory government against the working people. In working for this aim the Communist Party emphasizes that there are no solutions to the crisis without profound democratic changes.
The scientific and technological revolution raises in sharp focus the need for a fundamental change of society to ensure that technological breakthroughs bring the working people a higher living standard rather than unemployment and further hardship. If jobs are abolished who will purchase the goods produced? What industries ought to be developed to provide jobs for working people thrown out of work? Can capitalism with its drive for profits solve these problems or only worsen them?
Monopoly and its ideological myrmidons, without 136 answering these questions, tell working people that scientific and technological progress will by itself take the economy out of the crisis without bringing any significant social changes, that working people have nothing to fear from the scientific and technological revolution, that it ``won't hurt.'' But all technological changes achieved to date in conditions of capitalism have led to more unemployment, not only for workers in industry but for white-collar workers as well. Working people are not opposed to technological change. They are not Luddites out to smash the new machines. But they do expect and properly so that they will be beneficiaries of technological change, not its victims. So far they have been the victims. The working class is right in demanding guarantees against the negative effects of scientific and technological progress under capitalism and declaring that they will fight for such guarantees.
Communists in the trade union movement advance these basic ideas while demanding that the working class have a say in all questions concerning technical change and plant closures. Working people must be guaranteed opportunities for retraining and new jobs without loss in pay. To prevent the loss of jobs in Canada legislation must be adopted to forbid the transfer of productive capacities to other countries.
Our party will fight more aggressively than ever for nationalization of key industries under democratic control. It proposes that nationalization goes together with a Canada-wide public investment program to create jobs and expand the economy. It is estimated that such a program will need roughly 10 billion dollars to cover affordable public housing, the extension of health services and the education system, the enlargement of the transport network, measures to protect the environment, the establishment of recreational areas and green belts, a universal, free childcare system, and a comprehensive training and retraining program. The government must be pressed into translating this into reality.
Instead of curtailing unemployment insurance with the aim of building up a pool of cheap labor it would be fair to increase unemployment insurance to 90 percent of a person's earnings and extend it to cover the entire period 137 of unemployment. There should be a special fund for young people presently not eligible for unemployment insurance. We are demanding a drastic increase of welfare benefits and allowances. While these measures do not remove the causes of capitalism's crisis they would help ease its consequences for working people.
Not only the working people in the cities but the family farmers, too, feel the effects of the crisis. The number of farm bankruptcies has not been higher since the 1930s. Among farmers, too, a spirit of militancy and fightbacks is shaping up. The basis exists for unity of workers and farmers---the National Farmers' Union and the Canadian Labor Congress-around a common program of action directed against monopoly. Our party gives every support it can to the demands of the farmers and to their growing struggles. This applies with equal force to the fight back of the cultural community. The government's restraining program is being emphatically denounced by that community for it is weakening the Canadian identity and opening the door to the further Americanization of cultural life. This cultural policy is not separate from the pro-American imperialist orientation of the government and its more open pro-- monopoly policies. The Communists hold that the fightback on this front cannot be left to the cultural community alone. The struggle for a democratic Canadian culture is part and parcel of the struggle for Canadian independence, peace, and social progress.
The growing militancy of the working people is also seen in the movement for full equality for women, for ending discrimination against them in the workplace and in everyday life. The Communist Party has always supported and will continue to fight for these demands. Our party takes pride in the fact that we have been able to attract a growing number of younger women to our ranks. They, together with women comrades who are veterans of our movement, are playing an increasingly important role in the further development of the working class and democratic movement.
While the issue of the national rights of the French-- Canadian people seems to have temporarily subsided, it would be shortsighted to believe that the issue is gone and 138 forgotten. It remains a constant factor in the political life not only of Quebec, but of the country as a whole. This is why the party will continue as before to campaign for equality and the right of self-determination for Quebec and for this right to be embodied in the Canadian Constitution. This issue can only be solved by accepting the realities stemming from the distinctive specifics of our society.
Our party gives continuing attention and support to the just demands of the Native peoples: self-government, recognition of their land claims, and the inclusion of the relevant provisions in the Constitution. The government has been compelled to recognize in words their right to selfgovernment, outside the framework of the Constitution. Acting through the provincial governments, monopoly is moving heaven and earth to prevent agreement and to retain unfettered control of the rich natural resources on the lands of the Native peoples. In view of the pro-monopoly stand of the provincial governments, the federal government can altogether put aside the decision of the problem. It is the duty of the working class and other democratic forces to assist the Native peoples.
What is shaping up in Canada and has been for some time is the combination of the class struggle, the democratic struggle, and the national struggle, all combining more and more with the struggle for peace, which, in a sense, ties them all together in one knot. With people's movements arising on all sides we see our task as that of helping to unite them into a major political force which could eventually take the shape of a People's Coalition-a democratic, anti-monopoly, and anti-imperialist coalition. As a step in this direction we have called for a people's majority outside of parliament to counter and check the Tory majority inside of government. This is advanced not as an electoral tactic for a future election but rather as a slogan of mass action for today and tomorrow, for the mass movements of the working class and the working people generally have the decisive role to play in the struggle for democracy, social progress, and peace.
The country's economic potential and productive forces are large enough to satisfy the Canadian people's basic needs, the demands for jobs, housing, education, medical 139 care, and pension security. The right to a job, like the right to live, should be a sacred right. What stands in the way of progress is the power of the monopolies, the transnationals, and the banks, who place their profit interests above everything else. It is that power which must be broken if the way is to be cleared for fundamental reforms, if Canada is to strengthen its independence in economic, foreign, and cultural policies, and if the working class is to protect its interests and win a policy of full employment.
No other party except the Communist Party of Canada states these facts. No other party except the Communist Party of Canada helps the working class to understand these basic facts, and demands that new priorities be established, priorities based on the maximum satisfaction of people's needs, not the maximum profits of the corporations and the wealthy.
In this period of growing crisis of capitalism, Communists correctly link the defense of the immediate needs of the working class and working people generally with the struggle for fundamental change, the struggle for peace and socialism.
In restating the immediate aim of the Communists and all other progressive forces-that of averting the threat of a nuclear war and safeguarding peace-it must be said firmly and unequivocally that this aim can be achieved. While the US Star Wars program, the deployment of new US missiles in Western Europe, and the USA's accelerated arms program all add to the danger of war, world war is not inevitable. The balance of forces in the world has not changed in favor of imperialism. Imperialism has failed in its efforts to crush the national and social liberation movement. The peace forces are gathering new strength. Significant sections of monopoly interests favor peaceful coexistence. Above all, socialism, the decisive force for peace, is growing stronger. It is that strength, ensuring military-strategic parity, which in the first place deters imperialism and gives it no opportunity to unleash a world war.
The growing threat of war, US imperialism's crusade against socialism, the neo-conservative drive against the rights and interests of the working people, and the need 140 for effective international solidarity with the socialist world and with the national and social liberation struggle of the peoples of developing countries-all make it necessary for communist and workers' party to consolidate ranks on the basis of internationalist principles. Our party will continue to work in this direction.
In 1985 we marked the 40th anniversary of the victory over fascism. A statement adopted by our party's Central Executive Committee on the occasion declared: ``Don't allow the fatal mistakes that led to World War II to be repeated. This time a like mistake could result in the end of human life on Earth. The common enemy is the arms race and a nuclear war no one could win. Peaceful coexistence, detente, and disarmament based on equality and equal security are the path to peace today. War can and must be prevented before it starts.''
Nor should one overlook other lessons of history: that anti-Sovietism and anti-communism are a source of military danger to the world, and that the absence of united action of all peace forces against imperialist aggression is fraught with the threat of a new global catastrophe. It is basic today to remember that the Soviet Union was the decisive factor in defeating fascism and achieving victory; that the Soviet Union and the socialist community as a whole are now the principal factor in preventing a world nuclear disaster. This immutable fact must be used to counter the attempts to impute to the USSR and the USA and "equal responsibility" for the present tense international situation.
It is imperialism which is the source of the war danger. This danger springs from imperialism and its inherent laws, not from the contest of the two social systems. The decisive role in preventing a nuclear war is played by the socialist community supported by all of the planet's democratic and progressive forces. In the present tense international situation the Communists see as their task not only the struggle to end exploitation and oppression, but also and in the first place the struggle to save human civilization from a nuclear holocaust. This adds a new dimension to the historic mission of the working class.
~^^1^^ New workers get a lower wage.-Ed.
141 __ALPHA_LVL2__ Renewed StrategyBoth the preparations for the 25th Congress of the French Communist Party and the deliberations of the Congress (February 1985) proceeded in a situation created by the setback to the left alliance which had attained its most developed form on the basis of a definite programme. Thereby our 25-year-old political practice wore out its effectiveness. This prompted French Communists to ponder seriously on their activity. They were faced with completing the analysis begun by the 22nd Congress (1976) but not completed in time due to inner political events and the existence of a joint government programme.
From the 1950s on, our country went through important changes in industry, the social sphere and culture. More than ever, the people craved for progress, well-being and social transformation. Magnates of capital took this craving into account and tried to channel it according to their interests. Reshaping their system of domination, they greatly accelerated capital concentration, with a resultant decrease in the proportion of the traditional middle strata, once their mass mainstay. Changes in the political system and its institutions led to the concentration of power in the highest executive bodies and drastically limited the people's opportunities for intervention.
In these circumstances the question of advancing to socialism became particularly relevant. But we failed to adapt to the situation in the same measure as the big bourgeoisie did. "We did not see,'' Georges Marchais said in his report to the Congress, "that this was the point at issue.''
For more than half a century, the socialist ideal was 142 understandably identified with Soviet society, a product of the October Revolution. To be sure, the FCP tried since 1936 to ``reckon'' with national realities. But it was implied that Soviet society was a kind of model that should be merely enriched by adjusting it in a measure to our more marked national peculiarities. It was in line with this concept of socialism for France that the proposed road to it was charted.
We must look back at 1956 to gauge all our difficulties from the standpoint of our interpretation of the decisions of the 20th CPSU Congress. Fearing that we might unwittingly support the bourgeoisie, we virtually minimised the significance of the CPSU's condemnation of Stalin's mistakes and violations of legality, confining them to the personality cult. This went on till 1975. It was only at the 22nd Congress that, describing the nature of the government desirable for France, we went beyond the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat by opting a project of socialism the French way and working out a distinctive line of advance to our goal. It took us a considerable amount of time to define the essence of new relations between communist parties without assigning the role of leader party to any one of them.
In the complicated political context of the colonial war in Algeria, the failure of the SFIO^^1^^ and the cold war, the coup staged by Charles de Gaulle was interpreted as threatening a dangerous step back, even towards fascism. Yet it was only a question of new methods adopted by the big bourgeoisie.
Being isolated, the FCP drew on its experience to face the threat. It searched in the lessons of the Popular Front for a solution to the problem that arose in 1958. From 1962 on, our policy was pivoted on the left alliance formed around a joint government programme. But while in 1936 the Popular Front ensured the elimination of the fascist menace in France, from the 1960s on, when the problem of transforming society presented itself, that solution could yield no positive results.
The signing of a common programme with the Socialists in 1972 created the illusion that the main obstacle had been overcome and the Left had only to win to bring about 143 far-reaching changes. It was wrong to renounce the political and ideological struggle and stop spelling out the nature of the crisis and the solutions needed to end it. The decisive factor for advance was, then as now, constant and wideranging intervention by the people in the affairs of society. Yet the agreement signed at top level diverted them from this primary objective. Hence the failure to appreciate our position when, in 1977, the Socialists proposed a revision of the joint programme. Many regarded us as political intriguers. The essence of the necessary changes seemed to be off secondary importance compared with maintenance of the alliance as it stood.
Francois Mitterrand posed as a providential man symbolising the left alliance and as the key figure that would hold together the majority to come. He benefited in this respect from the absence of a Communist presidential candidate. The Socialist Party's signing of the joint programme and its acceptance of some measures directed against capitalist domination kept up the illusion that the SP was resolved to break with capitalism. The distinctions between the Socialists and Communists no longer stood out as clearly as before. They began to show in something else, namely, the fact that the SP began to capitalise on anti-communist campaigns over such issues as a ``useful'' vote, the people's aspiration to transform society or the defence of human rights.
In what way are current difficulties due to the historical lag which we began to overcome from the mid-seventies? "It will take time,'' the Congress resolution answers, "for fundamental decisions calling for a deep-going change in earlier methods to work their way through, above all without losing sight of the context of the class struggle.'' Yet the evolution in thinking, including that of many Communists, went on as if we had made no change of strategy.
The 1981 presidential elections and the agreement with the SP signed in June of that year reawakened deep-rooted reflexes. What was impressed on people's memory was neither the content of the necessary reforms effected at the time, nor the political context of their implementation but the fact that the Communists had united with the Socialists to lead the country and should therefore share with them 144 the responsibility for a policy at variance with earlier promises. The burden of the past, which had so strong a moral impact, prevented the full implementation of the new line worked out by us.
The crisis is the main French reality today. What is more, it is going from bad to worse. This is due above all to the social system, to the capitalist structures of society. In twenty-odd years, the capitalists have substantially increased their capital, production capacities and fortunes by using profits and credits. The faster they enriched themselves, the greater profits they demanded to compensate for investments. They saved as much as possible on vocational training and the remuneration of skilled labour, by employing a cheaper and less experienced workforce. This resulted, first, in a greater waste of material and labour and a slower growth of labour productivity, and secondly, in an inadequate expansion of the market. The creation of material values fell short of the superaccumulation of assets, something which lowered their profitableness.
The capitalist response to the crisis has increased difficulties, since inflation, the superexploitation of wage workers, and pressure on purchasing power have aggravated the problems arising from the low capacity of the market. French companies try to export more. But their foreign counterparts do the same and the result is an economic war on the world market, whose growth is being held back more and more. Lastly, basic industries are reducing output, many plants are closing down and production capital is being converted into financial capital.
The crisis hits all social structures, for the laws governing capitalism not only affect the economic sphere but determine the life of society as a whole. The effort to subordinate the trend of change in the country to these laws has given rise to contradictions and difficulties and created new impasses. A bitter class struggle is going on day after day in the economic, political, ideological and cultural spheres between those who are guilty of the country's crisis and those who seek an end to it. A very great dealFrance and its future-is at stake.
The forces of capital have made their choice. To further their class interests, they have decided to embark the 145 country on a course leading to weakness and decline by announcing through the Right a project which the Socialist Party has started carrying into practice. The essence of the project is a "dual society'', with development going on at different speeds. This means that on one side there are those who have "come out on top" and enjoy an adequate income, and on the other side, those who have been rejected and so are doomed to a precarious existence.
Our analysis does not obscure the international aspect of the crisis involving the whole capitalist world. Its universal impact is strong enough and it tells on the totality of international relations by intensifying economic wars between capitalist countries, the arms race, the plunder and subjugation of Third World countries, and affecting the development of the countries building socialism.
A realistic and dependable way out of the crisis for France is to bring about a new, socialist society embodying the distinctive characteristics of our country.
Inasmuch as the crisis is shaking the capitalist system, to combat it means rejecting-consciously or otherwise-the very foundations of the system and opposing the interests of capital. To end the crisis is to meet the aspirations of the French people, of the whole country. The four main, interconnected goals advanced by us constitute a specific plan mobilising the masses. They are as follows:
First, promoting the economy by creating new jobs. It is necessary to extend the home market and defend the interests of the country instead of encouraging the strategy of this or that transnational company. Economic growth must, of course, be financed. Yet what is happening today is only a growth of capital leading to fewer jobs. It is important to reverse this trend by giving greater support to what strengthens the national economy and less support to what weakens it. Let money serve to extend employment and not to accumulate new money.
Second, justice and solidarity. It is now possible to provide greater social security and a higher level of vocational training and wages by cutting capitalist profit. The problem of education must be given full attention; it is necessary to renew elementary education and extend facilities for raising professional skills.
146Third, democratisation of the whole life of society. This also applies to enterprises, of course: working people must be given access to management-now-denied-beginning with the public and nationalised sectors. We therefore put forward specific proposals to democratise the institutions concerned.
Fourth, a foreign policy serving the establishment of international relations based on justice, national independence and mutual benefit. The task is to act in the interests of peace, disarmament, development, respect for all human rights and their extension.
These, then, are the four objectives of the policy of combating the crisis proposed by the Communist Party. Ours is not an elaborate programme but a line of struggle aimed at repulsing the offensive of the crisis by joint efforts.
The FCP is concerned at the race in superarmaments being provoked by imperialism, the Star Wars plans advanced by Reagan and backed by Mitterrand under cover of clever statements, and the entire aggressive activity of imperialist forces in the economic, political, ideological and military spheres. These forces are stepping up their intrigues and counter-offensive as the peoples' struggle gains in militancy. What is important in this connection is the leverage and role of the countries building a socialist society, the non-aligned movement, and the revolutionary, democratic and progressive movements in all countries, as well as the scope of the fight for peace.
In spite of its tremendous efforts and the fabulous resources it commands, imperialism has not really scored any considerable gains. While tensions have increased, it is unable to achieve its aims: the balance of world forces is still in favour of progress, all difficulties notwithstanding.
At the 24th Congress we pointed out that to make further headway, the socialist countries must, in our opinion, accomplish a threefold task: raise economic efficiency, ensure social progress, and encourage the people's increasing democratic participation in public affairs. The evolution which has taken place since then shows that these are by no means societies in which development has slowed down. The measures adopted by them are directed towards using all economic reserves.
147The set of reforms being carried out in many socialist countries bears, as we see it, on the key problem of intensifying democratic life. The working people's participation in management is growing. A debate is under way on the relationship between the role of the party and that of the state. Social multiformity and the existence of contradictions are apparently taken into account more than before. Development rate and level as well as the means used may be debatable. There remain serious difficulties and new demands are still far from being fully met. Nevertheless, the ongoing evolution shows that progressive changes have been effected of late. What solving the problems of socialist society implies is not the abolition of the system but the utilisation of all its potentialities. Our awareness of this allowed us to fully confirm in the resolution that we passed what was said by the 23rd Congress: socialism expresses a universal aspiration for democracy; problems remain where "this aspiration is still underestimated''. Our disagreement in such cases is well known. We express it in defending human rights and freedoms.
The full independence of the FCP in respect of socialist countries (or anybody) does not need to be established, for it has existed long since. We consider that there is no ``model'', ``centre'' or "leader party" for the forces fighting for socialism. Our decisions are adopted in France by the French Communists themselves.
The fruitful relations which the FCP maintains with numerous parties, movements and organisations are based on mutual respect, independence, non-interference, strict equality, and recognition of distinctions or even differences over this or that issue. These principles make it possible to extend international solidarity.
It was on this basis that we developed cooperation with the CPSU from 1980 onwards and re-established relations and cooperation with the Communist Party of China after our 24th Congress.
In mid-June 1985, nearly all the communist parties of capitalist Europe met in Paris to discuss the problem of combating the effects of the crisis in their countries. The meeting carried out an extensive, lively and deep-going exchange of views and experience.
148The FCP also maintains fruitful ties with diverse political forces and revolutionary movements, socialist and social democratic parties, trade unions, religious, pacifist and other public organisations. We intend to stay on this path.
Peace is our paramount goal. The arms race has assumed appalling proportions. Its escalation has been made worse by the deployment of new US missiles in Europe. Furthermore, new dangers have arisen: Reagan is now talking of Star Wars and plans for the militarisation of outer space. But the worsening of the situation must not be seen as irreversible. The numerous and diverse peace forces that have begun to act in recent years are a most important factor; their effort has not been in vain.
The FCP, for its part, has done everything possible to ensure the success of steps towards preserving peace taken in our country. Naturally, it will go on striving for an immediate freeze on missile deployment in West and East alike, a constructive dialogue in the interest of reducing armaments to the utmost and a ban on all militarisation of space, for success in the current talks and in all initiatives in favour of detente, for a peaceful, negotiated settlement of existing conflicts. We have reached agreement with other parties to do our best to provide conditions for a major joint action by all the many movements fighting in Europe for peace and disarmament.
The Communist Party considers that France should contribute its share to the attainment of these objectives by joining in talks at the right moment. Our country has a better choice than joining in Reagan's Star Wars projects.
To resist the ruinous arms race is all the more necessary because hunger is spreading to new areas of the planet; it kills 50 million men, women and children a year. Victims of economic backwardness need immediate aid. Imperialism is responsible for the most numerous deaths ever. This makes it necessary to fight against its hegemony in international financial organisations and to replace relations based on domination by a new international order based on justice, democracy, cooperation and independence. The FCP plans, among other things, a meeting with African parties and movements to decide on a common platform for joint action. We see it as a duty of France to advance 149 in this direction. It should render effective aid to the peoples of developing countries, using all the achievements of science and technology.
Our ideal is inseparable from the defence of human rights. Characteristically, it is this concept that imperialist forces tried to appropriate and use for their own ends by launching in the early 1970s a vast campaign to manipulate public opinion. Since then the arsenal of means used has been steadily growing. We would seriously weaken our struggle unless we offered vigorous resistance to this campaign.
With due regard to past lessons, the FCP Congress decided to take a new road by bringing about a new popular majority alignment. This concept is in keeping with our political strategy and our determination to advance to a socialism that will be democratic and self-governing.
France's Communists have ample experience of struggle for various demands of the working people, for the formation of an alliance at the grassroots to achieve success. However, for years the role of such an alliance came down on many occasions to operating as an "instrument of pressure on the upper strata''. This tendency told on everyday work among people, with the attention of activists of the social movement, including Communists, focused on the ``top''. From now on we will have to assign the popular movement the role of a direct transformer of reality in its entirety.
In a country where 85 per cent of the economically active population are wage workers, action against unemployment, the biggest social and national problem, is a powerful basis for unity. The very nature of the crisis and the plans for France made by capital set the limits of the new popular majority alignment proposed by us. We are thinking primarily of the population groups directly affected by the crisis. However, the crisis hits not only workers and office employees, who are exploited most of all, but also technicians, engineers and other specialists.
Progress in science and technology makes for new links between science and production. Many activities held to be unproductive until recently have become part of production. Against this background there is no reason to speak 150 of the ``disappearance'' of the working class in the scientific sense of the term. In late years the proportion of skilled workers has increased somewhat and that of technicians has shown a massive growth. The latter category is now mainly part of the "collective labourer'', the producer of wealth mentioned by Marx.^^2^^ This also applies to definite categories of office employees and engineers.
The working conditions and social position of increasingly large numbers of wage workers (e.g., in the service sector) have been changing in ways making their labour similar to that of direct producers of material benefits. The possibilities of their unification have been growing accordingly. Some population groups are at the centre, so to speak, of all the difficulties caused by a policy leading to the morass of crisis. This is primarily the case with the working class, youth, women and immigrants.
We want to go beyond the traditional attitude to alliance. Formerly the idea was, more often than not, to call on other social strata to join the working class, renouncing their own demand. Surely one of the reasons for this was the notion that the working class is the only social group which can be won for socialism while all other groups are destined to remain under the influence of other parties. This implied that the alliance would be based on limited compromises. The situation has changed by now. The crisis, social battles and the political and ideological struggle bear on the innermost problems of the life and future of society reflected in people's minds. The gap between the objective situation and the realisation of the political conditions and the means needed to end the crisis can only be bridged in the course of day-to-day action. And this means that the unification of the masses must go hand in hand with political initiative, a comparison of views and a spelling out of our proposals.
Very important in this context is the issue of the state in France. The FCP strives to manage the affairs of the country within the framework of people's representative power, such as will enable the people to intervene at all levels and make the highest degree of responsibility and a leading role accessible to the working class. We are still ready to conclude political agreements (in particular with the Socialist Party) 151 when they become possible. The Communist Party, drawing lessons from its experience, takes account of new social developments and seeks a mutually complementary combination of the popular movement and cooperation between parties, it being understood that the popular movement comes first.
We have satisfied ourselves that people need to be told they must fight for deep-going transformations if they want to bring about real changes. This means uniting day after day, seeking solutions to problems, conducting election campaigns with conviction and dynamism, calling on the electorate to vote Communist, since elections in our conditions are a decisive stage in the social transformation process. It means solving the problems posed by political agreements (including electoral ones) with due regard to the situation and the actual level of the popular movement.
We are compelled to cooperate with parties which, unlike ours, seek no social changes. We reserve the right to estimate the advisability and significance of such agreements in each particular case. The FCP does not at all want to revive disastrous illusions; it advocates agreements not replacing or fettering the popular movement but assisting it and flowing from it as a necessary political result.
The party aims to achieve a broad unification of the masses going beyond all the earlier variants of left political majority. Surely we must stop to think why they, like left-wing governments, ended in defeat or disappointment in France and many other countries. Answering this question, the FCP proposes a new popular majority alignment. In thinking of its composition, we certainly rule out rightwing parties. However, we also appeal to those who, though not classing themselves as left-wing, are willing for sound reasons to take their place in a multiform movement for economic, social and national progress.
Lastly, advocating a new role for the popular movement, the party considers that this movement will enable the masses to participate more widely in important decisionmaking at all levels. What we mean is not the traditional means of pressure on political headquarters and governments but far more, namely, an alignment of the people 152 equal by virtue of its solidity and creative dynamism to effecting changes in every sphere of public life.
Henceforward we see political agreements as solely the result of a popular movement; they are impossible outside it and the time limits of reaching them are not set beforehand. It is necessary, therefore, that the FCP daily play an influential role inside such a movement. We want to carry on decentralised and varied work at the grassroots and to considerably enhance the importance of the activity of party branches. These must not merely acquaint the general public with ideas coming from the party leadership but bring life into our strategy, helping those concerned see political slogans in action.
Proceeding from this new role of the FCP, the Central Committee proposed to the Congress accentuating the democratic principles of party life. There is also another demand. Experience has shown to the working people that the influence of the Communist Party does not depend on us Communists alone. This big political problem directly concerns everybody. It is obvious that when the Socialist Party gets 37 per cent of the vote in elections and the FCP is weakened the result is an impasse. To get out of a `` leftright'' bipolarity and avoid a perpetual alternation of the two wings at the helm of state as in Britain, it is necessary to help people grasp the essence of the capitalist crisis and make a choice by accepting or rejecting it. It is important for them to have a clear idea of the line of political parties and realise that the efficiency of the popular movement depends directly on Communist influence.
~^^1^^ French Section of the Workers' International, the name of the Socialist Party till 1971.-Ed.
^^2^^ See Karl Marx, Capital. Vol. 1, Moscow, 1956, p. 419.
153 __ALPHA_LVL2__ A LandmarkOpening the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of Ireland (January 31---February 2, 1986), National Chairman Michael O'Riordan described it as a very important event in the history of the party, perhaps as momentous as the ``Unity'' Congress of 1970.^^1^^ The 19th National Congress was held soon after the conclusion of the Hillsborough Treaty between the governments of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland (November 1985) which was an embodiment of the imperialist approach to the problems of the divided island,^^2^^ aimed at expanding outside interference, increasing repression and maintaining divisions among the working people. The congress enabled the Communists to expound and explain to the Irish people a truly democratic alternative to the imperialist conspiracy.
The delegates who arrived in Belfast represented an impressive sampling of the cities and counties of all Ireland. More than half were under 40 years of age, and there were many women among them. The composition of the delegates reflected our party's broad participation in the trade union and active democratic movement for the interests of working people. Communists hold important posts and offices in 34 trade unions, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Student Union. Members of the national leadership of trade unions and other 37 civic organisations were represented at the congress. Our party is a prominent element of the social and political fabric despite spanning two states, two governments and two cultural traditions-a unique position.
A broad, democratic discussion of the draft resolutions 154 was held prior to the congress; 246 amendments were proposed to improve the party's work.
The four years that have elapsed since the previous congress have borne out our analysis of world events. Imperialism, particularly US imperialism, has mounted a counter-offensive to offset the exacerbation of the general crisis of capitalism. Imperialism has been striving to bolster its disintegrating positions, to establish a new form of hegemony based on escalating nuclear intimidation, assault working class organisations, reduce state expenditure, abolish the public sector, subjugate Third World nations and undertake systematic attempts to destabilise the socialist countries.
By steering such a course, the right-wing quarters in the United States, Great Britain, the FRG and other capitalist countries grossly violate the norms of bourgeois democracy and conduct an all-out assault on the positions won by the people over the postwar years, especially on the rights and freedoms of the trade unions. Instability, unemployment, financial upheavals and brinkmanship are typical of these countries. Within the EEC unemployment has risen in excess of 20 million, while Northern Ireland and the Republic were hit particularly hard. Government expenditures in the fields of social welfare, medical care and education are diminishing steadily in the capitalist world, while spending on armaments and on the apparatus of repression has increased virtually everywhere.
Simultaneously with the assault on the working class, the US-led imperialist quarters have launched a counteroffensive against the forces of national liberation. Reflecting this course of monopoly capital are US policies in Latin America, the US moves against Nicaragua and support for the reactionary regime of El Salvador, the Israeli aggression in the Middle East, the strategy of destabilising Lebanon, the denial of the Palestinians' sovereign rights and practical support of the racial regime in South Africa.
US imperialism and its NATO allies are trying to subvert the countries of living socialism, exhaust their economies and bridle their advance by forcing them to divert considerable resources to defence and military needs. The escalation of this endeavour is producing a new wave of 155 tensions. The risk of nuclear war poses the gravest threat to all nations, to their future and to civilisation itself. This risk is rooted in the ambition of the US administration to step up the nuclear arms race and thus achieve superiority over the Soviet Union and dictate its terms to the socialist world. Today, an even greater obscenity is being plannedthe scheme to extend imperialist blackmail to outer space and threaten the socialist countries with Star Wars. This means that in the decades to come the United States will doom mankind to live under the sword of Damocles, facing the nightmare of unprecedented disasters. It is now obvious more than ever that capitalist nations are building up the awesome potential of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction to intimidate and blackmail the socialist countries. The responsibility for the origin, development and continuation of the arms race lies with imperialism, clearly. Despite all these efforts however, militarists cannot expect to win. In the face of the growing war threat, the most active and powerful peace movement of the postwar period has developed. As the 19th National Congress stated, those forces in the world which sincerely want peace draw encouragement from the fact that the Soviet Union and the socialist community represent the strongest bastion in the struggle for nuclear disarmament and world peace. The congress warmly welcomed and fully supported the proposals made by Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, on January 15, 1986, which contained specific plans for completely ridding our planet of nuclear weapons by the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Two major obstacles are blocking the way to universal peace. One is the US ambition to achieve nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union and the entire socialist world and to secure a capability for delivering a first strike with impunity and without retaliation. The other is the insatiable thirst for profit typical of the giants of the military-industrial complex that command the policies of the NATO countries, particularly of the United States. These are the dynamics that compel the Western attitudes and that are totally alien to the socialist countries which press on to perfect their societies and to secure a peaceful world in which to do it.
156Considered and adopted by the 27th Congress of the CPSU, the plans to accelerate the socio-economic development of Soviet society demonstrate the socialist system's commitment to peace and its advantages over capitalism. The Irish Communists had an opportunity to get acquainted with these plans even before our forum. We saw that the Soviet Union was tackling the problems of our age in a planned scientific manner firmly based on meeting the needs of the working people and by mobilising their creative abilities and experience in developing and enriching socialist democracy. It was natural for the delegates of our congress to acclaim it.
The socialist countries' dedication to the building of communism and their numerous proposals and initiatives on curbing the arms race and strengthening universal security demonstrate their commitment to peace and rejection of a ``competition'' for military superiority with the capitalist West. But since their peace proposals are rejected out of hand, the counter-measures they undertake in the field of security are completely justified and essential for defence against a deadly first strike. We said clearly at our 19th National Congress that we were confident in the policies of the socialist countries because we understood and applauded their aims. We are convinced that a peaceful world is the only arena for settling the historical dispute between capitalism and socialism.
The central tasks that are more important than any other are to avert the threat of nuclear war and to keep the imperialist sharks from getting fat on profits and dooming millions of people to hunger and poverty. These tasks cannot be solved by governments alone. The people must raise their voice and demand that the governments improve the international climate, that they halt and then unwind the escalation of armaments. The popular masses are taking increasingly large-scale action to block the programmes of war preparations. The movement of protest against war can well be'made permanent, and no effort should be spared to involve all sections of the population in it. The insistence of the public clamour grows for an end to the insane stockpiling of weapons which may eclipse our lives. Now that the future of the world is hanging in the balance, no 157 neglect, no slackening can be forgiven in the great struggle for a peaceful world.
Apart from topical international issues, the 19th National Congress of the CPI devoted much attention to an analysis of the new domestic situation which resulted from the signing of the Anglo-Irish Hillsborough Agreement. Under the terms of the treaty, the Republic of Ireland is to play a role in the prosecution of security requirements in Northern Ireland and ``advise'' the British authorities on questions related to the Catholic population-to somewhat improve the position of the more amenable and politically ``moderate'' section. For its part, Britain will now ``advise'' the Irish government on all questions related to the border areas and on such other matters as are deemed necessary to secure the whole island and its place in the Atlantic Community. Ht is noteworthy that the treaty does not extend to any Irish role in the internal or external affairs of Britain. Nor does it presage any movement towards our country's reunification. This is confirmed by the British statements to the effect that reunification is conditional upon the assent of the Unionist majority and the recognition by the Irish government of Britain's ``right'' to rule the northeastern part of the island and to maintain her continued presence there. The Hillsborough Agreement is added proof that British imperialism strives to perfect the apparatus of a military resolution to its problems. Acting on behalf of its US sponsors, imperial Britain tries to embroil Ireland, the westernmost outpost of Europe, in the fabric of NATO. With the adherence of Spain and Portugal to the EEC to "close the ring'', it is time to woo Ireland, a member of the Common Market, not only into greater European political cooperation but also into a fuller contribution to the "defence of Western Europe"-that is, into NATO itself. With a compliant bourgeoisie in Ireland mesmerized by short-term advantages of membership in the EEC, the trap is sprung.
In the Hillsborough Agreement we have a partnership about security, first and foremost local security. Later, the issue is sure to extend to wider security, and fuller Irish commitment to the struggle against anti-imperialism will be demanded. The partition of our island allows not only British imperialism but also the US and other NATO 158 countries to put pressure on the Dublin government, thus continually threatening Irish neutrality. Without a sterner struggle in Ireland for its continued neutrality, independence and withdrawal from the EEC, the ruling quarters will meet the imperialist demands. Conversely, the major contribution Ireland can make to world peace is to strengthen Irish neutrality and to halt British imperialism's programme which is aimed at drawing the whole of Ireland into the NATO war bloc.
As a result of the Hillsborough Agreement, Britain has secured recognition-for the first time by any Irish government-of her ``right'' to be present in and to govern the northeast part of the country. The agreement also opens the door to further British interference in the internal and external affairs of Ireland. The promise of 250 million dollars in loans and credits and of further benevolent assistance from the EEC has already compromised some international stances of Ireland to the benefit of imperialism. Banking on the complete eventual integration of our country in imperialist policies, Britain has sacrificed its loyal Irish garrison of 65 years-the Unionists of Ulster, brought up from the cradle on hatred for all things Irish and for the Irish people who are readily labelled as suspect for the sole reason that they are Catholics.
The Unionist guardians of British interests in Ireland responded to the agreement first with suspicion and then with outright hostility. They have refused to partake in local government and to otherwise cooperate with the "betrayers of Perfidious Albion''. The leaders of some of the Unionists inexorably head for a policy of Unilateral Declaration of Independence, short-sightedly seeing it as a viable alternative. They are hazarding all on a threatened confrontation.
The Unionists have every reason to react in this way. They realise that the thrust of the new accord deprives them of precisely the condition of their uninterrupted governance of Northern Ireland since 1922-their unbridled use of religious sectarianism as an alternative to meeting the social concerns of working people. This helped them to exploit both the Catholic and the Protestant parts of Northern Ireland's divided society.
159The Hillsborough Agreement has been rejected also by the Republicans, the Communists and other democratic forces, but for completely different reasons. They see the accord as an abandonment of national interests and sovereignty, a violation of the Republic's Constitution and an ominous step on the way to renouncing the traditional neutrality of Ireland. It is certain that if other options are not chosen, Northern Ireland, and perhaps the whole of Ireland, must expect a further period of tensions, turmoil, death and destruction.
As the 19th National Congress reiterated forcefully, the Communist Party of Ireland is working to create an antiimperialist movement based on working class unity and led by the working class. In the era of state-monopoly capitalism, only the working class can ultimately carry through successfully the anti-imperialist struggle. This movement could consolidate all forces which are ready to oppose British imperialism. One must admit that the necessary unity and the leadership of the working class are yet to be attained.
Our programme is based on the protection and extension of Irish neutrality---on the demand for a declaration of intent by the British Parliament that it will withdraw from all interference in Irish affairs: military, political and economic, and allow the people of Ireland to determine their own future. Therefore, the Communist Party demands that Britain openly proclaim her intention of leaving our island, set a firm deadline for the withdrawal, conduct the necessary preparations and take other steps for a smooth and uninterrupted transition.
We are addressing this call not only to the government of Britain---which would be a fruitless exercise-but also to the British working people, their organisations, trade unions and political parties that claim to represent the interests of the masses. In other words, our call is addressed to the British people who are forced to pay for London's policy and send their sons who risk their lives as soldiers in Northern Ireland. It has long been recognised that solidarity of the working class in Britain is a crucial factor in the winning of Irish independence. Marx and Engels in their writings on Ireland prescribed this solidarity to the English 160 working class as the precondition of their winning freedom for themselves in England. However, the British workers failed to display such solidarity at the outset of the civil rights struggle in Northern Ireland, thus paving the way for the intervention of the British Army and for the aggravation of the political struggle. Then came the prolonged military attrition which blocked all avenues of progress for so long. The experience of recent years confirms that the solidarity of the British workers is essential for success, and this is why its importance was stressed in our 1962 programme "Ireland's Path to Socialism''.
The transitional period must end with the transfer of power and sovereignty to an all-Ireland government, to be formed in the course of elections held throughout the nation. This calls for the dismantling of the apparatus of oppression, including the Ulster Defence Regiment, the biggest regiment of the British Army serving only in Northern Ireland, for a radical reform of the police service, for the adoption of a comprehensive Bill of Rights in the North and for the repeal of repressive legislation in the Republic. Our programme also stipulates that a regional assembly be set up in the transitional period with broad powers to administer Northern Ireland and with a direct say in the evolution of all-Ireland judicial and political structures. The regional assembly is to be vested with special fiscal and economic powers necessary for the implementation of a radical antimonopoly programme of development. The assembly is also to have jurisdiction over social policy and social legislation.
In the earliest phase of the transition the new structures should be formed so that subsequently, their ultimate shape could be decided by the whole people of Ireland. It is also important to provide for a financial arrangement, including a contribution from London, in order to minimise economic disruption in the socio-political changeover and, specifically, to prevent any decline in the living standards of the working people both in the South and in the North. Such a settlement must fittingly be on a scale commensurate with the damage Britain has inflicted on Ireland over the centuries. This would establish the possibility for a wider reconciliation between the two countries and the prospect of useful cooperatiorT in the future.
161The answer of the Communist Party of Ireland to the imperialist agreement at Hillsborough is in line with the party's programme whose development we have been pursuing over the past 24 years. In that document is asserted the declaration that "between the national liberation of Ireland from all vestiges of imperialism and the social liberation of the working people from the yoke of capitalism, there is no contradiction. For the working class the elimination of all obstacles to the economic development of both parts of the country and the achievement of a united people and a united Irish nation, is a necessary task which it will carry out in order to achieve Socialism.'' The 19th National Congress has mapped out specific ways for attaining the long-term goals of our programme.
~^^1^^ The congress at whidi the Communist Party (Nl) and the Irish Workers Party merged to form the Communist Party of lreland.-£d.
~^^2^^ After Ireland became a dominion in 1921 the northern part of the island remained part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.-Ed.
162 __ALPHA_LVL2__ Our AlternativeIn Belgium, as in most West European countries, the Communists and other left forces have found themselves faced with new complex problems. Some have been generated by the combination of the capitalist economy's crisis and the rapid scientific and technological progress, which is perceptibly altering the conditions of production and the character of labour and leads to significant social changes. Others are linked to the developments on the international scene.
The new situation is making people think seriously of ways of effectively repulsing the policies of the right and militarist forces that are sparing no effort---so far not without success-to utilise the present circumstances to protect and increase corporate profits and reinforce their economic and political domination. Before mounting a counter-- offensive it is essential to assess the new realities and work out adequate responses to them.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Offensive of the RightWith the whole capitalist world in crisis the working class and all other working people of Belgium are becoming the target of a ruthless assault by transnational financial capital and its political system. This is an assault chiefly on employment: the number of jobless and people with parttime jobs in our country is reaching 900,000. Under attack, concurrently, are the population's purchasing power (that has fallen by 10 per cent in the first half of the 1980s), social 163 programmes, government services, and public utilities. That the government intends to persevere on this course is borne out, in particular, by the decisions passed in April 1986 by the government budget council, which drew up a programme of ``austerity'' and "financial regeneration" at the expense of the working people.
Anti-people socio-economic projects are combined with the government's resolve to pare down the rights of the trade unions and young people and undercut the role of traditional democratic and parliamentary institutions. What we are witnessing is a systematic assault that is jeopardising the important social and political rights won by the working class in alliance with other forces in the long struggle.
Technological breakthroughs are used by the financial oligarchy and the political regime doing its bidding to intensify the exploitation of the working people by accelerating the slashing of jobs, downgrading working conditions, eroding the right to work, and crippling trade unions. In short, the big monopoly bourgeoisie does what it can to use in its egoistical interests the scientific and technological achievements that should serve people, and this in no way fosters society's progress and democratisation.
The ongoing world-wide industrial restructuring is, in Belgium, hitting mainly industries such as steel, coal, glass, and shipbuilding and, consequently, leading to the destruction of the most militant core of the working class, on which the left forces had traditionally relied. Mass layoffs, ``fluctuating'' working time, and .the decentralisation of enterprises are disuniting the working people: those employed full-time are beginning to figure as privileged, while the jobless and those pensioned off early are forming a considerable section of society.
Significant, changes are taking place in the structure of the working class. In parallel, a new make-up of the working population is taking shape---that of a diversified world of labour, irl which along with contingents of the traditional proletariat there are groups that-formerly were non-existent Or carried no weight in society. In production and the services industry the scientific and technological revolution is enlarging the proportion of wage labour by brain. In itself 164 this is normal. But much time and effort are needed to enable this section of working people to see that it has interests and ideological affinities in common with the working class.
Finance capital and big business are trying to benefit by this situation and the concomitant social disarray of some sections of the working population. The ideological apparatus, chiefly television, a considerable part of the press, and other levers controlled by the ruling class are allowing it to conduct an offensive simultaneously on the cultural front. The right is going to all lengths to `` exonerate'' wealth, assert authoritarianism, and question the moral values that have crystallised in the course of decades of struggle for democracy.
As ruthless rivalry between transnational capitalist groups intensifies, the utilisation of scientific and technological achievements is accompanied by a steadily deepening subordination of the peoples of the so-called free world to the savage law of the jungle albeit adapted to the age of information.
In a situation marked by international confrontation, a situation that they themselves had brought about at the close of the 1970s, the most belligerent imperialist quarters in the USA have been able to use these achievements to reinforce their domination over their weaker allies and competitors, notably in Europe, and further escalate the arms race, which, with the "star wars" programme, is under risk of going out of control.
The Reagan policy of total confrontation is substantially eroding the sovereignty of the countries in the militarypolitical and economic alliances with the USA. Suffice it to mention the visit to Washington by the Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens in January 1985, when public opinion and the parliament of Belgium were strongly opposed to the deployment of US cruise missiles in the country. Pressure from the senior partner worked, and on March 15 of the same year the first 16 missiles were transported to the Florennes base under cover of night.
Recent months have witnessed a growing number of. instances of the USA's arrogance and indifference towards its junior partners, who, regrettably, much too often show 165 they are prepared to accept American dictation. For example, although there were subtle differences in attitudes, almost all the Western allies ultimately signalled their tacit approval of US state terrorism relative to Libya, subscribed to its obstinate refusal to halt nuclear tests, and in no way dissociated themselves from the strident smear campaign started by Washington after the serious accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR.
It must be noted that in all these and other actions, into which the US administration draws its European allies, one can see not only its drive to attain hegemonistic political and strategic aims of a global dimension, chiefly in the confrontation with the Soviet Union, but also its intransigent course towards undermining the economic positions of its partners (who, as a matter of fact, are competitors of US
big business).
Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative is quite obviously designed to tilt the existing relative nuclear parity between the two great powers, enshrined in SALT and the AMB treaty; in favour of the USA and impose another round of the arms race on the Soviet Union, other socialist 'states, and the world as a whole. Further, many serious analysts believe that to a similar extent this infamous initiative is aimed at consolidating and perpetuating US predominance over its European and Japanese competitors. I am speaking of predominance in the most advanced areas of research and development giving US monopoly groups the license and ability to control progress in these areas. The junior partners in the SDI programme are accorded the role of second fiddle doing somebody else's will.
Analogous egoistic designs favouring the interests of the US monopolies and disregarding those of the USA's allies underlie the limitations being forced upon Western Europe under the screen of COCOM^^1^^' in its trade with socialist countries. For the Belgian working people these limitations have already cost the loss of contracts and jobs at quite a few industrial facilities that, it should be noted, are of no little significance. Washington's course towards whipping up .the confrontation with the Third World is objectively undermining Western Europe's economic relations with Latin American and Arab countries.
166It makes sense for the West European left forces, the Communists in the first place, to conduct an in-depth analysis of and hold consultations on all these issues.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Encouraging Signs of the TimesHowever, alongside disturbing portents there are in the present situation some encouraging factors in the context of domestic policy and on the international scene.
In Belgium's internal life there are increasingly discernible trends opposing the policies of finance capital and of the Martens-Gol government controlled by it. The unremitting struggle of the Limbourg miners stirred the entire nation. Many strikes and other industrial actions were conducted against the tyrannical ``austerity'' plans in May-June 1986 by public services workers: railway, transport, and post and telegraph workers and, especially, teachers. In many of these actions there was unity of action inspired by grassroots initiative. They were joined by other segments of working people, unemployed, youth, and women.
Large sections of society continue to articulate their disagreement with the Reagan policy of inflaming the nuclear, chemical, and space arms race and' with the Belgian government's acquiescent attitude to that policy. There is a staunch movement of solidarity with peoples denouncing Washington's interventionist policy towards Nicaragua and other countries, and with the heroic anti-apartheid fighters in South Africa.
On the international scene a new, unprecedented optimism is inspired by the vigorous peace initiatives of the USSR and its allies. These increasingly dovetail with the ideas being advanced by leading personalities of the nonaligned movement and the peace forces, including those who are not in all cases of the left, of the progressive persuasion. Among these forces are a section of bourgeoismonopoly, even right-wing, circles who are showing growing anxiety about the arms build-up and the Reagan administration's ambition to dominate the world. This merging of diverse forces and the further invigoration of the peace movements, fostered in large part by Mikhail Gorbachev`s' initiatives, are creating new opportunities for gradually 167 isolating the ultra-Reaganites and moving towards the peace prospect.
In parallel with the Soviet global initiatives that map out an action programme for the period up to 2000, Belgian public opinion and political forces were powerfully impressed by the idea of a separate agreement on a mutual withdrawal of US and Soviet Euromissiles the joint SUPGSDPG initiative on the creation of a zone free of chemical weapons in Europe^^2^^ and, of course, the repeatedly extended Soviet unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests.
In the context of uniting the forces of reason and making tangible progress towards a future free of wars, similarly great interest has been aroused by the series of initiatives put forward, notably by the Soviet Union, for consolidating peaceful cooperation among all countries and peoples. These initiatives are defined in the Basic Principles for an Ail-Embracing System of International Security, adopted by the 27th Congress of the CPSU, and their significance was underscored in the CC report to the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of Belgium in April 1986.
As I have already noted, the problem of eliminating intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe is of major significance to us-and not only to us Communists and not only to Belgium. A realistic way of settling this problem was proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev during his visit to France in 1985. But for many months the bourgeois information, or rather misinformation, machine kept misrepresenting the issue, concealing from public opinion the innovative idea that a separate accord on Eurostrategic missiles, on intermediate-range missiles, could be reached.
However, let us recall that prior to this one of the principal arguments used by Washington and its allies, asserting that the Soviet-US talks in Geneva could not be unblocked, was that the three components initially specified and accepted by both sides were indivisible. Yet as soon as this obstacle to significant progress was removed by the Soviet Union, the Reagan administration and its confederates raised new objections---in part conflicting with their own previous arguments-in order to evade definitive actions.
Those who rose to protest the deployment of US 168 Euromissites should now use the new opportunity. We consider that here it is important to act quickly to cut short the certain hesitation that surfaced in the beginning. For its part, the Communist Party of Belgium put a number of suggestions to the government on this issue.
It is an urgent task and duty of all the peace forces to press for a solution on Euromissiles. Were an understanding reached in this area, the climate in Europe and the world at large would be more conducive for East-West talks on the most sensitive issues, for instance, the first and second components of the Geneva package. The linkage between them is much more organic and it is not easy to sunder it: one can hardly count on the problem of intercontinental strategic missiles and that of the projection of the arms race into outer space being settled separately.
The Communists and large sections of Belgian public opinion responded affirmatively to Mikhail Gorbachev's new proposals, made in April 1986 at the Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, on a significant cutback of NATO and Warsaw Treaty conventional and tactical nuclear armaments in Europe. The Communists paid particularly close attention to that part of the Soviet leader's speech in which he reaffirmed that the Soviet Union was continuing its efforts to achieve a simultaneous disbandment of the military-political blocs. This re-emphasised the topicality of the closing article of the Warsaw Treaty recording this possibility.^^3^^ It seems to us that this idea has received a new impetus, that is has moved beyond the framework of a purely theoretical conception, and can provide effective arguments for practical action by all the peace, by all the popular forces.
We are convinced that these are realistic prospects only if there is good will on both sides. All issues-whether they concern nuclear-free zones, zones with limited conventional weapons, Northern Europe or the Balkans, the withdrawal of chemical weapons from Central Europe, or the creation there of zones free from theatre nuclear weapons as suggested by the late Prime Minister of Sweden Olof Palmemust be addressed on a basis of reciprocity. Significant unilateral steps would, evidently, lead to destabilisation, to disequilibrium.
169We believe that within a longer term there may be in the heartland of Europe a sort of non-alignment zone provided the Warsaw Treaty Organisation and NATO agree on a simultaneous demilitarisation of some of the European members of these alliances on the basis of voluntary consent and exacting reciprocity. This would meet the interests of universal security and follow in the channel leading to the dissolution of the two blocs.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Formula of Reasonable SolutionsBut, as everybody knows, the reasonable initiatives advanced by the USSR and by the planet's other peace forces, particularly after the Geneva summit, are encountering stiff-neaped resistance from the most reactionary section of transnational monopoly capital, from the section closely associated with the manufacture and sale of armaments. In this situation a growing number of people in and, I am sure, outside Belgium is asking anxiously whether it is at all possible to achieve any significant progress in the struggle against the crisis and the war threat before the conditions arise in our part of the world for the abolition of capitalist relations of production?
Fully aware that the situation is difficult, the Belgian Communists see no other way out. That is why their 25th Congress focused on the problem of working out a set of alternative options based, in particular, on the peace economy concept. We see this concept as reaching far beyond technico-economic solutions and having, in geographical terms, the potential of becoming a useful instrument for re-directing developments throughout Western Europe or, at least, in the "Europe of 12'', and also in the relations with other parts of our continent and the planet as a whole.
The concept we are talking about has been in use for some time among various progressive and left forces in Belgium, so there was no need to invent a new term. The idea itself was evolved in the quarters of the Belgian peace and working class movements. It conveys their aspiration to find a way out of the economic crisis by satisfying the 170 people's individual and collective requirements, which today inevitably means using the bulk of material and financial resources that must be wrested from the arms race, from the war economy.
The labour, expertise, and wealth now being wasted on the arms race and other anti-social purposes should be placed in the service of society. In terms of the economy this would provide for, while preserving predominantly capitalist relations in many sectors of production and the services industry, the gradual expulsion of groups of finance capital that are the most parasitical and alien to national interests, and the enforcement of a tax reform and other steps to put an end to the speculative transactions presently flourishing.
Further, it is vital to embark upon democratic planning, reinforce the public sector, and create the conditions for the optimal use of new technologies in the interests of society's all-sided progress.
In the context of Belgian society the question is not so much of a steep rise as of the preservation of the existing living standard of the population, a steadily growing minority of which is sinking ever deeper into a new poverty. This process must be halted and, at the same time, a greater accent must be placed on upgrading the quality of life so as to develop better ways of satisfying the people's collective and individual requirements in what concerns working conditions, cultural facilities, participation in public affairs, protection of tenants' rights and the environment, and consolidating democratic liberties.
We consider that it is extremely important to give much more attention than hitherto to muster funds for promoting the various services, including those that finance capital regards as unprofitable. Finance capital shows a measure of interest in services such as education or public health that protect and reproduce labour power. But there are many other legitimate requirements in the life of men and women that a developed society is in duty bound to satisfy. There are people who for various reasons have been fenced off from production and services. Some have been shut out for economic reasons, others are chronically ailing or handicapped, and still others are small children or far advanced 171 in age. They have the right to expect society to look after them. There has been an immeasurable growth of `` nonpaying'' requirements in culture and environmental protection. All this requires the allocation of material and manpower resources.
Quite obviously, this is feasible provided a definitive choice is made in favour of economic and social development firmly oriented towards peaceful aims.
One more aspect of the peace economy concept is the promotion of foreign economic, scientific, and technological relations pursuing genuinely humanitarian objectives. As we see it, this concerns not only Belgium but the entire Common Market. The question here is also one of broader peaceful cooperation between East and West, between South and North, and among the Western countries themselves because there are many sensitive issues in the relations between them.
For example, as I have already mentioned, the relations between the dollar empire and its allies cannot be regarded as being founded on equality. This state of affairs cannot be ended as long as Western Europe permits the USA to draw it into the arms race, which turns many nations, especially some small and economically weak nations, into appendages of the US military-industrial machine on a growing scale.
The global problems of environmental protection, health, and the development of new sources of energy await constructive solutions. We believe that on all these issues it is realistic to expect broad-ranging international cooperation, including cooperation in addressing the problem of economic backwardness. The contradictions between industrial and developing nations can be settled or they can begin to be settled on the basis of -the idea widespread in Belgium, even if it seems to be somewhat romantic, namely, disarmament for the purpose of development.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Growing Responsibility of the Peace ForcesAs the Belgian Communists interpret it, the peace economy concept encompasses, apart from its other components, the extremely important idea that there must be a union 172 between the working-class and democratic movements and the movement for peace.
We believe that a twin weakness of the anti-missile protest of the early 1980s was that it was inadequately backed up by the mass organisations of the working class, that their participation in the struggle was limited. On the other hand, while taking a stand against the crisis and its consequences, they gave much too little attention to the magnitude and significance of the resistance to the economy's militarisation.
The huge scale and diversity of the peace and anti-- missile actions were due largely to the fact that people rose against a specific threat, which, seemingly, could be averted. This extremely broad movement, which involved, in particular, large but mostly poorly organised, in social terms, sections of young people-Christians and atheists-- developed to a considerable extent as a distinctive and autonomous force standing outside the basic structures of the working class movement.
Of course, alongside the youth masses, many environmentalists, activists of the movement for the protection and extension of democratic liberties, and militants of the movement for solidarity with Third World peoples, there were in the anti-missile movement activists of trade unions and public organisations, participating with the tacit consent of their organisations or as private individuals.
However, without the unceasing determined support of the organised working class the broad anti-missile movement lacked an adequately solid and stable social base. As a result it was unable to recover quickly from the shodc caused by the deployment of the first missiles in three NATO countries, the counter measures taken by the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, and then the appearance of these weapons on Belgian territory.
For the same reason the movement found it hard to respond with the necessary strength and: breadth to new and similarly vital developments: the results of the Geneva summit, the Soviet initiatives and the subsequent Soviet propo* sals for halting and reversing the nuclear, space, chemical, and conventional arms race.
To resume its drive on :the same scale as in the early 173 1980s, the peace movement is in need of a closer union and interaction with the main organisations of the working class and the democratic forces. In this context, as well, the peace economy concept can prove useful in paving the way to a close alliance among the activists of the struggle against war and the crisis. In our view, the formulation of this objective and, especially, a joint striving to achieve it would give a fresh impetus to both movements. Their potentiality for influencing concrete political decisions and even the choice of a long-term orientation for social development would be more effective than in the preceding period when the right-wing forces were able to mount an offensive in the socio-economic sphere and impose their will in the question of missiles.
We feel that the aforesaid also applies not only to Belgium. At the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of Belgium it was stressed that these issues have to be probed more deeply, that they have to be discussed in the context of analysis and study with the Communists, with the left, progressive forces of "Europe of the 12" and other capitalist countries. Moreover, it is important to vitalise contacts with all who face analogous problems in one or another form and on a different scale, and also with the Communists of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. While we do not in any way insist on the peace economy term now current in Belgium, we regard the concept itself as productive and meriting development.
It is our belief that it would be useful for the peace forces to examine in more depth the prospects of the struggle against the militarisation of the national economy in connection with the general economic, social, and financial problems of the capitalist countries and with their relations with the developing nations and the socialist world.
Actually, taken in absolute terms the military budget in Belgium is not all that large by the European standards. The share of the national output at facilities engaged in the production of armaments directly or indirectly is somewhat higher. But even here the percentage is not overwhelming. However, our country is deeply embroiled in the mechanism of Atlantic dependence, by means of which in recent years funds are being transferred from the whole of 174 capitalist Europe to cover the US budget deficit caused precisely by the course towards the build-up of armaments that is being speeded up by the Reagan administration.
The problem is even more acute for some Third World nations that have to borrow money at a high interest to cover what is in many cases a huge deficit brought about by the deterioration of the conditions of international trade. But it turns out that they often borrow from their own national capital "transferred^^1^^' abroad. Mexico, for example, has to pay an enormous interest for dollars investments owned by Mexican capitalists themselves. The state debt-whether it is of developing nations, of some of the USA's industrial partners, or of the USA itself-brings up yet another spectrum of pressing issues related to the discussion of the peace economy concept.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Strategy of Broad AlliancesThe novelty and acuteness of the tasks now confronting the Communists and all other forces of the left in national life and on the European and global scale are making it incumbent upon the Communists to upgrade their idealog ico-theoreticaI and practical work; This was considered at the 25th Congress of the CPB. It was stressed that effort had to be focused on continuing the elaboration of the aforementioned ideas: the peace economy and the peace options in the context of the country, capitalist Europe, the whole of Europe, and in a broader context.
In the first place, the present policy of alliances has to be redefined in this light. For much too long we and the other forces of the left have regarded this issue through the prism of the realities of the close of the 1070s. By that time the large traditional organisations of the working class and democratic movements had won some social gains and made some headway in protecting democracy. This took place on the tide of the victory over fascism and during the long period of the capitalist economy's growth, which reached its zenith in the 1960s. But when that stage of growth gradually gave way to a deep-going structural crisis, we went on believing that the powerful counter-offensive 175 started by the right at the close of the last decade could be curbed by the self-same traditional forces. However, this proved to be wrong, particularly on account of the structural changes brought about by the scientific and technological revolution and the new alignment of strength, in other words, on account of the new social and political realities.
We feel that today it is necessary to go over to a strategy of alliances encompassing much broader sections of society. In order to stop the offensive of reaction and clear the way for radical changes in a country like Belgium, we have to act vigorously to enlarge the alliances beyond the framework of the traditional forces of the left, and steadfastly enlist the Christian popular forces, those groups of working people (technicians, academics, managerial personnel) comprising the motor of the present changes, and the large sections of young people and women thrown out of employment as a consequence of the economic crisis and of capitalism's selfish use of sophisticated technology. As regards the implementation of the peace economy concept and the struggle against the threat of a nuclear conflict generally there are potentialities for cooperation with some sections of the bourgeoisie, including sections of transnational capital interested more in economic exchanges and peaceful development than in armaments production.
Many of those who are now potential allies will obviously not be on the side of the left tomorrow, but the main thing is to help them draw away from the most reactionary and militarist forces of the right, to gain the support of these potential allies or, at least, their neutrality so as to allow more constructive decisions and attitudes to prevail, including at the level of governmental and even right-of-centre forces.
Given a realistic approach, the present stage begs a comparison with the situation of the mid-1930s. In the new situation of those years modifications Were introduced into the strategy of the communist movement. The tasks that were given priority looked limited: to close the road to fascism is ;not the same as to fight for the power of the working people. However, developments made it imperative 176 to unite the popular forces for resistance to fascism. This was essential in order to protect the headway achieved earlier by the working class movement so as subsequently to move to more radical changes.
Similarly, the paramount task today is to unite all the forces of reason in order to stop the insane arms race and create the conditions for more enduring coexistence and broader peaceful cooperation among the states and peoples of Europe and the world as a whole.
The aforesaid also applies to the policy of alliances. For example, in the struggle against fascism the decisive factor was the strategy charted by the Seventh Congress of the . Communist International and developed in the practice of the anti-Hitlerite coalition. Of course, the US President of the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, represented the big bourgeoisie but was oriented towards its realistic wing. It will be recalled that in those years a large section of US monopoly capital (the isolationists) wanted a totally different policy, which was that the entire capitalist world should unite against the Soviet Union and the other forces of progress. The strategy laid down by the Seventh Congress of the Communist International was largely responsible for the ascendancy of the line towards unity in order to isolate and defeat Hitlerite fascism and Japanese militarism.
The present aims are to some extent comparable, with one fundamental exception. Regrettably, fascism was defeated only after war broke out, a war that was won at a high cost. This time around it is vital to defeat the "war party'',^^4^^ in other words, pave the way for peace without militarisation and crisis before a world conflict erupts. In the nuclear age there is simply no other alternative.
That is why in setting up fronts and alliances we consider that it is imperative to proceed from the incontestable fact that in most of the industrial capitalist countries the question of fundamental social reforms is not a task of the immediate future, in any case of the time span left in which to stop the race into a bottomless abyss. In the struggle for peace and a peace economy the watershed runs not between the champions of socialist transformations and those who propound capitalism's values but between the champions of the survival of human civilisation and the 177 exponents of militarism. Hence the priority task of forming the broadest democratic and peace fronts and of their winning the decisive influence.
The forces out to reverse social development, the forces of militarism can be bridled and defeated and the broad alliances needed for this can be formed provided the overall strength of the forces of progress, the working class and its allies in the industrial countries grows significantly. That would create more favourable conditions for a further advance, having in mind the prospect for a transition to a socialist society consonant with the aspirations of the popular front majority.
The 25th Congress of the CPB drew the fundamentally important conclusion that all who are becoming victims of the neoliberal policy of the ruling circles have to combine their efforts with those of a wide spectrum of anti-war forces in order to withstand capitalism's mounting crisis, the social and cultural regress across the board, and the policy of undercutting democratic institutions pursued by bellicose ultra-right forces, and put an end to the country's subordination to the Reagan hegemonism and confrontational strategy.
The working class is in the forefront of these efforts. In the present situation vital significance is acquired by the ability of the most militant contingents of this class to regain the initiatives in the struggle against the right, gain a more profound understanding of the condition and aspirations of other sections of wage earners, of other oppressed strata, and facilitate the spread of solidarity and coordinated actions. Let me re-emphasise that this concerns not only the traditional allies of the working class but also all social circles, strata, gnd groups affected adversely by the policy of crisis and building up armaments.
We are confident of the eventual success of the combined struggle of the Communists and other progressive forces of Europe and the whole world to halt the slide into a chasm, place human resources and the achievements of scientific and technological progress in the service of peace and cooperation, of satisfying the needs of peoples so as to reinforce humanity's hopes for a better future as the year 2000 approaches.
178~^^1^^ Coordinating Committee on East-West Trade Policy. Set up in 1949, its members are NATO states and Japan.---Ed.
~^^2^^ This initiative, announced in 1985, was later co-sponsored by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The relevant statement was adopted by representatives of the three parties at a meeting in Prague in May 1986.-Ed.
~^^3^^ Article 11 of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, signed in Warsaw on May 14, 1955, states that the treaty will become null and void on the day an All-European Treaty on Collective Security comes into effect. The communique issued on April 26, 1985, on the Warsaw Treaty summit declares that the member-states are in favour of a simultaneous disbandment of the WTO and NATO with the dissolution of their military organisations as a first step.---Ed.
« V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 371.
[179] __ALPHA_LVL2__ For a World WithoutThe GCP held its Eighth Congress (May 1986) in Ernst Thalmann's native Hamburg, thereby highlighting the hundredth anniversary of his birth. This was not merely a tribute to a centenary but a fact full of deep meaning. Today the Communist Party must be able to answer many new questions relating to political, social and cultural life in the Federal Republic of Germany, a highly developed imperialist country, and the Congress demonstrated the party's solid links with the traditions of the German revolutionary working class movement. It certainly did not confine itself to a rhetorical reminder of a glorious past. Loyalty to the principles constituting the essence of Thalmann's legacyharmony between national policy and the interests of the working class, proletarian internationalism, and an inseparable alliance with the Soviet Union and the socialist world as a whole---is absolutely necessary if the party is to work creatively, in keeping with the spirit of the times. Such is the experience forming the very foundation of our line.
The motto of the Eighth Congress, "For a new policy: a nuclear-free world and jobs for all'', is expressive of the most urgent needs of our people. The GCP Board Report, which GCP Chairman Herbert Mies presented to more than 800 (voting and non-voting) delegates and guests, put the emphasis on key tasks of the current stage. The Congress Theses entitled "New Problems of the Struggle for Peace and Jobs, for a Democratic Change" make a detailed analysis of political processes at home and abroad. The answers to the problems that have arisen arm the party ideologically and politically. Both documents, the Report and 180 the Theses, were unanimously approved. So were several resolutions on specific aspects of party work.
The situation in the world and in our country is such that while we Communists are faced with numerous tasks, the struggle for peace is our chief cause. The GCP is participating in this struggle at a time of tension, with the dangers posed by the imperialist policy of arms race and confrontation growing even though many realise the possibility of eliminating these dangers.
The previous GCP Congress (January 1984) opened a few weeks after the US imperialists had set out with active support from the Federal government to deploy Pershing II missiles in our country. The peace movement that swept the republic involved millions but was unable to attain its objective, that is, to prevent the siting of nuclear first-strike weapons. The movement was put to a hard test, for many participants in it lack adequate experience of resisting militarism and war policy. The ruling quarters hastened to predict its early end. However, the GCP called for a continued fight.
The Eighth Congress described the party's approach as correct. After experiencing a certain decline, the movement spread much wider than before and assumed permanent forms. "Closer relations between the working class movement and the peace movement,'' Herbert Mies said, "are a new and important development in our country. Diverse professional groups-teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers but above all scientists and many technologists-are strongly committed to peace. Now, as in the past, the peace movement includes numerous Christians, sportsmen, women and young people. It involves not only the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDPG) but realistic-minded members of the Free Democratic Party and Christian Democratic Union ... The peace movement has altered the political landscape in the Federal Republic thoroughly, and irrevocably. More than before, its fundamental task makes it a movement of the majority of the people.''
Both the conclusions of the Report and the Congress debate reflected a real consolidation of the Communists' positions in the movement and its recognition of their role. They also reflected our experience as peace fighters.
181This development is certainly something more than a response to new challenges from the imperialist politicians who are behind the arms race. The important thing is that the movement did not despair but rose against the increased danger, which comes primarily from Reagan's plan for the militarisation of space (SDI) and from the Federal government's ready adherence to it. The alignment of sociopolitical forces in the Federal Republic is characterised by two circumstances.
It is increasingly evident that none but a small group representing the more reactionary forces of West German Imperialism is committed to unqualified support for US imperialism and subordinates the destiny of the country to adventurist dictates. Even certain influential sections of big capital are against involvement in the SDI.
The area of resistance to the latest insane outgrowth of the imperialist arms race has expanded in comparison with the period of confrontation over the stationing of Pershr ings. We owe this in no small measure to quantitatively and qualitatively increased support for the far-reaching disarmament initiatives of the Soviet Union, for its plans aimed at delivering humanity from nuclear arms by the year 2000, banning chemical and other weapons of mass destruction and reducing conventional armaments. The Soviet peace offensive, on the one hand, and the aggressive activity of the US government, on the ether, make for a growing consensus regarding the source of the war menace. The fight for peace gains in intensity where the Soviet peace proposals and the peace initiatives of the GDR prompted by a sense of responsibility are perceived by West Germans as evidence of the possibility of realising their own aspirations.
In this situation the GCP Congress accentuated the national interests of the republic and evolved the principles of a new security policy. We know that the big economic potential and great political leverage of the Federal Republic place special responsibility on it for safeguarding peace. Its decisions have a considerable effect on the attitude of other West European NATO countries, and even Washington, is compelled to reckon with Bonn. This is why our party wants all political and social forces in our country, 182 including its ruling quarters, to take a new approach to the problem of safeguarding peace.
Partnership between East and West in the security sphere and not confrontation is an increasingly obvious necessity today. In the present radically changed conditions, it cannot be brought about by military means but solely by political ones. The Federal Republic, it was said at the GCP Congress, should realise this and adopt "a foreign policy of its own, that is, a peace-loving and sovereign one''. And we demand that the ruling quarters should respond to the proposals of the Soviet Union and the GDR constructively; we call on the government and the Bundestag to adopt a Peace Charter and immediately to underpin it with real steps, which the Congress formulated as follows:~
influence the US government and demand publicly that it adhere to the constructive proposal of the Soviet Union to renounce all nuclear tests; agree to sign a relevant accord;
annul the secret agreement on Federal Germany's participation in the SDI programme;
have the Pershing II missiles sited in the Federal Republic to date withdrawn from our territory; prevent the deployment of cruise missiles, thereby contributing to the abolition of intermediate-range missiles in Europe;
support every effort towards creating a nuclear-free zone in Europe as proposed by Palme;
do everything possible for the creation of a chemical weapons free zone in Central Europe; seek a ban on chemical armaments and insist on their complete destruction all over the world; never authorise the storing of new US war gases on Federal German soil;
contribute to the promotion of relations of peace and cooperation with the socialist countries on the basis and in the spirit of the treaties and agreements concluded by European states.
In seeking a radical change of security policy, the GCP certainly does not count solely on greater common sense on the part of the government. However, no advocate of a national policy which he expects to have a widespread impact can refuse to firmly put forward constructive demands, even if directed to a right-wing government. To show 183 firmness in this instance means primarily continuing to help strengthen the peace movement in every way, to mobilise the population for participation in the actions planned for this year.
In coordinating these efforts, we are recurrently faced with the problem of our chances of success. We can solve it provided we have dependable guidelines and fight persevering ly. The conclusion drawn by the Congress is realistic and not declarative; it reflects the actual course of events at national and international level. "We Communists of the Federal Republic belong to the forces of peace and progress. While sharing the peoples' cares and fears, we never lose optimism regarding the future. We are convinced that the main motive forces of social development in this epoch--- the world socialist system, the revolutionary working class movement, the peoples of the new states, the peace and democratic movements-are equal to acting with great vigour. We are also convinced that notwithstanding class barriers and the boundaries dividing the two systems, a world coalition of reason can be brought about to preserve peace and curb the forces of confrontation.''
This conviction of ours was buttressed by the speeches which representatives of 58 fraternal parties and liberation movements from all continents delivered to the Congress. They were a reflection of both the diversity and the common trend of the struggle of the revolutionary forces of today, of the historic significance of this struggle.
Experience shows day after day how very important it is to see clear in the changing balance of world forces. Hence people's keen interest in the progress of existing socialism and their sympathetic response to the achievements of the socialist countries. Increased attention is paid to the factors and prospects for accelerating the socio-economic development of the Soviet Union defined by the 27th CPSU Congress as well as to the steady pursuit of a coordinated socio-economic policy in the GDR in accordance with the decisions of the 11th SUPG Congress. We have taken all this into account in pondering on our own policy.
The great role of socialism in safeguarding peace and solving global problems of humanity is common knowledge. During the Congress it manifested itself against the 184 background of an unusual event. The news of the accident at the Chernobyl atomic power station in the Soviet Union aroused among all Communists and the population at large concern as well as sympathy for and solidarity with the Soviet people. Since Federal German policy towards nuclear energy is determined by the interests of capitalist profit and military ambitions while the problem of using new technology is approached according to the nature of the social system, it is understandably important for us Communists to know the conclusions drawn from the accident by a socialist state. The sincere and detailed information which Boris Yeltsin, leader of the CPSU delegation, alternate member of the CC Political Bureau of the CPSU, presented to the Congress made a deep impression. The Soviet representative's speech was consonant with the spirit of our confidence in the Soviet Union; it re-emphasised that country's constructive approach to every big problem of humanity.
This is all the more important since reactionaries in both the government and the media took advantage of the Chernobyl accident to whip up anti-Soviet hysteria. They tried to nullify our people's growing realisation that the Soviet Union is a peace-loving state which champions with a keen sense of responsibility a world free from nuclear weapons. Resistance to that campaign was put up immediately in the statement of the GCP Board on the eve of the Congress, in the Report to it, in the speech of the leader of the CPSU delegation, in the debate.
Our party Congress examined acute inner political, social and economic problems. The right-wing coalition in power in Bonn and the employers' unions are carrying on an economic policy which, far from reducing unemployment, now at one million, makes for the spread of a new poverty. They have not only done away with important social achievements of the working people but greatly deteriorated the political and legal conditions for the struggle of the working class and the trade unions. Of course, all this has gone hand in hand with violent clashes. Looking back, we can see the stage at which there appeared clear signs of an upsurge in working class action.
In this situation it is important for the Marxist party to 185 go beyond revealing the class foundations and objectives of the strategy of big capital, a strategy undermining the confidence in "social partnership" which had been dominant for so long. We Communists must first of all advance alternatives that can lead from defence to a turning point in social development. The struggle for the right to work is a key factor in this matter.
We know by experience that militant action is the only way to secure effective solutions. This explains the continued relevance of striving for the abolition of the ban on strikes imposed by the Bundestag and for the prohibition of lockouts. Here are priority demands for the period ahead: shorten working time, specifically by introducing a 35-- hour week without wage cuts; seek this through a direct confrontation with the employers in the course of collective bargaining;
implement state employment programmes to the tune of 100 billion marks; make the government abandon its position, which favours seeing primarily to better opportunities of deriving profit and to better conditions for investment in production rationalisation;
raise the purchasing capacity of the masses by putting up wages and salaries to make up for the decline in real incomes; increase unemployment relief, pensions and social benefits.
These immediate demands can be met if military spending and corporate superprofits are reduced. Our other constructive proposals provide for qualitative economic growth, then nationalisation of key industries and the implementation of technological programmes under democratic control as well as the extension of worker participation in management at all economic levels. Also needed are a democratic structural and investment policy and a reorientation of international economic ties.
The GCP attaches particular importance to combating
mass unemployment. This is seen in the "Programme for
the Ruhr'', the programme "Jobs in Hamburg'', programmes
for the Siemens and Daimler-Benz combines, the steel
industry, and other concrete alternatives put forward by a
number of district and local party organisations. "We
Communists,'' the Board Report says, "have always been at the
186
forefront of the struggle for full employment and will never
desist from this struggle. We have advanced realistic
proposals indicating how to cope effectively with mass
unemployment today. We know that full employment can be
dependably guaranteed only when the source of recurrent
joblessness is finally cut off, that is, when the capitalist
system has been abolished. There is no unemployment in
the socialist GDR or the socialist Soviet Union. As for us,
we must not merely look forward to better times but must
fight our way to them.''
The Eighth CCP Congress had every reason to put special emphasis on the struggle for democratic rights. One of the new developments in our country is that the strategy of the Right provides, along with the abolition of social gains, for further curbs on democracy. The rightists have an assortment of projects ranging from curbs on the right to strike to a package of new "security laws''. The actual problem in this case goes beyond exposing reaction's plans and intentions.
The increasingly frequent violations of individual and collective rights, corruption among the powers that be, neo-Nazi intrigues generally come up against fairly strong democratic and anti-fascist sentiments. However, they are still often attended by a sense of powerlessness in the face of the disregard shown by the ruling quarters for the citizens' will. A case in point is the attempt to ignore protests against Federal German involvement in the SDI or encroachments on the right to strike. The experience of the GCP speaks of the possibility of resisting the arrogance of power and of achieving success---witness the partial defeat of Berufsverbote (ban on professions), the resistance offered to the anti-democratic census plan, and so on. "If the majority in the government and the Bundestag or the government bypassing the Bundestag,'' the Eighth Congress stated, "ignore the will of the majority of the people, then we must step up the struggle outside parliament and seek a democratic renewal of the parliamentary order.''
In either case we must resist anti-democratic laws, fight for their repeal, seek wider exercise of direct democracy through popular referendums and civic hearings, and strive to assure the media a democratic status. The problem of 187 preserving and extending the rights of the working people and trade unions requires special attention, for the extent to which the democratic rights of all citizens are respected will depend on how far the working class movement enjoys freedom of action.
Our Congress, which met nine months before the next Bundestag elections,^^1^^ formulated the main provisions of the party's electoral platform. We counter the "swing to the right" which the CDU/CSU and FDP have planned and effected more or less successfully with the concept of a new policy approaching the safeguarding of peace, disarmament, jobs for all and democracy as key issues.
The obvious trend towards greater agreement on these issues among all forces to the left of the CDU/CSU, between Communists and Social Democrats, closer ties between the Greens and the working class movement, actions by trade unions, youth, women, intellectuals are all indicative of the possibility of considerably increasing extraparliamentary pressure in favour of a new policy. At the same time, there is a real chance to replace the right-wing government coalition in the next Bundestag elections. Of course, the coalition has the backing of influential reactionary forces in the Federal Republic and the United States. We must therefore encourage the people to Come out in favour of adopting a new policy. The most effective way to achieve this is to promote extra parliamentary movements.
We Communists stress that after the Bundestag elections, too, pressure is needed in favour of such a policy, irrespective of the balance of forces in parliament and the nature of the ruling coalition. We believe the best solution would be a government led by the SDPC and cooperating with the Greens in one form or another. This would be in keeping with our concept of cooperation of the forces to the left of the CDU/CSU. Therefore, the GCP backs in the Bundestag elections the candidates on the Peace List, an alliance brought into existence by the peace movement and intent on making this the decisive issue in the election Campaign. Communists are cooperating in the alliance on an equal footing with Christians, left liberals, democratic socialists and independents. Votes cast for the Peace List make for closer cooperation among democrats.
188Thus the GCP, as well as helping strengthen extraparliamentary movements, is going to conduct an active election campaign in favour of the peace forces. In doing so, it will also take independent initiatives to heighten the Communists' prestige and consolidate their ranks.
A prominent aspect of the Eighth Congress was that it marked the completion of an important stage of the effort to build up the GCP. First of all, the party discussed draft Theses for the Congress which lasted nearly one year. Second, the Thalmann Enrolment campaign attained its goal. These interconnected efforts produced positive results on many lines:~
in discussing the Theses, all party members, primarily young people, who could not join the wide discussion of the 1978 party Programme, acquainted themselves in greater measure with the fundamentals of the communist worldview and the policy flowing from it;
the discussion on the provisions of the Theses was a vast process of democratic opinion-forming and assimilation of the experience gained by the party; party groups put forward hundreds of proposals, which added to the content of the Theses and helped make them a document answering new questions and thereby complementing the party Programme without being a substitute for it;
intensive study of the fundamentals of our world-view and policy and an active effort by Communists in diverse movements lent dynamism to the party's enrolment campaign.
The Thalmann Enrolment, decided on by our previous congress, proceeded in the form of a competition among districts and party groups. It produced impressive results and played a big role in party life. "The GCP has 57,802 members now,'' the party leadership told the Congress. "The targets we set ourselves in the enrolment campaign were reached by 100.3 per cent.'' When rewarding the party groups and organisations which showed the best performance, the following data were announced: the party admitted 10,282 men and women, mostly young people; over 55 per cent of them are of working class origin; upwards of 1,000 people joined the party in enterprises; over 200 new groups were formed, many of them in the 189 production sphere; more than two-thirds of the new members are below 30 years of age; women account for 42.6 per cent of them.
The party plans to go on building up its numerical strength. As during the Thalmann Enrolment, it wants party organisations to pursue major yet realistic aims and to do all in their power to consolidate achievements. The attainment of these aims will depend above all else on ideological and organising efforts, primarily a higher standard of party leadership. Great importance attaches to work, among youth, cooperation with socialist youth leagues-the Socialist German Working Class Youth, the Spartakus Marxist Union of Students and the Young Pioneers socialist children's organisation-and work among women. Needless to say, we must steadfastly strengthen our positions in enterprises.
The Congress commented on and critically analysed Communist activity in the production sphere. To expand positions where the working class is concentrated has been one of our fundamental tasks for years. The Congress resolved to form another 200 enterprise party groups before the end of the 1980s and to constantly organise new enterprise aktivs (primary forms of association preceding the establishment of enterprise groups). Another decision important in this respect is intended to ensure that the GCP newspaper, Unsere Ze/t, also has a Monday edition.
The policy evolved by the Eighth Congress and projected into the future and the tasks set by it with a view to building up the party flow from what the Board Report put on record, namely, the fact that the GCP is no isolated force in 1986 but a party wielding influence in many social movements of our country and enjoying respect and confidence among the most diverse democratic forces. Such is the greatest achievement requiring further development at the new stage. Nor is this all. The GCP is also a party engaged in creative effort, a party which critically analyses its own weak spots, and regards a sound battle of opinions on the party's further development and the Communists' role in the Federal Republic today as only natural.
The course and results of the Congress entitled Herbert Mies to say in his concluding remarks: "It is evidence of 190 the strength of the GCP that the party is fighting in close unity for the implementation of its policy line, as the Congress debate stressed. There is no renouncing this. However, the Congress reminded us of the need always to fight consistently for unity and cohesion in accordance with our principles and the policy adopted by us, without shutting our eyes to problems and differences of opinion but settling them steadfastly... The Eighth Congress showed the GCP again to be a party which not only realises but forms the exigencies of today. It has a clear policy, a political programme approved after proper discussion, a concept and a policy line.''
~^^1^^ Held on January 25, 1987.-Ed.
[191] __ALPHA_LVL2__ Unity of PurposeThe 13th Congress of the Communist Party of India (held at Patna, Bihar State, March 12--17, 1986) was an impressive manifestation of the political and organisational cohesion in the ranks of our party. In this sense, it is indeed an important landmark in its history. Its two main documentsthe Review Report, which dealt with developments during the last four years and the party's work since the 12th Congress, and the Political Resolution outlining the tasks of the party in the period ahead-were adopted almost unanimously, after a free and frank discussion. The Report highlighted the party's achievements over the past period but was at the same time sharply self-critical and pointed out failings and weaknesses in respect of mass movements, masS organisations and party organisation. It outlined a number of positive steps to be urgently taken in order to overcome the party's weaknesses in these vital spheres and render it capable of meeting the very serious challenges facing it in the critical period ahead, both nationally and internationally.
The intensive pre-Congress discussion on the two main documents throughout the party, at state conferences as well as at other levels, helped to achieve political-- organisational unity at the Congress itself. The more than 1,000 delegates representing nearly half a million party members showed a high party spirit; they were unsparing in criticising mistakes and determined to uphold and strengthen the unity of the party. That is why all speculations and forecasts about an "impending split" in the CPI which the bourgeois press made on the eve of the Congress proved to be utterly unfounded and foolish.
192There were 36 fraternal delegations from communist and workers' parties, revolutionary democratic organisations and national liberation movements at our Congress. Another 43 parties, which could not send delegations, sent messages of greetings. It was a glorious manifestation of proletarian internationalism and a tribute to the internationalist traditions of the CPI, which has always been a firm and staunch contingent of the world communist movement guiding itself by Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
The 13th Congress of our party came at a time when the danger to the whole world and to our country from US imperialism and its policies of escalating the arms race, of going ahead with nuclear tests and the Star Wars programme, of military aggression and political and economic destabilisation in line with the doctrine of ``neoglobalism'', has sharply increased as compared with the situation that prevailed at the time of the last Congress at Varanasi. Never has India faced such a difficult and complicated situation in the entire post-independence period.
Humanity is threatened with nuclear annihilation as a result of the adventurist policies of the Reagan administration and its reactionary allies. Rejecting the realistic peace initiatives of the Soviet Union and other socialist community nations hailed by the non-aligned movement and other peace-loving forces throughout the world, President Reagan persists in his Star Wars programme and nuclear tests. He is in a vain bid to gain military superiority over the Soviet Union and hence to achieve US imperialist world domination. The United States is implementing its doctrine of ``neoglobalism'' and diktat on a large scale against independent states and national liberation movements in Asia, Africa, Central America and the rest of the Latin American continent. The world denounced the act of state terrorism-the attack on Libya-authorised by the US President. There is a similar threat to Nicaragua, Syria, Angola and Afghanistan. The transnational corporations are on the neocolonialist rampage, undermining the economies of Third World countries and even some industrial countries of Europe. The fatal debt trap is closing in on most of the developing countries.
193In this context the struggle against the nuclear arms race and for world peace, against the Pentagon doctrine of ``neoglobalism'' and for a new international economic order, has attained new momentum and reached greater dimensions. This was reflected in, among others, the decisions of the non-aligned meeting in Delhi.^^1^^
The Patna Congress hailed the 27th Congress of the CPSU as of world historic significance. The CC Political Report presented by Mikhail Gorbachev, the new edition of the Programme of Lenin's party and other documents of that historic Congress opened up new vistas in the struggle of humanity for peace, national liberation and social advance. They have raised to a higher political level, the significance of the interaction of the socialist community countries, the national liberation movements, the newlyfree countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and the non-aligned movement in the present dangerous situation. The 27th CPSU Congress made a most valuable contribution towards strengthening the unity and cohesion of the international communist movement on the basis of proletarian internationalism, taking into consideration the complexities and diversity of the present-day world.
The stand that India has taken in the global struggle against nuclear war and against the forces of imperialism, colonialism, racism and apartheid is of crucial international significance. India has been following the policy of nonalignment and peace. We support the struggles of peoples for national liberation, against imperialism, racism and colonialism. Our country pursues a policy of friendship with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries and opposing the arms race, nuclear weapons testing and the Star Wars programme. As a leading member of the non-aligned movement, India carries great weight in it; this helps to isolate aggressive imperialist circles.
This course of India's foreign policy is detested by the imperialists, particularly by US imperialism. Hence it is mounting pressure on India in every way, using political and economic means in an attempt to tighten its noose round our country's neck. It is particularly concentrating on the economic front with the aim of eventually weakening and subverting the foreign policy.
194Certain sections of the Indian bourgeoisie and the bureaucracy preach the theory of "two superpowers'', equating the United States and the USSR and advocating ``neutrality'' between the two great powers. They are putting out a spurious and false propaganda campaign alleging that only the United States, Western Europe and Japan can supply India with the modern sophisticated technology needed for its economic development. The aim of all this is to divert and sidetrack the people's attention from imperialist conspiracies and to conceal from them the plundering, exploitative practices of the transnational corporations.
The Political Resolution passed by the Congress takes note of all these facts. It expresses the party's resolve to widen and deepen the struggle inside India against the imperialist war policies and for peace. The CPI will take new initiatives in the coming period to unite all the antiimperialist patriotic forces of the country, to step up the struggle against the policies of US imperialism of the nuclear arms race, the danger of nuclear war, ``neoglobalism'' and the US Star Wars plans and to back the peace programme and comprehensive peace initiatives of the Soviet Union. The party will step up solidarity actions in support of the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean fighting against Reagan's policies of international banditry, military diktat and armed intervention, against racism and apartheid, for national and social advance. The Political Resolution stresses the decisive significance of this task. Closely linked with it, the resolution emphasises, is the importance of defending India's national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and of counteracting conspiracies intended to destabilise our country to which US imperialism resorts by overt and covert means.
In the recent period, Washington has escalated its destabilisation operations against India. Among them are the massive arming of the Zia dictatorship of Pakistan with sophisticated weapons by the Reagan administration, the visit of ships of the US Seventh Fleet to Karachi, the establishment of US military bases in Pakistan, the training of separatist terrorist forces which are particularly active in the strategic border states of Punjab and Jammu and 195 Kashmir, and lastly, imperialist support for Pakistan's effort to start making nuclear arms. Mention should also be made of the transformation of Diego Garcia into a major nuclear base in the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon's continuing naval manoeuvres there and imperialist-backed conspiracies in Sri Lanka designed to escalate the ethnic conflict between Tamils and Singhalese, which the United States wants to use as a pretext for turning the island into its military base. All these militarist measures of Washington pose a grave menace to the national security and territorial integrity of India. The danger of nuclear conflict has come to the very doorstep of our country.
A further disturbing fact is that communal (both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist), casteist and divisive forces are stepping up their activities all over the country, gravely endangering the unity of the working class and the democratic forces. There is every reason to believe that these subversive operations have the secret backing of imperialist agencies. Although the ruling party, the Indian National Congress (I), is traditionally committed to secularism, the Congress government has lately taken certain steps appeasing communal and divisive forces, which have led to serious consequences. Policies of the central government which undermine the autonomy of the states, ignore the special requirements of backward areas and regions and deal with them in a high-handed manner help the forces of disintegration. Even apart from the pro-imperialist communal Bharatiya Janata Party, among the other bourgeois opposition parties also there are sections which actually lend support to divisive and fissiparous elements in their own narrow opportunist interests.
The Political Resolution takes serious note of these dangerous developments. It emphasises the party's task of uniting all secular democratic forces inside the country to combat communalism, casteism and separatism, all divisive forces of disintegration and destabilisation, and to safeguard the country's national unity, security and secular set-up.
Congress documents make a concrete in-depth analysis of the government's retrograde economic policies' which threaten to undermine national self-reliance, to weaken the 196 public sector, throw the country open to a "free market economy" and transnational plunder and aggravate social inequalities. Several steps have been taken over the past time in this disastrous direction. The capitalist West hailed them as a "break with the past" and welcome moves in the direction of ``privatisation''. The price hikes imposed by the central government, wholesale concessions to Indian monopolists and the multinationals, indiscriminate import liberalisation and computerisation, etc., are all symptomatic of the retrograde and anti-popular essence of these policies, which have evoked wide criticism in the country as a whole and even inside the ruling party itself. Indian scientists and technicians feel acutely discontented and frustrated because their initiatives are ignored while inroads from the West are encouraged. Inflation and unemployment are on a steep rise, lockouts and closures of industries have reached alarming proportions. There have been massive protest actions by the working class and other workjng people all over the country against the effects of these economic policies. As a result of these policies the crisis of India's national economy is being sharply aggravated. The whole process of economic planning and mobilisation of resources has run into grave trouble. And India is threatened with imperialism's debt trap.
The party Congress stressed the urgent need for political and mass struggles for the reversal of these policies. It has placed before the people a concrete national democratic alternative platform of policies as the only way to lift India out of the present crisis, promote national selfreliance and independent economic development, safeguard the living standards of the working masses and take our country forward towards carrying out the tasks of the national democratic revolution and towards the socialist goal. In this context, the Political Resolution emphasises the positive factor of the comprehensive cooperation that has been built up over the years between India and the Soviet Union as well as other friendly socialist countries. The Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation continues to provide a reliable foundation for such cooperation. The resolution draws pointed attention to the need for the people to be vigilant in order to ensure 197 effective implementation of the far-reaching agreements signed by India with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.
The Patna Congress has pointed out that the task of fighting imperialism and right reaction and of moving the country in a left-democratic direction will be sharply posed simultaneously in the coming period. It has emphasised that these objectives can be achieved and the Party's central slogan of uniting all the left and democratic forces in the country in order to provide a viable alternative to the monopoly of bourgeois rule can be implemented only through a path of militant mass and political struggle. The Congress documents make it quite clear that the left and democratic alternative envisaged by the CPI can emerge only as the result of a radical realignment of political forces in the country, bringing about a change in the balance of forces in favour of the working class, agricultural proletariat and peasantry. It is these classes and their alliance, built in the course of mass and political struggles that can play a pivotal role in drawing other democratic classes to their side and thus building up left and democratic unity. "The organised strength of these forces,'' the Political Resolution says, "will enable us to replace bourgeois governments by left and democratic governments. It is in this direction that we have to move the masses.'' We thus emphasise the class essence of the task of building up left-democratic unity. It is anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and anti-monopoly and is based on worker-peasant alliance.
In the light of such a class analysis, the resolution gives primacy to achieving working class and trade union unity and pinpoints the key role the working class has to play in building up the worker-peasant alliance, for the struggle for basic socio-economic changes. It emphasises the task of forging trade union unity in action on the widest scale, and raising the role of the trade union movement, particularly in the public sector, to higher political dimensions to fight for peace, secularism, national integration and alternative economic policies. It notes that the struggle against the transnational corporations is closely linked up with the fight for a new international economic order.
Stressing the importance of left unity in building up of 198 the left-democratic front, in the forming of worker-peasant alliance and in the struggle against US imperialism, the Congress documents attach special national significance to closer cooperation between the CPI and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the present political context in India. While in the recent period, there have been some positive achievements in this regard, they are far from adequate to meet the needs of the situation. Negative factors and obstacles have arisen following from the sectarian, and narrow partisan attitudes of the CPI (M) leadership. The Congress charts out a realistic and practicable path towards overcoming these obstacles and achieving a breakthrough step by step. We appeal for joint action and an eventual merger of the All-India Trade Union Congress and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions^^2^^ on the class principles recognised by both parties. It should be possible to form on the same basis united left-led mass organisations of peasants, youth, students and others.
The Congress reaffirmed our party's stand to the effect that reunification of the communist movement in India on a principled basis is our eventual goal and that we will work patiently and perseveringly to achieve it.
The Congress documents place crucial emphasis on the task of enhancing the independent strength and political role of our party and its mass organisations. This, in fact, is the key link which we have to grasp in order to be able to discharge our national and international responsibilities at this critical juncture, which is truly a turning point in many respects. All the tasks of building up a left and democratic alternative to bourgeois rule in our country and of strengthening India's international role in the struggle for peace hinge on this central factor. The party must overcome its shortcomings and expand rapidly enough, enhancing its independent political role, to meet the challenges of the present situation. The split in the Indian communist movement that came about in 1964 and the weakness of the Left today in many parts of the country act as the most damaging and negative factor hindering the emergence of a left-democratic alternative to bourgeois rule.
The Patna Congress declared that our party has a special and unique role to play in repairing this damage.
199 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1987/CRCOT359/20080714/299.tx" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2008.07.14) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [*]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+Our party will have to strengthen the mass organisations of the workers, the peasants and agricultural labour on a vast scale. It has to make serious efforts to build strong political mass bases and a strong party, strive to build unity of the Left and act as the initiator and organiser of mass struggles against all forms of exploitation, oppression and social injustice. The Congress Resolution sums up this task in the following ringing words: "It is only by building and expanding the organisation of our party with deep roots among the workers and peasants and engaged in struggles oriented towards the objectives set above that the CPI will succeed in bringing about the unity of the Left and draw all other democratic sections and classes of our people for replacing the bourgeois rule at the centre by a government of left and democratic unity. This can help facilitate the bringing about of a national democratic transformation with socialist orientation.''
The Cong'ress resolved to step up, broaden and deepen the peace campaign, uniting in it all the national patriotic forces in the country against Reagan's adventurist policies, in support of the Soviet Union's Peace Programme and its demand for an immediate end to nuclear tests. It decided to organisea nation-wide campaign and militant actionsagainst the divisive forces of separatism, communalism and religious fundamentalism, against the INC (I) government's new economic policies, for the location and occupation of land illegally held in various states by landlords and for the granting of relief to the millions of the rural and urban poor living below the poverty line, that is, nearly half of India's population.
The 13th Congress of our party firmly upheld the Leninist banner of proletarian internationalism, as both its key documents and the numerous resolutions adopted by it indicate. They express support for and solidarity with the freedom fighters of Asia, Africa, Central America and the Latin American continent as a whole, with the peoples fighting against Reagan's policy of military threat, armed intervention and undeclared wars, and with the Communists and democrats suffering imprisonment and torture in the fascist dungeons of countries ruled by reactionary juntas and military oligarchies. All this rang out from the Congress 200 rostrum and was acclaimed by the delegates. The Commumst Party of India has thus once again reaffirmed that it is a staunch contingent of the world communist movement.
1 Meeting of the Coordinating Bureou of the non-aligned movement, it drew delegations from about 100 countries.-fd.
2 Central trade union organisations of the CPI and CPI (M).
[201] __ALPHA_LVL2__ The AbilityThe Second Congress of our party, held at the close of the summer of 1984, took place later than stipulated by the Rules.^^1^^ This was due to the difficulties attending work in strict clandestinity and to the extremely complicated domestic political situation (especially between 1979 and 1983) created by an official campaign of repression against Communists and other progressives. The convocation of the congress was made possible by the sustained preparatory work which leading party bodies and party branches carried on over a long period by taking part in the formulation of the agenda and in the discussion and enrichment of the content of documents to be submitted to the congress.
The convening of the congress after the blows that the repressive regime had lately delivered to the progressive patriotic movement in the country, in a worsening economic situation, with the standard of living of the workers and other working people declining, demonstrated our party's ability to weather and overcome difficulties, displaying unity of will and action and a high degree of ideological, political and organisational cohesion. We owe this to the fact that the CPSA has invariably abided by the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Our party has shown that its existence and activity, which are at once a continuation and a qualitatively new stage of the national and social struggle of our working class and our people as a whole, are dictated by both objective and subjective conditions and by the requirements of the current historical phase of society's development. They are a materialisation of the conviction that the working people cannot rid themselves of oppression and exploitation unless 202 they organise and close their ranks. Strengthening the Communist Party, vanguard of the working class and defender of its interests, helps strengthen the entire progressive patriotic movement and paves the way for the party to accomplish its national and international tasks.
The Second CPSA Congress proceeded against the background of a deteriorating international situation and an intensifying offensive of imperialism, Zionism and reaction against the Arab national liberation movement, an offensive aimed at dealing a crushing blow to its every contingent and at forcing the Arab peoples to surrender. This is an expression of the US and NATO imperialists' aggressive militarist strategy based on a bid for hegemony, on interference in the internal affairs of nations and attempts to shape these nations' destinies and take possession of their resources, on a bid to escalate confrontation and put an end by hook or by crook to the atmosphere of detente in international relations.
US imperialism, pursuing a policy of provocation and aggressive ventures, is stepping up tensions in the area of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula. Washington is fanning the flames of the devastating Iraq-Iran war, taking advantage of it to extend its direct military presence in the region, an activity meeting no obstacles whatever from the reactionary regimes of the region. The undisguised inter* ference of the United States and other NATO countries in developments in the Gulf area is an attempt to restore their shaken prestige and make up for the damage resulting from the bad defeat inflicted on them in Lebanon and the Middle East as a whole by Syria, the national patriotic forces of Lebanon and the Palestine Resistance Movement, which operated together and were backed by fighters for freedom and progress in Arab countries and the world. Along with acts of armed intervention, Washington is carrying on preparations for the deployment of medium-range Pershing missiles in Saudi Arabia as it strives feverishly to turn our country and other Gulf states into a base and bridgehead for conspiracies against patriotic forces and regimes (above all in the PDRY, Ethiopia and Afghanistan) and into an area from where it could pose a further threat to the Soviet Union from the south.
203The overall effect is that the region and, indeed, the world are in serious danger. Much of the responsibility for this falls on the reactionary regimes of Saudi Arabia and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.^^2^^ They join unquestioningly in the implementation of imperialism's aggressive schemes and take a hostile stand on problems of vital importance to our people and other Arab peoples, particularly on the Palestinian problem. To be sure, these regimes and US imperialism occasionally clash over secondary issues but in the end they settle them within the framework of a common strategy motivated by intense hatred for the forces of freedom, progress and socialism.
On the other hand, the present situation in the Arab world and on the international scene generally is characterised by a revolutionary upturn and growing resistance from these forces, in whose van is the Soviet Union, to the destructive policies of world imperialism headed by the USA, policies entailing a reckless arms race and threatening humanity with nuclear disaster. The influence of the peace forces is mounting and the anti-war movement in its diverse forms is becoming a mighty torrent merging into a common stream, the struggle against imperialist oppression and for peace and socialism.
Our party's whole activity is intimately linked with the struggle of the Arab peoples, of their progressive forces, who are resisting the attacks of imperialism, Zionism and reaction as they fight for the liberation of the territories seized by Israel in the course of the 1967 aggression and for the restoration of the legitimate national rights of the people of Palestine, including their right to self-- determination and the establishment of a national state in their homeland. The CPSA is striving in collaboration with the communist and workers' parties of other Arab countries to build up the staunchness of the anti-imperialist'forces in the region, whose mainstay at this stage is Syria, its patriotic policy and its emphatic rejection of separate plans for a settlement based on surrender. We see the need to strengthen the alliance of Syria, the Palestinian fighters and the Lebanese national patriotic forces and to help restore and consolidate the unity of the Palestine Liberation Organisation on a patriotic anti-imperialist and anti-- 204 Zionist platform rejecting surrender in any form, and we support all constructive initiatives to this effect.
The CPSA, which regards defence of the Soviet Union and Lenin's great party against all attacks as one of its programme tasks and a statutory duty of its members, is a steadfast champion of Arab-Soviet friendship. We have a high opinion of the many meaningful initiatives of the Soviet Union and other socialist community countries aimed at upholding and finalising international detente and strengthening the pillars of world peace; among other things, we support the proposals intended to settle the Middle East crisis on a fair basis and by peaceful means and to turn the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Indian Ocean into peace zones.
The significance of the Second CPSA Congress lies in the fact that it has reaffirmed these fundamental guidelines as a precisely formulated policy of the party.
The past period has been most eventful; it has witnessed abrupt and highly contradictory changes in various spheres of the life of Saudi society. The Second Congress made a scientific, consistent class analysis of new phenomena-it is contained in various documents and other records of the congress, primarily in the political and organisational reports of the Central Committee and in the re-edited party Programme. Important amendments introduced into the Programme were aimed at reflecting more accurately the situation objectively shaping up in the country and providing the party membership with guidelines enabling them to mobilise the masses all the more successfully in the struggle for their rights and interests.
The congress stated that since the early seventies Saudi Arabia has been advancing fast on capitalist lines, a development accompanied by a deepening of social distinctions and an exacerbation of class contradictions. Although the structure of Saudi society is still transitional, which manifests itself primarily in the incompleteness of the system of bourgeois social relations and the concomitant incompleteness of the process of social and class differentiation, the past decade has seen the features of antagonistic social classes and sectors stand out more than before. The people of Saudi Arabia are now faced with the task of 205 completing the stage of national liberation, that is. fully attaining the goals of the national democratic revolution. Accordingly, the CPSA programme defines the main contradiction of the current stage as the antagonism between the class bloc of exploiters-feudal lords, landed proprietors and parasitical sections of the domestic bourgeoisie, who are tied to world imperialism, primarily US imperialism, by close bonds-on the one hand, and the workers, peasants, beduins, revolutionary-minded intellectuals and the petty bourgeoisie as well as influential sections of the national bourgeoisie, on the other.^^3^^
The leading position in the exploiters' bl6c is held by feudal lords and semi-feudal members of the Saudi clan, which wields all legislative, executive and judicial power (first of all through the king), for Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy without a constitution or any representative bodies. The current trend towards greater (but still limited) involvement of bourgeois bureaucrats and technocrats in administration and management, particularly of the economy, is merely an indication of increasingly strong ties linking together the members of the feudal-bourgeois alliance.
The reactionary anti-popular policy of the regime is aggravating Saudi Arabia's total dependence on world imperialism, primarily US imperialism, and perpetuating the lag of the country. The economy is lop-sided, being based solely on oil production, which supplies 70 per cent of the national income and 99 per cent of export earnings. All other fields are in a state of decline: there is virtually no heavy industry, the role of light industry is small and agriculture is still dominated by feudal and semi-feudal relations.
The enormous profits made by recklessly exploiting natural resources are by no means used in the people's interest but diverted to satisfying the greed of imperialist monopolies and a handful of feudal lords and domestic capitalists. In conformity with their policy of serving the economic needs of the world capitalist system, the Saudi ruling classes encourage private enterprise (chiefly in trade and the service industry) and back parasitical sections of the domestic bourgeoisie. The role of the public sector is 206 decreasing and the shares of enterprises belonging to it are sold out inside the country and in Gulf countries. As the Saudi Arabian economy and home market as a whole do not absorb more than 40 per cent of the national income, the rest is remitted to US and European banks and spent on major economic projects in big capitalist countries which eases the impact of the crisis affecting them. These funds are also used for the purchase of incredible quantities of arms abroad exceeding the actual requirements of national defence many times over,^^4^^ for the financing of subversive activities against national liberation movements and progressive patriotic regimes, and for aid to reactionary governments, primarily in the Arab world.
As a consequence, the Saudi economy is in a state of stagnation and crisis made worse by unfavourable fluctuations on the world capitalist market and dwindling receipts from oil, which is due largely to the regime's anti-national policy coordinated with the international oil cartel. The search for a way out is going on, as usual, at the expense of the vital requirements and interests of the people. In a country possessing countless riches and spending exorbitant sums on arms purchase or on projects prompted by considerations of prestige, the majority of the rural and nomadic population still lack decent housing, water supply, electricity, medical care and schools. Appropriations for these purposes are cut time and again. With the economic situation deteriorating, prices continue rising, the real incomes of workers and other sections of the working and disinherited population are falling off and the number of ruined small and medium entrepreneurs is growing. The regime stops financing and freezes certain projects and resorts to massive layoffs.
All this is accompanied by stepped-up terror and repression, which are inseparable from the policy of the monarchic regime, especially since Fahd's accession to the throne as a member of the Saudid clan's wing maintaining particularly close links with the US imperialists and showing extreme intransigence towards any democratic freedoms and the least signs of opposition. The top rulers are backed by a vast repressive bureaucracy on whose maintenance the regime spends nearly half the budget appropriations. The 207 domestic atmosphere is one of arbitrariness and violence. Things like freedom of speech, opinion or assembly are non-existent; anyone who engages in political or trade union activity is jailed for a long time without trial or the right to defence and is subjected to refined physical or mental tortures. Saudi Arabia is probably the only country in the world where inhuman punishments like flogging, cutting off the limbs, stoning or beheading are meted out.
The regime uses Islam to hold the masses down, dissemble its theft of the nation's riches, foment hostility to the ideas of freedom and progress and whip up intercommunal discord. The victims of discrimination and harassment include Shiites, Zeidites and Ishmaelites.^^5^^ These are not allowed to perform their religious rites, barred from many government offices and generally treated as second-rate people. Operating through "committees for the encouragement of virtue and the condemnation of sin'', the authorities arrogantly meddle in the private lives of Saudis and force definite behavioural standards upon them.
The reactionary anti-national policy of the monarchic regime and the absolutist, repressive methods of government come up against mounting popular discontent and resistance. Leading the way in this resistance is the young Saudi proletariat, which initiates and leads popular actions, as it did in 1953, 1956. 1967 and 1979.
The November events of 1979-the uprising in Eastern Province and the seizure of Mecca's chief mosque---were indicative of a growing revolutionary ferment. They constituted the biggest and most powerful action ever launched in our country against absolute rule and its patron, US imperialism. The people, having roused to action, used the most diverse forms of struggle, both peaceful and armed ones, and furnished proof of their firm opposition to the prevailing political and socio-economic situation. The regime retaliated by killing or injuring dozens of people and jailing hundreds more.
A large peaceful demonstration held in El Katif in January 1980 identified itself with the victims of repression and demanded the release of the arrested. Faced with the people's mounting anger, the rulers resorted to terror again. In the middle of 1982 they began a wide campaign of 208 persecution and harassment against progressive patriotic forces, including Communists. People were put behind bars, maltreated and tortured. Our party described the campaign as part of an imperialist, Zionist and reactionary plot spearheaded against the peoples of Arab and Middle East countries, against the Communists and other progressives of the region.
Repression failed to break the people, who united more and more closely around the national patriotic movement and pressured the authorities to secure the release of political prisoners. Faced with an exceedingly complicated situation, the CPSA leadership showed a high degree of vigilance, activity and perseverance as it organised resistance to reaction's attack and took steps to restrict it and do away with its effects. Of tremendous importance was in this respect a world-wide campaign of solidarity with Saudi patriots, our comrades, who courageously held their own in prison. The regime had to back down-the prisoners were set free in June 1983. This was a big success scored by the progressive patriotic forces of the country and we regard it as the beginning of a radical, historic change in the nation's life.
``The upsurge in the struggle of the working class and other working people,'' the CPSA Programme stresses, "makes for a deepening of the crisis of the autocratic monarchic regime, which bears the'chief responsibility for all the evils that have befallen our country; it offers opportunities for the abolition of the regime, which is a pressing task dictated by the interests of our country and meeting the people's aspiration for freedom, democracy and social progress."* This task should be accomplished, in the Communists' opinion, by a broad national democratic front expressing the interests of the overwhelming majority of Saudis, whom the ruling exploiters' bloc is trying to hold in bondage. We see the formation of this front as a most urgent need and a decisive prerequisite for success, as a lasting strategy that we must follow if we want to win and not as a passing, tactical slogan.
The CPSA visualises the national democratic front as an alignment of political parties, trade unions and other organisations as well as independents adhering to a national 209 patriotic programme, with every participant remaining independent organisationally, ideologically and politically. Contradictions between them over secondary matters are only natural and quite permissible provided they do not go beyond the framework of patriotic unity.
Our party is prepared to make a fitting contribution to the activity of the proposed national democratic front. What enables it to continue and step up its fight against the most brutal, reactionary and bigoted regime is, first and foremost, the fact that it leans on the will of the working class and other working people and expresses their hopes and aspirations. We realise, however, that the growing strength of the CPSA does not depend on subjective factors alone but also on the might and scope of the world revolutionary process. This means that it lies in the party's internationalism, in its being a component of the international communist and working class movement. The CPSA, working to bring about complete national liberation and striving for a national democratic revolution, never loses sight of the ultimate goals which are common to the Communists of the whole planet: eliminating the exploitation of man by man and class domination and oppression in any form, and building socialism and communism.
~^^1^^ The CPSA Rules provide that the party shall meet in congress once in every five years. The First Congress was held in 1975.-Ed.
~^^2^^ The Council comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.---Ed.
^^3^^ See Programme and Rules of the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia as Amended by the Second CPSA Congress, pp. 9-10 (in Arabic).
~^^4^^ The press has carried the following information: since 1975 Saudi Arabia has spent about 100 billion dollars on equipping an army slightly more than 50,000 strong. In the 1982 fiscal year its military budget amounted to an unprecedented 24.4 billion dollars. This indicator moved it into fifth place in the world, putting it ahead of industrial countries like France, Britain and Japan. Military expenditures swallow about 20 per cent of the country's GNP. In 1981 and 1982, Saudi Arabia accounted for one-third of US and two-fifths of French arms exports. Also, it has signed major 210 contracts with British, Italian, West German, Spanish and Japanese arms manufacturers (see Kasem Ja'far, "Fahd's Luxury War Machine'', South, October 1984, p. 16).-Ed.
~^^5^^ Members of Muslim trends different from the Wahhabi variety of Sunnism dominant in Saudi Arabia.-Ec/.
^^6^^ Programme and Rules .... p. 22.
[211] __ALPHA_LVL2__ The Road Chosen by UsThe political situation in Senegal may appear rosy at first sight. Indeed, 15 legal parties, a dozen independent newspapers-and all this in a country of 5.8 million people-an intense intellectual and ideological atmosphere, a President who agrees without hesitation to meet with opposition leaders: this is, among many other facts, what could, in the present situation of our country, charm somebody looking from outside. But as soon as some of the varnish is removed reality turns out to be far less idyllic.
Political power today is in the hands of a bureaucratic bourgeoisie and other parasitical strata turning round it. The ruling class, initiated long ago into the subtleties of bourgeois democracy, operates inside it with disconcerting ease, but it has also proved that it can be cynically brutal when defending its privileges. This leading class is now divided by deep internal contradictions into different factions over the issue of controlling the state and party apparatus as well as over the ability of the current " democratic experiment" to guarantee the regime's stability. Two decades after the winning of national independence, the main economic levers are still in the hands of foreignFrench and Syro-Lebanese^^1^^-capitalists, who only give the domestic bureaucratic bourgeoisie the leavings. As for those who are grandly called the "national bourgeoisie'', they get nothing but crumbs. In an effort to keep Senegal dependent, something against which the patriotic opposition declares most emphatically, international capital tends to take a very sceptical view of the regime's ability to stabilise
212 itself by using current political forms and is contemplating the prospect of authoritarian rule.We believe it is important to bear this contradictory background in mind and to heed both the face and the reverse of the Senegalese ``coin''. This helps understand the main strategic and tactical guidelines which our party adopted at its Second Congress, held legally in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, in the autumn of 1984.
The Congress drew 835 voting delegates and was also attended by delegations of fraternal parties, in particular from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, representatives of the Senegalese opposition and numerous public figures.
Preparations for it as well as its work followed democratic procedures never known before in our country. This enabled us to go beyond an inner-party discussion of major social, economic and political problems and to raise discussion to a national plane. As we see it, the scope and fruitfulness of the discussion was fresh evidence of the superiority of Leninist standards and principles over verbose bourgeois and revisionist ratiocination about `` democracy''. We think it is particularly important to underline that such ample democracy convinced us more than ever of the correctness of our ideology and class policy and closely united us in support of a programme which every one of us had helped work out without any idea alien to Marxism or to the nature of our party coming to pollute our minds. Indeed, every single meeting of the ruling party degenerates today into a brawl or even a bloody battle. From what government sources have disclosed, about ten people have lost their lives in skirmishes between ``Socialist'' Party clans. Foreign Minister Moustapha Niasse was relieved of his party duties and cabinet post because at the height of a Political Bureau meeting of the ruling party he beat up a colleague before the eyes of the head of state. This seems incredible. Curious ``democratic'' manners like these, with fists used as an argument, are current in q party which noisily proclaims itself an adherent of " democratic socialism with a human face" and never misses an opportunity to come out in defence of "human rights" in countries of existing socialism.
213 __ALPHA_LVL3__ Current Stage of the Liberation ProcessThe Congress unanimously approved the Central Committee Report submitted by Amath Dansokho, who was elected General Secretary of the CC SPIL Seydou Cissokho was elected to the newly established post of party Chairman. The delegates approved a number of documents as the result of a discussion inside the party and throughout the country on the Orientation and Action Programme Theses and on the party's Action Programme itself. The Congress passed several special resolutions, including one on the international situation. This resolution re-emphasises the importance which we attach to the struggle for peace as part of the struggle for national independence, democracy and socialism, calls for the unity of the world communist and working class movement and expresses deep gratitude to the CPSU and other fraternal parties on behalf of Senegal's Communists. It reaffirms our solidarity with the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world who resist imperialism, neocolonialism, Zionism, racism and apartheid.
The Congress summed up the results of the party's struggle to date and approved guidelines for the period ahead. It gave clear answers to the following questions: What is the present stage of our struggle? What are the main motive forces of this struggle? How and under what specific programme do we expect to win and hold power?
Coming out and intertwining at the stage of national democratic revolution which we are passing through are its anti-imperialist and increasingly evident anti-capitalist aspects (the abolition of foreign capitalist domination and neocolonial power in the former case and the removal of the social and economic foundations of class exploitation in the latter). Needless to say, carrying out the political, economic and social programme of the revolution will be no easy matter and will exact much sacrifice from our people. There are several reasons for this: the Senegalese economy is tied to the world capitalist market; the country is still affected by the negative legacy of our colonial past; the burden of patriarchal survivals has a visible impact on social relations, behavioural standards and social 214 consciousness. What compounds the task is that we want to take the road to national democratic development in a country where capitalism never completed its vaunted `` civilising'' mission of destroying the relics of precapitalist structures which hamper the development of new productive forces and production relations more advanced than feudal ones.
Another fact to take into consideration is the Western powers' bid to make Senegal a strongpoint of their militarist activity in Africa, taking advantage of its favourable geographical situation. This was exemplified by the British aggression against the Falklands (Malvinas), for it was at Dakar that British bombers landed on their way to the islands. Under formal (public or secret) agreements signed by the Senegalese government, NATO countries have been granted ``facilities''-the right to use our ports and airfields for aggressive aims. France has large military bases on Senegalese soil; its soldiers move about our country as in colonial days. The United States was allowed to use the air base at Thies, our second biggest city.
Imperialism has assigned Senegal the role of an important propaganda relay station for the dissemination of anti-Soviet and anti-communist ideas. It also uses the country as a convenient testing ground for various neocolonialist and reformist conceptions. All this isi a source of difficulties which we encounter in striving to ensure that our country takes the road to real national independence, democracy and socialism.
Our definition of the present stage of the revolution as a twofold process of anti-imperialistandanti-capitalist struggle is not prompted by anything like a maximalist or voluntarist approach intended to adjust history to our wishes. The Congress was guided by the approach first formulated by Lenin, who stressed that the national liberation revolution will tend increasingly to develop into a struggle against the exploitation of man by man. The correctness of Lenin's approach has now been confirmed by the entire course of< the national liberation revolution in Africa and the world. This follows from the general content of the epoch of transition from capitalism to socialism and has been made possible by favourable conditions developing in step with 215 a changing balance of international forces. Countries Mice Senegal have the opportunity to skip the capitalist stage of development and to advance to a socialist future with the aid and support of world socialism.
Our party came to this conclusion on the strength of an objective assessment of the political and economic situation in Senegal. The analysis made by us suggests that as Senegal has been following a capitalist road at imperialism's bidding for nearly a quarter of a century, there is no overcoming the deep contradictions existing in our society. In fact, the choice made by the country is a threat to our national sovereignty; it has made Senegal more dependent on imperialism, undermined the potentialities of effective economic advance, multiplied structural imbalances and greatly exacerbated regional and ethnocultural distinctions endangering national unity. Last but not least, the capitalist choice has been reproducing and even aggravating social inequality to a greater extent than was the case under colonial rule. These aspects of the domestic and foreign political situation fully warrant the conclusion that the orientation chosen by the ruling quarters has nothing in common with the interests of the people. Such a situation is favourable to a resolutely anti-capitalist orientation.
The Congress noted that the substantial experience gained to date proves the position of the masses correct. Unquestionable social, cultural and economic achievements are in evidence in countries which have chosen socialism and have been putting their choice into effect without deformations due to subjective mistakes that make some people doubt its prospects. In a period as long as that of Senegal's independent existence, these achievements are far superior to the results attained in our country under neocolonial, pro-capitalist rule.
Just what does an anti-capitalist orientation mean in a country like Senegal, where simple small-commodity production (fettered, moreover, by precapitalist relations) still predominates despite the existence of a modern capitalist sector whose ``logic'' ultimately moulds the whole economy? In our view, this orientation should be aimed at fulfilling a double historical mission: solving the social and 216 economic problems inherited from an immature capitalism, and creating and building up the objective and subjective prerequisites for more solid national independence and the transition to socialism. The concrete political, social and economic content of the present stage is set out in the Theses and the party's Action Programme approved by the Congress. They call in essence for concrete measures to wrest the state apparatus from the bureaucratic bourgeoisie and establish the democratic power of anti-- imperialist classes and sectors; to ensure national sovereignty over the economy and diversify the economy so as to combine the dominant role of an effectively managed public sector with the functions of the mixed and private sectors; to modernise and develop the productive forces; and to raise the standard of living, step by step.
The case of countries which have already set out on a non-capitalist road indicates that needed among other things are a perspicacious and realistic-thinking leadership, a truly revolutionary vanguard, for it alone is able to lead the process successfully. Comprehensive cooperation with socialist countries and judicious utilisation of the aid rendered by them are an earnest of progress on this road.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Opportunities for Class AlliancesOur party considers that due to the scope and content of the tasks in question, they cannot be put into practice by one class. First of all, no class in Senegal is strong enough to do this by itself, and second, the goals of the national democratic revolution appeal to a number of classes and social sectors and meet their interests. The SPIL stands for unity on a broad basis and a joint democratic struggle by these forces against imperialism and neocolonial practices. Success in this struggle is in the interest of the working class, peasantry (we are not forgetting about the differentiation going on among the peasants), middle strata, and lastly, that part of the national bourgeoisie whose positions are injured by the domination of foreign capital.
At this stage, our Congress stated, the party's strategy and tactics are intended to do everything possible for the 217 formation of the front in question. The front would be the political and social framework of a democratic state whose essence would be the joint political power of all the allied anti-imperialist classes and sectors.
During the extensive pre-Congress discussion, many participants asked: Does not the anti-capitalist character of our action clash with the desire to bring the national bourgeoisie into the common struggle? Who is going to lead the democratic front? These questions are answered in the documents approved by the Congress.
The national bourgeoisie as a class cannot survive alone, that is, if it refuses to ally itself with other social forces. That is why it is important to persuade this class that it stands to gain from participation in the common struggle. The SPIL considers that "the national bourgeoisie will have to play a role very useful to the whole nation in a private sector of the economy which will help provide the requisites for a viable and profitable economy without holding dominant positions".^^2^^ This sector would function on definite principles, without undermining the progressive orientation. And we wish to underline that this is seen by our party as a strategic and not a tactical matter and that its significance goes beyond overthrowing neocolonial rule.
As regards the political role of the national bourgeoisie, we do not think this class has the qualities entitling it to lay claim to leadership of the front. It lacks the historical and ideological prestige as well as the political ability that would be needed, since it is condemned by its own conditions of existence to constantly ``hedge'' between the different social and political forces. There is also the fact that, expelled from the most profitable economic fields, which are in the hands of foreign capital, the national bourgeoisie seeks certain privileges from the state, such as priority in the distribution of contracts, protection from foreign capital (leaving certain economic activities to the Senegalese), state credits for investment or safeguards against the banks. The need for this kind of aid makes for the dependence of the bourgeoisie on the forces controlling the state apparatus, a circumstance which compels it to make concessions to these forces and, on the other hand, leads to a certain tendency to compromise with 218 imperialism. At the same time, with the anti-imperialist movement and the prospect of effective struggle against foreign predominance growing, Senegalese business is beginning to take interest in alliance with advocates of a consistent anti-imperialist orientation.
Can the Senegalese peasantry, which is influenced by a variety of pseudo-socialist ideas, lead the movement on anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist lines? Our party says no.
There is no doubt that in an agrarian country such as Senegal, patriotic forces have a stake in winning over the bulk of the peasantry, which has economic, social and a measure of political weight. Nor can we discount the fact that the rural population, unlike other population groups, lives in appalling material and cultural poverty. Primitive small-scale (individual or family) households are dominant in the countryside; the peasants are strongly influenced by patriarchal customs and defer to the traditional authorities and religious chiefs, a reality cunningly exploited by the regime to maintain its control. Most peasants yield readily to pressure and intimidation from domestic administrative bodies, which never hesitate to take sides with the ruling party.
Thus the peasantry cannot smash the chains of its mediaeval bondage and make an effective contribution to the liberation of society without alliance with the working class. While it is a decisive force in this alliance due to its social and political leverage, it cannot be the leading force in it. Our party stresses the need "to work out and popularise appropriate agrarian reform measures meeting the most pressing aspirations of the rural masses".^^3^^ Such a conclusion appears to us to be an essential basis for mobilising the peasantry in the anti-imperialist struggle.
Who, then, is going to lead the future democratic front?
The Congress confirmed that no one can be recognised beforehand to have priority in this matter. The struggle will be led by the class which proves that it is better equipped for the task, possesses adequate political consciousness, is well organised and enjoys proper influence on other classes and sectors, and which makes a real contribution to the future victory.
219In Senegal today, despite the dynamism of our proletariat on the social front and its great contribution to the anticolonialist struggle, the political leadership is, in fact, assumed today by the middle strata, mainly their urban, intellectual and salaried sections. That objectively puts them at an advantage from the point of view of leading the front through the parties in which they amply identify themselves. The SPIL Congress concluded that it is necessary to evolve and carry out measures strengthening our influence on the middle strata in order to win them for revolutionary ideals and the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the working class. However, the party is convinced that the final success of the struggle can only be guaranteed if the front is led by the working class together with other working people.
Certain objective obstacles still prevent the proletariat from fully assuming the historical responsibility of leading the anti-imperialist movement. Our working class is relatively young. Most of its members come from a peasant environment and are still linked with it by social, spiritual or family ties. Its political organisation in inadequate. Being small in number and scattered mostly over minor industrial or handicraft enterprises, it is influenced simultaneously by petty-bourgeois ideology, religion and patriarchal survivals, to say nothing of the harmful influence of the right trade unionist idea of "responsible participation'', as the Senegalese variety of the concept of social partnership is called.
Along with this the ruling classes, well knowing that the proletariat played a role of paramount importance in the struggle against colonialism, would like to neutralise it and reduce its influence by any device. They bribe trade union leaders by appointing them to parliamentary or cabinet posts; they do not hesitate to use repression against independent labour organisations, and foment division even in pro-government unions. The regime has passed antilabour laws to suppress workers' actions; it never thinks twice before pitting the "forces of order" against strikers. And while these measures of the government have failed to paralyse the activity of the working class, which continues to show great social dynamism, they are instrumental, nevertheless, in slowing down the growth of the workers' class 220 consciousness and prevent the working class from asserting itself as leader of the revolutionary struggle.
To resist the policy of the ruling quarters and ensure the leading role of the working class, the Congress pointed out, the party must accomplish the "key task of providing ideological, political and organisational conditions for the proletariat to play the role corresponding to its historical mission".^^4^^ It is important to redouble efforts towards educating and organising the workers and inculcating in them habits of political leadership while at the same time extending communist influence on other social forces, primarily the working peasantry. The SPIL, Congress documents state, is working to form around the working class a solid bloc of urban and rural working people capable of decisively influencing developments.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Defend DemocracyAll these considerations are elements of a unique prospect, that of steadfastly implementing the democratic strategy of winning and holding political power. What this means for the Communists is that they must in all circumstances lean on the masses for support and strive for advance as the social consciousness and actual possibilities of the masses grow; define the forms and goals of the struggle in a way enabling the masses to understand them and to act accordingly; and create conditions for more extensive and conscious participation of the people in the solution of problems as they crop up.
The road chosen by us will be anything but easy, whatever armchair guerrillas may say. It binds us to be always at our ``post'', in the thick of political and social struggles, and to explain, to argue, to persuade. We must get rid of the sluggishness and narrow-mindedness born of a long period of clandestinity, must lend ear to the masses and know their lives. The Congress stressed that in the intricate context of the ongoing social struggle there is no room in the party for musical comedy ``revolutionaries'' or paper fighters.
221In line with its strategy, the party took a stand on what we describe as a "democratic opening'', that is, realisation of the democratic rights and freedoms recognised by the Constitution of Senegal. We approach this issue with a full sense of responsibility, as a party which spent 20 of its 27 years of existence in clandestinity or semi-legal conditions and borne the brunt of repression and therefore knows the value of the slightest particle of regained democracy. Our party regards it as a valuable if nominal, limited asset. The Communists of Senegal, the Congress stated, are prepared "to engage fully in action within this framework and to spare no effort in fostering democratic consciousness and practices".^^5^^
The above is not to say that we are ``delighted'' with the situation or that we overlook the ploys of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, which by virtue of its parasitical nature owes its existence solely to the benefits it derives from government. This class will certainly never forego its privileges of its own free will. It is prepared to prove this daily by flouting laws enacted by itself and discrediting democratic electoral procedures by fraudulent practices. Thereby the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, which is prone to make ill-- considered decisions, assumes responsibility for hastening the adoption of forms of political struggle more dangerous to the country.
Our party, which remains a consistent supporter of the democratic process, declares that it is well aware of the possibility of an authoritarian or even fascist drift of the regime.
To stave off such a development, we must organise, educate and unite the masses and encourage them to intervene effectively by methods acceptable to them in the struggle and in the shaping of their own destiny.
For those who start on a journey that is likely to be long, it is particularly important to know where they are going so as to travel with greater confidence, whatever the difficulties.
Senegal's Communists know that today, when the prospects of the struggle are clear, they will come up against difficulties more than once.
However, they also know that their Second Congress 222 aroused great hopes among our people. To justify them the party is now working to carry out the decisions of its Congress.
come from the
^^2^^ Daan Doole, special issue, July 1984.
~^^3^^ Ibid.
~^^4^^ Ibid.
~^^5^^ Ibid.
[223] __ALPHA_LVL2__ Building Up the Vanguard RoleThe Eighth PPP Congress, held on January 24--26, 1986, was a major event in the life of Panama's Communists. It adopted important decisions aimed at increasing the vanguard role of the working class party and at intensifying the political education of the people. Being a logical conclusion of the nearly nine-month discussion in the party of documents drafted by the Central Committee, the Congress concerned itself with problems of PPP strategy for the period ahead and declared for amending the party Rules and Programme in the light of new tasks and exigencies. The proposed amendments are to be approved by the party's next national conference. Speakers noted with satisfaction the progress made in implementing the guidelines of the two previous congresses for the advancement of the Panamanian revolution.
The Congress deliberated under the motto "For a party capable of defeating imperialism and the oligarchy''. The more than 300 delegates representing all provinces met in the conference hall of the capital's Atlantico-Pacifico Palace. Present along with them for the first time in the history of the PPP were delegations of fraternal parties and movements of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, including delegations of the CPSU, the Communist Party of Cuba and the Sandinist National Liberation Front of Nicaragua. Despite the general tension prevailing in Central America, the arrival of foreign guests was made possible by the new conditions in Panama resulting from the process of change known as the Torrijist^^1^^ process. The opening ceremony was also attended by a group of noted 224 politicians and other public figures of the republic and by representatives of the ruling Revolutionary Democratic Party.
The Eighth Congress, the Central Committee pointed out in its report presented by Ruben Dario Souza, General Secretary of the PPP CC, is meeting at a juncture crucial for the whole international revolutionary movement, at a time when the threat to the very existence of humanity has grown immensely as a consequence of the aggressiveness of the US rulers. Our party considers that the situation on the planet today is more dangerous than it has ever been since World War II. US imperialism is feverishly escalating the arms race in a futile attempt to reverse the course of history and regain its one-time dominant positions. The Reagan administration pins special hopes on its notorious Star Wars programme, through which it would like to " upset the military strategic parity with capitalism achieved by the socialist system, gain decisive superiority in strength and impose the will of the United States on the world".^^2^^ Washington's adventurist policy of state terrorism, of provoking and fomenting local conflicts and using force in Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other regions, has aggravated the danger of nuclear disaster.
At present the consolidation of the socialist community and the struggle of the Soviet Union and progressive forces generally for greater international security and cooperation are of fundamental importance for the destiny of nations. The Congress spoke highly of the Soviet package programme for the stage-by-stage abolition of nuclear arsenals by the year 2000 set out by Mikhail Gorbachov, General Secretary of the CPSU CC, in his Statement of January 15, 1986. Many speakers stressed that the invariably peace-loving nature of Soviet home and foreign policy contributes to the balance "daily tipping more in favour of socialism and national liberation revolutions".^^3^^
The report gives mudi space to a Marxist-Leninist analysis of the situation in Panama and to Communist activity within the democratic, national liberation movement. The Torrijist process has been disintegrating in recent years, Dario Souza said. This has found expression above all in the gradual departure of those who assumed the 225 leadership of the country after Torrijos' death^^4^^ from the goals and principles of the fight for national liberation and the advancement of democracy. The popular leader's death was an irretrievable loss, for the Revolutionary Democratic Party founded by him proved unable to continue implementing plans which largely coincided with the guidelines of our Sixth Congress (1980).
A first step towards scaling down the Torrijist process was the 1983 constitutional reform which abolished the National Assembly of Community Representatives and virtually helped the traditional parties of the oligarchy to power. On returning to the political scene, they mounted a massive attack on the social and economic achievements of Torrijism, with the result that a number of enterprises in the public sector were privatised as allegedly unprofitable or sold to transnationals. Measures of this nature fit perfectly into the plans of Washington, which wants to retain Panama at all costs as a strategic military base of the Pentagon and an appendage to transnationals, to keep it within a capitalist system affected by a deep general crisis. In pursuing a policy of plunder towards our country, Washington is prompted primarily by its own selfish interests.
The decline of the Torrijist process quickened with the accession of Nicolas Ardito Barletta, a protege of the oligarchy, former vice-president of the World Bank (IBRD), to the office of head of state. His close association with home reaction and his manifest willingness to come to terms with imperialism met widespread resistance among the people. But while the people's struggle led to his resignation, it failed to bring about a revival of Torrijism as an official policy.
In assessing the present stage in the social development of Panama, we Communists consider that with the conclusion of the Torrijos-Carter treaties,^^5^^ our country completed the anti-colonial phase of its struggle and entered a period of struggle against neocolonialism, for the completion of national liberation and the establishment of people's democracy. The new phase of the revolution is characterised by intensified class battles which must in changed political conditions help bring about a democratic 226 coalition. Substantive changes in the balance of forces and their regrouping are the order of the day now.
The disintegration of the Torrijist process shows that the national bourgeoisie can no longer lead the republic as in the past. The main social trends will be determined by a compromise between the nationalist petty bourgeoisie and the worker-peasant alliance, with the latter playing the leading role in the struggle for real people's rule and against imperialism. Therefore the PPP is going to work for the formation of a Democratic National Liberation Front, which presupposes the achievement of strategic mutual understanding between military men loyal to Torrijism and their political organisation, the Revolutionary Democratic Party, on the one hand, and the PPP and the rest of left parties and working peoples' organisations, on the other.
In line with their principles, the Communists declared for cooperation with the patriotic army officers who came to power in 1968. Our party has invariably held that in Latin America the army must side with the people---the working class, the peasantry and other motive forces of the national liberation revolutions on the continent. Foreign and home reaction is trying hard to disunite the people and prevent the formation of a bloc equal to leading the anti-imperialist movement, which now attracts large population groups ( including believers) deeply interested in democratic and national liberation.
The Panamanian big bourgeoisie, reared by US imperialism and associated with it by common aspirations, refuses to reconcile itself to the loss of the commanding heights in politics and virtually backs the colonialists. It has never criticised the activity of the US administration in what was the Canal Zone, and today it rejects and sabotages government participation in the management of key economic fields, a participation so necessary for attaining economic independence. The oligarchy, which was in power for 65 years, proved unable to assure Panama social and economic progress, for its only interest is to boost the profits of private enterprises and the already fabulous fortunes of private individuals. Yet the advantages of state economic management are beyond question. They are exemplified by the socialist community. In the years that have passed 227 since the victory of the proletarian revolution, the Soviet Union has become a mighty industrial power and a guarantor of world peace. Socialism's achievements tie the hands of those who would not mind kindling the flames of a new global conflagration.
The big bourgeoisie is playing a treasonable role in Panama. Trying to stop progressive changes, it puts the blame for all current troubles on the Torrijists and rejects their policy of independent national development. The oligarchy complains of difficulties (such as the lack of acceptable foreign credits) and ``privations'' arising from the utilisation of internal accumulations. Yet Torrijos "promised nobody a path strewn with roses, an economic panacea or miraculous wealth".^^6^^ Yes, the leader of our revolution declared for social progress, national dignity, freedom and justice; but with a view to achieving these goals, he called on all patriots not to stop at obstacles, never to fear sacrifices, and to work selflessly and creatively for the good of the country, for the moral and cultural prosperity of the Panamanian people.
Instead of searching for alternatives and of extending diplomatic and trade relations with existing socialism, it was said at the Eighth Congress, the big bourgeoisie affirms that Panama cannot develop its economy on its own because it is dependent on a crisis-stricken international market and hence fatally doomed to a precarious existence. This allegation is evidence of political ignorance or, at any rate, of a lade of determination to advance, trusting in the future and potential of the national liberation movement. The big bourgeoisie has done nothing to put production on a sound basis, to raise the efficiency of factories by using the latest achievements of science and technology, and yet it declares that the state is a poor manager and that the investments made by it spell failure for Panama. This is a further instance of brazen sabotage of Torrijist process, which offered our country the prospect of delivering itself from the evils of capitalism and of making real national and social progress. "The Torrijos plan,'' the CC report says, "was both tactical and strategic. Departure from it has brought the country to the brink of economic disaster.''^^7^^
228The above circumstances bind Panama's Communists to move to the direct fulfilment of a new big task, which is to build a strong and influential party. This task brooks no delay. We must strive to fulfil it in the face of imperialist plots and the disintegration of the Torrijist process. The Eighth Congress therefore warned the party membership against giving in to illusions or oversimplifying the problem, and called on it) to step up its efforts in the ' ideological and organisational spheres, abide by the Leninist principles of democratic centralism, renounce a primitive approach and overcome subjectivism and spontaneity.
It was pointed out at the Congress that the party is under sustained attack as ideological and political leader of the working class, as its revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist guide. What is assailed is the general line of the PPP and its political and other activities. Attacks varying in form come not only from imperialism, the oligarchy or right nationalists but also from the so-called left Marxists who play into reaction's hands. They all assail the party's foreign and home policy and dispute its role and its very right to existence. Our enemies are united by a bid to divide the PPP. But our party is gaining in ideological and class maturity and consolidating itself organisationally as it fights.
The need to make the PPP a strong party meeting the exigencies of our times also calls for steadily improving the methods of training party cadres, for systematically winning more members in strategic areas, primarily among the workers and peasants.
Loans are one of the instruments used by imperialism for dominating and exploiting the peoples of developing countries. Panamanian society is burdened with a debt in excess of four billion dollars, so that with a population of two million, every Panamanian may be said to owe not less than 2,000 dollars to monopolies. Nor must it be forgotten that as a result of various shady deals, the lion's share of the funds obtained in the form of loans has landed in the safes of transnationals operating in Panama. One of these is the consortium which has built an interoceanic pipeline in the west of the country, between the Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro provinces.
The Eighth Congress endorsed the party leadership's 229 conclusion that "Panama must uphold its international credit but not by submitting to the dictates of the US administration, the IMF, the IBRD or other transnational banking agencies .. ."* What must be repaid is only that part of the debt which the Torrijos government used for the real development of the country.
It is the Panamanian Communists' firm opinion that our country should repay loans invested in the service sector, the construction of medical institutions, schools, water supply facilities and the extension of the telecommunications network, whidi has reached the most distant corners of the country. This also applies to the money used for building hydroelectric and thermoelectric power stations, since without electrifying the whole territory of the republic there is no consolidating the public sector, a task to which General Torrijos devoted constant attention. But Imperialism and the oligarchy, mislead world opinion by distorting our stand on this issue and alleging that it runs counter to Fidel Castro's proposals.
Traitors to the country claim that sugar refineries and cement works owned by the state are unprofitable. But how can anyone talk of profit at a time when imperialism has sharply reduced Panama's sugar and cement quotas on the world market? How can a national communications enterprise be profitable since the most sophisticated technology is owned by transnational, such as Tropical Radio, while the National Telecommunications Institute is compelled to pay exorbitant taxes on all imported plant although it now gets fewer funds than before?
Yes, we consider it necessary to repay up to two billion dollars, that is, the amount used for the good of the nation. As for the funds pocketed by transnationals and domestic oppressors, they must be expropriated after a careful investigation. This would make it possible to pay the debt. But we must remember, the Congress stressed, that interest on the debt, which is frank usury and exploitation of the Panamanian people (as well as the Third World generally) is used by the United States for building up military strength, in particular for militarising of space, which is expected to cost trillions of dollars, according to the most conservative estimates. At the some time, millions 230 of inhabitants of the planet are underfed. In short, let those pay who have had a share in plundering our country, that is, the imperialist monopolies and their myrmidons from the Panamanian big bourgeoisie.
The Congress unanimously supported the idea of holding a Latin American summit in Panama to work out a cormmon continental position on the foreign debt.
The projected new transisthmian waterway was among the problems discussed at the Congress. It can be built provided the financing is done by international institutions but not by transnationals under any circumstances. Speakers said that control over the existing Canal, whidi is the nation's diief asset, should be the exclusive prerogative of Panama, such as would guarantee this important waterway real neutrality in the twenty-first century. Imperialism must not be allowed to torpedo the implementation of the programme for effective training and equipment of the armed forces of the republic as the only lawful defender of the country. The facts show that the United States, whidi argues that Panama ``cannot'' safeguard the security of the Canal, has no intention of withdrawing from our territory by the year 2000.
The special resolutions passed by the Congress are evidence of the Panamanian Communists' internationalism. They point out the need to promote solidarity with the peoples fighting for freedom and national independence. The PPP supports without qualification the heroic struggle of the patriots of El Salvador and Guatemala; it welcomes the efforts of the Contadora Group for a negotiated settlement of the Central America conflict and condemns "the criminal policy of the Reagan administration, whidi plans to invade Nicaragua, using the so-called communist threat to our hemisphere as a pretext".^^9^^ The Congress denounced the plots of international imperialism and Zionism in the Middle East, reaffirmed its recognition of the Palestinians' inalienable right to establish an independent state under the direction of the UN and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from South Lebanon and other occupied Arab lands.
The new phase of the democratic, national liberation revolution faces Panama's Communists with the highly 231 exacting task of building a strong mass party. Our ideological work after the Eighth Congress will concentrate on defending the unity of the People's Party of Panama in line with the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, and on persistently championing peace, democracy, social progress and the interests of all working people.
1 So named after General Omar Torrijos, progressive statesman and politician (1929--1981).-£d.
2 VIII Congreso del Partido del Pueblo. Iniorme Central. Panama, 1986, p. 28.
3 Ibid., p. 75. .
« Torrijos died in an unexplained air crash which well-informed sources attribute to the ClA.-Ed.
5 The treaties, signed in 1977. provide for the neutrality of the interoceanic waterway and for the gradual transfer of its management to the Panamanian state (by December 31, 1999). They amount to a legal liquidation of a colonial enclave on Panamanian soil.-Ed.
~^^6^^ VIII Congreso del Partido del Pueblo, p. 19.
7 Ibid., pp. 21--22.
» Ibid., p. 77.
^^9^^ Unidad. January 29-February 4, 1986, p. 3.
[232] __ALPHA_LVL2__ Safeguarding National InterestsThe Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Honduras was held in the strictest secrecy. The proceedings opened with a tribute to the memory of fallen comrades and a salute to comrades who had for many years fought courageously for the cause of the working class, risking their lives and at great sacrifice.
This congress, held at a dramatic time for the country and for the destiny of the democratic, popular movement, was an event of exceptional significance in that it gave a fresh impetus to our people's struggle for social emancipation and national liberation. Further, the Honduran Communists regard their congress as a modest contribution to strengthening the position of the planet's revolutionary, democratic, and progressive forces opposed to imperialism and reaction and acting for world peace.
The preparations for the congress were drawn out on account of the repression that rained down on people's organisations, particularly the CPH, and became increasingly brutal as North American troops occupied Honduran territory. Moreover, as was self-critically recognised by the delegates, the long interim (more than eight years have elapsed since the preceding congress) was due to innerparty divergences that surfaced after the Central Committee's plenary meeting of February 1980. This plenary meeting approved the modifications in the Party's political line concerning the ways and means for winning power. The validity of the plenary meeting's decision had to be upheld and explained in the course of a tense ideological struggle. In the final analysis the party closed ranks as the 233 congress drew near. The atmosphere reigning at the congress made it possible to work out a consensus on cardinal issues sudi as the assessment of the situation in the region and the role of Honduras in imperialism's strategy, the character of the immediate tasks confronting the Communists and all other revolutionaries in the country, the attainment of unity of left-wing forces on the basis of a common political platform, and the forms and methods of organising the party's activities among the people.
On account of the situation in which the congress was convened, the number of delegates was confined to an essential minimum of the most tempered and prestigious Communists. Nevertheless, this was one of the most representative forums in our party's history.
The delegates spoke with commitment on all the items on the agenda : the debate on the CC keynote report delivered by the General Secretary Rigoberto Padilla Rush, the drafts of the modified Programme and Rules of the CPH (these documents had to be updated in accordance with the imperatives of the new historical situation and the tasks confronting us), the Platform of Patriotic and Democratic Struggle, the plan of concrete actions in the policy of alliances, and the nominations of candidates to leading bodies. In the frank debates delegates spoke without constraint of what had been achieved, of shortcomings, and of errors in the party's work, and moved suggestions for correcting these errors.
The assessment of the international situation reiterated the party's view that imperialism, North American imperialism in the first place, is chiefly responsible for its steep deterioration. The USA's bellicose, adventurist policies are obstructing the attainment of peace, security, and disarmament. The so-called Strategic Defense Initiative, providing for the militarisation of outer space, threatens humankind's existence. Reagan's plans, delegates noted, have a dual purpose: to tilt the existing military-strategic equilibrium in favour of the USA and still further increase, the super-profits of the armaments-manufacturing corporations. The flashpoints on the planet are a serious menace to universal peace. The direct responsibility for fuelling these flashpoints likewise devolves on imperialism. The creation 234 of hotbeds of tension and the kindling of local conflicts are part and parcel of its strategy.
In direct contrast to this, the keynote report stated, is the constructive policy of peace, security, and disarmament pursued by the Soviet Union and the other socialist states. A high evaluation was given of their many initiatives and the Peace Programme put forward by the 27th Congress of the CPSU. It was stressed that the socio-economic achievements of the socialist countries were of immense significance as the material foundation for the defence of peace and detente. Delegates expressed profound gratitude to the USSR and the entire socialist community for their support for the struggles of the peoples of Latin America, Asia, and Africa against social and national oppression.
In the context of the capitalist system's general crisis the congress examined the distressing economic condition of Third World states, the foreign debt problem, Latin American integration, and the establishment of a new international economic order. Delegates noted the great significance of Fidel Castro's contribution to working out a stand on these problems. The conclusions drawn by him give the oppressed nations a weapon against the common enemy and open up the possibility of forming broader alliances and enforcing democratic social reforms.
The congress noted with gratification that in recent years there has been an upturn of the revolutionary and democratic movements of Latin America and that their prospects are linked to the inescapable downfall of the dictatorships in Chile and Paraguay. It welcomed the triumphant advance of the Cuban and Nicoraguan revolutions and expressed confidence that the patriots of El Salvador would ultimately be attended with success.
Much attention was given at the congress to the situation in Central America and the Caribbean. This region now plays an important role in the development of the battles for liberation in Latin America. It is there that imperialism is pursuing its ``neoglobalist'' course with unspeakable brutality and insolence as though it were acting in its own backyard. The USA has drenched small Grenada with blood, destroying the social and political gains of its people, depriving that country of its independence and sovereignty, 235 and pushing It back into the colonial past. A similar lot has been planned by the White House for Nicaragua.
Washington, delegates said, is denying Central American republics the right to any democratic and social changes, and is obsessed with the insane idea of reversing the revolution in Cuba. In implementing this policy, North American imperialism is having recourse to blackmail and undisguised interference in the affairs of sovereign nations, massively attacking them on the economic, political, ideological, and other fronts. All the indications are that the developments in Central America are leading to direct armed intervention by the Pentagon. Evidence of this is, in particular, the decision of the US Congress to allocate 100 million dollars to fund the Nicaraguan ``contras'', a decision tantamount to approval of President Reagan's adventurist intentions.
However, delegates did not exclude the possibility of favourable changes in the balance of strength facilitating social transformations. International solidarity with the peoples of Central America and with the efforts of the Contadora group and the nations supporting it is of immense significance.
Nonetheless, the situation remains extremely tense. It is vital, delegates noted, that additional efforts be made to settle the conflict in the region by peaceful, political means and spike the aggressive designs of the North American strategists.
In the obtaining situation, it was said at the congress, the Honduran Communists bear a huge responsibility for the destiny of their country. Following the victory of the Sandinist revolution in Nicaragua, Honduras has been given a special place in the White House's plans. This is due to its geographical location and to the fact that the fall of the Somoza dictatorship has left a vacuum in the system of North American domination in the region.
Within a short span of time Honduras has been turned into a huge Pentagon military base, the principal strongpoint of the counter-revolution in Central America, and a concentration centre for surviving Somoza cutthroats and mercenary thugs conducting raids into Nicaragua. Our country is today, to all intents and purposes, occupied by North American troops and Nicaraguan ``contras''.
236To put its sinister plans into effect the Reagan administration is holding one military exercise after another (since February 1982 there have been over 30 such exercises in Honduras with the participation of some 70,000 North American troops). These exercises differ from each other in code-name, magnitude, duration, and locality. Essentially, they are unceasing manoeuvres whose sole objective is to throttle the liberation movement in the region and prevent further revolutions.
In infringing upon the national interests of Honduras, North American imperialism has gained control of its ruling circles, political parties, and armed forces. For their part, many members of the oligarchy have associated themselves with the imperialists, blinded by the illusion that subservience will be rewarded in the shape of abundant, multimillion dollar injections. They see this sort of alliance as the only way of containing the upsurge of popular actions.
Foreign occupation is the bleakest page of our society's modern history. The Pentagon generals and the US embassy are openly interfering in all aspects of Honduran domestic and foreign policy and imposing decisions congenial to themselves. Washington, states the Programme of the CPH, "proceeding from its geopolitical and militarist vision of the social conflicts shaking the region, intends to reduce our country to the status of a protectorate and has already turned us ... into an occupied nation divested of sovereignty and identity".^^1^^
In the present situation, delegates said, priority is being acquired by the task of putting an end to the presence of North American troops and of the ``contras''. In addition, the Programme states that the social revolution in Honduras "must inevitably go through the phase of hard-fought battles for the restoration of sovereignty and national dignity, which have been trampled by foreign invaders. It is therefore becoming a patriotic and national liberation struggle and an inalienable component of the common battles for socialism.''^^2^^
Honduras' conversion into an appendage of imperialism has adversely affected many aspects of its socio-economic and political life.
The republic is in the grip of a serious structural crisis. 237 Its economy, our Programme states, bears all the hallmarks "typical of an undeveloped and dependent capitalist country. It is being pillaged by North American imperialism, which uses diverse mechanisms for expansion and exploitation-transnational corporations and the International Monetary Fund and other international financial organisations. The main sectors of the Honduran economy-mining and some other industries, banking, export-oriented agriculture, and trade-are controlled by North American monopolies, and this is causing a chronic shortage of capital.''^^3^^
In rural communities precapitalist relations of production persist and huge expanses of land are not cultivated. Small-scale industries predominante in the towns.
The administration of Roberto Suazo Cordova (1982-- 1986) inherited an ailing economy from the military regimes, an economy that went from bad to worse on account of the servile compliance by the ``civilian'' governments with the neoliberal guidelines of the Chicago School and the prescriptions of the IMF. The situation has been still further aggravated by the corruption flourishing in the government apparatus and, above all, by the excessive inflation of the military budget and the outflow of capital (the growing sums needed to service the foreign debt, the expense of importing oil, the export of profits by transnational corporations, and the deposits of local businessmen and highranking officials in foreign banks).
The budget and balance of payments deficits ( amounting to 300 and 250 million dollars respectively in 1985) are growing. The foreign currency reserves are melting, holding out the threat of a devaluation of the national monetary unit. The external debt has risen sharply, reaching 3,000 million dollars, a sum larger than the gross domestic product. To serving this debt the country has to pay 300 million dollars annually, which is equal to roughly 35 per cent of export earnings estimated at 850 million dollars.
The economic crisis is felt acutely in the social sphere. The people's purchasing power is steadily declining on account of the inflation. Of the able-bodied population (roughly 1,200,000 persons) 37.5 per cent are totally unemployed and 28.5 per cent are partially unemployed. One-- 238 third of the entire population live below the poverty line. The neonatal mortality has soared to 98.5 per 1,000.
The facts show that all the development models imposed by North American imperialism "have proved to be untenable, for they have not helped to end the crisis, which, far from being momentary, is of a structural and politicoinstitutional character. Under the capitalist system the ruling class is unable to meet the most pressing needs of our people... There is only one way to end this situation and give the country the prospect of all-sided development, and it is to radically change the prevailing capitalist model. To this end it is vital to carry out the first phase of the Honduran revolution, whose basic aims are to put an end to the domination of foreign monopolies in the economy, eradicate latifundism, and establish control over strategically important industrial facilities, the banks and so on.''^^4^^
The political situation in the country was closely examined at the congress. There have been significant political changes in Honduras since the last CPH Congress in 1977. The dictatorial regimes, in which the military were at the helm of state (latter half of the 1970s), were replaced by a liberal-militarist model of so-called limited democracy. Its distinctive feature is the ``democratic'' facade (regular elections to representative bodies, a civilian president, the appearance of traditional parties on the forefront of the political scene, and so on). But all this is a cover for the "national security" regime, in which the main levers are in the hands of the reactionary elite of the armed forces. Just one example will suffice to illustrate this. Although there was a constitutionally elected president, the nation's affairs were actually administered in the period from 1982 to March 1984 by a semi-fascist clique headed by General Alvarez Martinez. The situation has hardly changed under the present head of state, Jose Simon Azcona Hoyo. The military continue to hold a major place in the power structure, playing a significant role in the nation's political and economic life. As distinct from preceding decades when (formally, at least) the army's designation was to protect the nation's territorial integrity and sovereignty, today it performs two functions. The first is carry out a "counter-- insurgency" operation, in other words, to suppress actions by 239 the people, and the second---to help the USA in its aggression against a fraternal republic, Nicaragua. For this the government gets dollar hand-outs from Washington that have enabled it to more than double the numerical strength of the armed forces in the past few years and upgrade their equipment and fire power.
The congress noted that together with the oligarchy and the traditional parties the army's right wing is directly responsible for the country's occupation by North American troops and for the anti-patriotic domestic and foreign policies. However, the armed forces are by no means a monolithic institution. They are heterogeneous, containing various trends, including progressive and democratic wing. It is not to be ruled out that in the course of a political crisis when the people's struggle begins to .mount many members of this wing will side with the people.
The introduction of the liberal-militarist model of administration was accompanied by a hardening of the punitive operations against the working masses and their organisations. Prior to 1979 the repressions in Honduras were motivated, so to speak, by the interests of exclusively the Honduran ruling class. After the Sandinist revolution triumphed in Nicaragua, these repressions began to serve the aims and guidelines of chiefly North American imperialism, reaching an unparalleled scale. In keeping with the " national security" doctrine the punitive agencies have been significantly enlarged and given wider functions. The forms and methods of their operations have been ``enriched''. There has been an escalation of politically motivated assassinations and of the number of kidnappings of opposition personalities, many of whom have disappeared without leaving a trace.
A network of "defence committees" based on paramilitary units has been set up to complement the existing state punitive apparatus. ``Anti-terrorist'' legislation has been passed under President Suazo Cordova, and the judiciary has been turned into an accomplice of lawlessness-it refuses to look into complaints from citizens against abuses by the authorities.
In considering the state and level of the people's struggle, the congress noted that in spite of extremely 240 unfavourable conditions this struggle has been mounting in diverse combinations of forms. At the close of the 1970s the people acted mainly to secure the satisfaction of their socio-- economic grievances, but towards the middle of the 1980s these actions began to acquire a political hue. Socio-economic and political demands began to be coupled.
For all the casuistry of imperialism and reaction and despite the attempts of their agents to split the trade union movement the latter remains the locomotive of the people's struggle. Trade unions have, for example, played a key role in forming the Coordinating Committee of People's Organisations. The efforts of this committee, which on May 18, 1984 drew 30,000 people into the streets of the nation's capital, were largely instrumental in removing Alvarez Martinez from power.
On May Day there is a considerable upswing of popular activity. Most of the slogans under which the large rallies and marches are held call for a revamping of the economy, the resumption of the agrarian reform process, an improvement of the condition of working people, the democratisation of socio-political life, the withdrawal of foreign troops, and the restoration of national sovereignty and dignity. Almost a quarter of a million people turned out for the demonstration on the May Day centenary organised by three trade union centres.
Women play a prominent role in our people's democratic and patriotic movement. They are active in the work of the committees of relatives of persons who have disappeared.
A distinctive feature of all actions, it was noted at the congress, is the bent for unity at all levels, above all for joint actions by revolutionary and democratic organisations.
The congress formulated the party's basic tasks on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the situation on the international scene and in the country itself, of the alignment of class and social forces, and the experience of the people's struggle. They are telescoped in the new Programme of the CPH-"For National Independence, Democracy, Peace, and Socialism''.
The objective requirements of the nation's economic and political development, the Programme says, place a democratic, national liberation revolution on the agenda. The 241 character of this revolution is predicated by the need for overthrowing the oligarchic minority regime (latifundistas and a section of the bourgeoisie), an ally of imperialism, bringing to power the bloc of political and socio-class forces representing the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and terminating North American imperialism's predominance in the economic, political, cultural, and other areas of the nation's life.
The party sees the democratic, national liberation revolution as a necessary stage for creating the conditions for the building of socialism. It will be the fruit of the creative effort on the part of the broadest sections of the people, while its main motive forces will be the working class, the peasantry, and the middle strata of the urban and rural population.
The question of the ways, forms, and methods of struggle for power was closely analysed at the congress debate. The CPH believes that in the prevailing circumstances the liberation process will follow the channel of revolutionary armed violence in a people's revolutionary war. This conclusion, which takes national and international experience into account, is by no means tantamount to a negation of other forms of struggle, including a parliamentary struggle. On the contrary, it presupposes combining and intertwining these other forms.
However, the Honduran Communists did not confine themselves to mapping out exclusively strategic objectives. The congress approved the Platform of Patriotic and Democratic Struggle, which concretises the aims of the first phase of the revolution, a phase that is patriotic in content. This Platform envisages, first, the withdrawal of North American occupation troops and the Somoza gangs from the country, the immediate cessation of all US military exercises, the dismantling of US military bases, and the implementation of other steps aimed at restoring national dignity and sovereignty. Second, it calls for the adoption of a series of steps to end the economic crisis; these include the resumption of the agrarian reform, state subsidies for staple products and control over the prices on these products, and an increase of real wages. Further, it provides for a moratorium on the foreign debt and the use of the released 242 funds for economic and social development and for financial assistance to small, medium, and large national enterprises. Third, the Platform proposes a democratic restructuring of society: the granting of the right to set up political, trade union, and other organisations, non-interference by the army in their activities, including labour and other conflicts, and the proclamation of a full and unconditional amnesty for all political prisoners, emigres, and persons who have disappeared. Moreover, it calls for the nullification of ``anti-terrorist'' legislation and other judicial instruments for suppressing the people, the disbandment of the repressive apparatus, an investigation into cases of the murder and disappearance of people, the punishment of those responsible for this, and the trial of Alvarez Martinez and of all persons implicated in the gruesome crimes that have been committed. Fourth, and last, it recognises the feasibility of establishing a pluralist political and ideological regime, pursuing a foreign policy of peace and noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries, terminating assistance to Nicaraguan counter-- revolutionaries, and supporting the efforts of the Contadora group.
The CPH regards this Platform as a sort of minimum programme, a basis for uniting revolutionaries, democrats, and patriots, of all persons, including the clergy, the military, and businessmen, who are not indifferent to their country's destiny. The Communists see a paramount task in setting up the broadest possible coalition of forces with the alliance between the working class and the peasants as its axis.
We are aware that these objectives are unattainable without a strong and militant party. That is why at the congress there was a detailed discussion of questions linked to organisational and ideological work and to the ways and means of upgrading this work with account of the specific conditions dictating the need for combining conspiratorial, semi-legal, and legal activities.
At its Fourth Congress the CPH, which is a party of internationalists and patriots, reiterated its fidelity to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and its unshakable determination to translate into reality the hopes of many generations of Honduran revolutionaries, who have been fighting with 243 dedication for their country's independence, freedom, and social progress.
~^^1^^ POT la independencia national, la democracia, la paz y el progreso social. Programa del Partido Comunista de Honduras, 1986, p. 6.
* Ibid., p. 2.
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 4.
« Ibid., pp. 5-6.
[244] __ALPHA_LVL1__ RELYINGThe world has become a smaller place. Countries and peoples are drawing closer together and social life is becoming more interdependent; the internationalisation of social life is universal, and under its impact some local problems have become global, among them primarily the problem of war and peace, which no inhabitant of the planet can hope to escape.
The world has, indeed, become smaller, but not a more comfortable place to live in. While stimulating the unitary trends in world development, internationalisation tends to deepen the social contradictions of our epoch, those between socialism and capitalism, between labour and capital, between the international financial oligarchy and the developing countries, between the urges of the most aggressive imperialist circles and the interests of the rest of humanity, which wants peace. We in Luxembourg are perhaps more sensible of these global contradictions, for while the country has a small territory and population, it is deeply integrated in regional and world-wide economic, political and military systems. Our own experience tells us that nowadays no one can remain aloof from the international contest between the forces of progress and reaction, on which the potentialities and prospects for the class battles in each country largely depend.
That being so, how are the Communists to determine their policy as a blend of the national and the international? What effect do these conditions have on international solidarity, notably in the struggle for peace, and on the relation of the class and general democratic factors of its development?
246 __ALPHA_LVL3__ Working Class CreativityWe believe that the answer lies in proletarian internationalism. Why?
First of all because the communist movement is generally inconceivable without internationalism, which cannot be dissociated from its social substance. The Communists, Marx and Engels stressed in their Manifesto of the Communist Party, differ from other proletarian parties in that "in the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality".^^1^^
Proletarian internationalism is a necessary premise and simultaneously an outcome of the development of the communist movement, which originated, rose and has continued to develop on the basis of the working people's international solidarity. That is why a group of internationalists left the Socialist Party, declared its adherence to the Third International and founded the Communist Party in our country in January 1921.
For us, proletarian internationalism has always been and continues to be an inexhaustible source of revolutionary thought and revolutionary action, providing us with the right political guidelines, and helping to find the right approaches to internal and international problems. Has not consistent internationalism, solidarity and unity enabled the communist movement to become such an influential political force of the present epoch and the crucial factor of the world revolutionary process?
The Marxist classics kept drawing the attention of the political parties of the working class to the need for utmost efforts in strengthening proletarian internationalism for victory over the exploiters, since the world-wide clash of the class interests of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is historically inevitable. "Capitalist domination is international. That is why the workers' struggle in all countries for their emancipation is only successful if the workers fight jointly against international capital,"^^2^^ Lenin wrote at the end of the 19th century.
Since then, the conditions for the existence of the 247 working class and the other social strata have substantially changed under the impact of the deep changes in capitalism itself: in its productive forces, social-class structure, political system, and the strategy and tactics of the bourgeoisie and its parties. All these changes, however, ultimately bear out what Lenin said, since neither capital nor the working class has modified its nature in the 20th century; their relations continue to be antagonistic, and the historical mutations of the present epoch merely go to exacerbate them, so-and for that very reason-making each antagonist consolidate the international cooperation of its own and allied socio-political forces.
The internationalisation of the class struggle is nowadays manifested in the development of the two opposed social systems, and in the corresponding forms of their economic integration and foreign-policy coordination; it is also evident in the growing activity of the transnational monopoly corporations (TNCs), which are confronted by the international working class and its organisations. We find that the offensive against the interests of the working people is now no longer being carried on by individual entrepreneurs, but by monopoly capital concentrated as never before in the past. Today one often finds a corporation simultaneously exploiting workers in many countries on different continents. The internationalisation of capitalism is now also seen in the establishment of multilateral, including regional, groupings and commissions, and coordinating, consultative and research institutions. Many of them operate in Luxembourg, such as the various agencies of NATO and the EEC, the Secretariat of the European Parliament, international financial and commercial centres, and so on. Their activity is designed to maximise the profits of the TNCs and to erect additional barriers against the working people's antimonopoly struggle.
For all the often pronounced contradictions between the imperialist powers and their groupings, for all the efforts of the rival monopoly associations to batten at each other's expense, world imperialism strives to act in a common front when it comes to resisting revolutionary change. The development of these contradictions now depends not only on the internal uniformities of capitalism but also on the 248 dynamic of the social forces balance in the International arena. The ever stronger positions of existing socialism, the rapid development of the anti-imperialist movement, and the internationalisation of the anti-war struggle have all accentuated the tendency of interimperialist contradictions to be subordinated to the tasks of preserving capitalism as a social system and to the common objectives of the international financial oligarchy.
Imperialism resists progressive change in its efforts to re-establish military superiority and ever more frequently resorts to violence in the struggle against the working class movement. Counter-revolutionary terrorism is raised to the state level, as will be seen from the aggressive moves against Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Angola and other countries.
In these conditions, proletarian internationalism becomes ever more important, with a growing role in the class struggle and multi-faceted manifestations, so facing us with the need to deepen our theoretical analysis of new problems in the working people's solidarity and the present forms of its development. That is quite natural, because our internationalism is not an armchair doctrine, but a vibrant force of history, embodying the communist parties' practical experience as each fights for "the utmost possible in one country for the development, support and awakening of the revolution in all countries".^^3^^
Internationalism, a product of the revolutionary creativity of the working class and its parties, is a dynamic system of ideas and principles, being open to all that is progressive in international intercourse and acquiring new features at each historical stage as it is enriched with practical experience. The ambit of internationalism has ranged over ever larger masses not only of the working class but also of other social strata, the number of its supporters increasing with the rising requirements and potentialities of cooperation of the forces of peace, national liberation and social progress.
The prospects of social development and the solution of the problems of war and peace, among other acute problems, now largely, if not primarily, depend on the trends exerting the prevailing influence in the international arena, 249 and that, for its part, depends on the international cohesion of the communist parties represented in all the streams of the world revolutionary process, and capable-because of their internationalism and wide experience in the struggle for the working people's solidarity-to act as an effective factor in uniting all those who stand for peace and progress.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ The International and the NationalThe Communists have long standing traditions in playing this role. In our party, they are closely connected with its active participation in international solidarity movements; we took an active stand in defence of the first socialist state born of the October Revolution, and subsequently also of the other countries taking the socialist way; we were on the side of Republican Spain and the German antifascists; we fought in the ranks of the anti-Hitlerite Resistance in Europe; we protested against the war in Vietnam; we have always supported national liberation in Asia, Africa and Latin America; and we have always given help to the revolutionary fighters incarcerated in the torture-chambers of the anti-democratic regimes.
A historical retrospect will recall that in September 1942 the working people of Luxembourg staged a general strike, the first in Nazi-occupied Europe, with the Communists doing much to organise it. Among the leaders of the strike were foreign workers, among them the German anti-fascist Hans Adam, who sounded the signal for the strike at a metallurgical mill. When the strike was suppressed, he and many of his comrades were executed by the Nazis.
The internationalists have always been hated by reaction, whose attacks are aimed above all at the Communists, branded as an "anti-national force" hostile to patriotism. No assertion is more false. True internationalists are always true patriots. We have fought consistently for the vital interests of our nation, for strengthening its independence and sovereignty, and we have always respected the traditions of our people, so expressing the vital aspirations of the majority of the population, of the workers by hand and by brain.
250Our patriotism is not declarative. It is an active patriotism, as it was under the Nazi occupation, when many Communists gave their lives for the country's liberation. Our patriotism has nothing in common with nationalism, and it is inseparable from proletarian solidarity. How could we have claimed to be internationalists and how could we have contributed to the liberation of all the oppressed workers and peoples of the world, if we had not daily done our utmost for the progress of our own people? What kind of patriot is he who fails to look beyond the narrow view of national interests and ignores the aspirations of the working people of other countries?
In practice, the Communists' internationalism is determined in accordance with the national pecifics, for they have to act in different concrete historical conditions. The acuteness of social contradictions, the level of consciousness of the working people, the scope of the bourgeoisie's ideological impact on them, and the political activity of the masses differ from one capitalist country to another, as do the extent of organisation of the social forces: the working class, the bourgeoisie and the other social strata. There is also a marked difference in the communist parties' influence on the working class, their numerical strength and role in national-life. The actual content of political alliances noticeably differs from country to country. There is the effect of distinctions in the intellectual life and culture of the peoples, the working people's educational standards, the forms of ideological struggle, and so on.
Internationalisation does, of course, tend to obliterate many of these distinctions, but, simultaneously and in interconnection with it, there is an enhancement of the national factors in the life of the peoples and a rise of their patriotic aspirations, a process which is often stimulated precisely by internationalisation, as in the activity of the TNCs and EEC and NATO agencies, which tramples on the national interests of Luxembourg and other West European countries and sharpens their sense of patriotism.
As in the past, the PCL works out its stand on the key issues of life in our society and the international situation in the light of the unity of the national and international, the basis on which our party acts inside and outside 251 parliament, against the massive export of capital, and for the necessary investments in the country's economy. Indeed, it is the ruling circles of Luxembourg, with their hamfisted efforts to teach us patriotism, that have set an example in cynically ignoring our people's interests to suit international capital. Nor was this in any way hampered by Gaston Thorn of Luxembourg presiding over the EEC Commission in Brussels. At our 24th Congress in February 1984, we clearly pointed to those who are acting to the nation's detriment: "They are the politicians now helping to turn our little country into a military base for another 'crusade against Russia', so jeopardising the future of our whole people. They are the politicians who allow the TNCs and the bankers to have their way in the Luxembourg economy and sell off our heavy industry, the basis of our national independence.''^^4^^
The unity of the national and the international is the key principle of our policy. Neglect of either inevitably makes one lose touch with local realities- or ignore international imperatives.
The Communists' consideration of the national specific features of each country ultimately signifies the concrete application of the general uniformities of scientific communism discovered by Marx, Engels and Lenin, and confirmed by practitioners across the world. That is why it would be wrong to consider internal situations only in the light of local specifics, and in abstraction from the external conditions and historical experience in tackling similar problems. Far from limiting, a knowledge of the general propositions of theory and consideration of the fraternal parties' experience in effect enlarges the choice of methods of concrete struggle and gives greater freedom of action.
It is a truth that is not confined to the framework of political theory. It embodies one of the key properties of human activity. Scientists, engineers, doctors and other specialists have to keep taking concrete decisions based on more general knowledge and notions of their business, and everyone knows that the wider one's knowledge and the broader one's notions the more correct a decision or option is likely to be. In other words, a living blend of the general and the particular is a part of any conscious action.
A party's independence and capability of formulating its 252 political line meeting the country's actual conditions are necessary premises for its successful development. Here a simple reiteration of general tenets of the revolutionary doctrine is inadequate, and a mechanical copying of the experience of others, intolerable. Just as are, we believe, the ignoring of the general uniformities of scientific communism and self-isolation from the international tasks of the communist movement. Far from infringing, to say nothing of negating, the sovereignty of the communist parties, proletarian internationalism, on the contrary, asserts it as a necessary principle in their life and activity. The parties' independence is inseparable from internationalism, that being one of the rules guaranteeing the voluntary natureand so the strength-of the Communists' internationalist solidarity. No one-except life itself-has ever compelled us to be internationalists!
One would think that the matter is sufficiently clear. Meanwhile, forces hostile to communism and claiming to be the champions of the communist parties' independence (while presenting the internationalists as its opponents) have kept trying artificially to exacerbate the issue and to start a polemic over it. What do they want? They want to distort proletarian internationalism and to contrast it to the principle of the communist parties' independence, and to force us to accept their-nationalistic-view of the principle. While trying to keep us away from the world revolutionary experience, they would like to make the Communists dependent on bourgeois and reformist ideology and politics which, incidentally, are themselves international and strive in every way to extend and globalise their influence. But the loss of class independence and a weakening of the relations of internationalist solidarity inevitably undermine the Communists' national positions. It is also important to remember that the political authority of a party-of any party ---and its role in the life of the nation depend not only on its internal accomplishments, but also on the scale and solidity of its international ties. That is something we have learnt from our own experience.
A comparison of the programmes of Marxist-Leninist parties from various countries and the actual measures taken to implement them will show that loyalty to proletarian 253 internationalism does not in any way curtail sovereignty and does not prevent the pursuit of an independent policy in line with the national specifics. The PCL, acting in the light of consistent internationalism, has solid ties with most communist and workers' parties of the world, including ruling parties, and has always been sensible of solidarity on their part, without any one demanding that we should pay the price of our independence for the support of our struggle, and without anyone dictating to us what we should and should not do, or imposing their ``models'' or methods on us.
The current and long-term tasks of policy and the directions and forms of struggle for the working people's interests-in short, every key question of our activity we decide independently, in the light of our analysis of the concrete situation in Luxembourg and with an eye to the local specifics. This is not hampered in any way but is, in fact, promoted by a study of the other parties' experience and creative use of anything within it that could be applied in our country's conditions and that is internationally meaningful.
The complexity of the problems faced by communist parties in their activity, the distinctions in their status and national specifics can, of course, produce different assessments of various situations and development, and we believe that it is important to clarify, instead of hushing up, these differences, while working to strengthen the communists' international solidarity.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Common Mission, Common InterestsThroughout its history, the PCL has striven to develop fraternal relations with the CPSU and the other ruling parties of the socialist world. Marxists-Leninists in the capitalist countries are united with these parties by a community of vital interests, and by the common historical mission of the revolutionary vanguard of the working class, even if it is at different stages of its realisation. One has, of course, to tackle dissimilar tasks, but the Communists everywhere rely in their struggle on the same set of uniformities, even if their workings are not everywhere simultaneous or in the same forms.
254The Communists of the capitalist world give much attention to the practices of the fraternal parties under existing socialism, striving to learn lessons from the experience they have gained so as to determine for themselves with greater certainty the prospects for social transformations in line with local conditions. They are attracted by the living example of realising the historical mission of the working class, and by the form of social system ruling out class exploitation, and ensuring genuine democracy and the equality of nations and races.
Here the fraternal parties bear in mind that while the socialist countries have already achieved a great deal, they are still at the beginning of a long road, and it would be unfair to regard the new society as being absolutely free of problems, and to contrast existing socialism with its ideal picture. Lenin used to say to the foreign revolutionaries who came to Soviet Russia to find out what was being done: "It would be absurd to set up our revolution as the ideal for all countries ...'' The founder of the Soviet state, let us add, believed that it was highly important for the foreign comrades "to see that in our revolution we are not in the least exceeding the bounds of reality".^^5^^
The history of world socialism certifies that its development is a constant advance and the tackling of tasks of ever greater proportions, something that at every qualitatively new stage results in a change in the balance of forces in the international arena in favour of socialism, and expands the potentialities for the defence of peace. Accordingly, as early as 1937, the PCL reached the conclusion -and it remains valid to this day: "every true citizen of Luxembourg, even if he opposes socialism, must be a friend of the Soviet Union".^^6^^
We have always been aware that existing socialism is the greatest gain of the international working class that has to be defended against any attacks. Our party believes that it is its duty to keep consolidating and developing internationalist relations with the Soviet people and its Leninist party. The 24th Congress of the PCL stressed: "When advocating friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union, we act not only as the spokesmen for the interests of our working class, but also as the patriots of our country.''^^7^^
255The Communists of Luxembourg are watching with vivid interest the preparations for the 27th Congress of the CPSU. which is to adopt a new edition of the party's Programme, and to map out great plans for peaceful construction over the immediate and more distant prospects. The positions of all the progressive and peace-loving forces are strengthened as the USSR and other socialist countries advance to new frontiers of development.
True to their internationalist stand, the first thing the Communists of Luxembourg see is the historical accomplishments and vast creative potentialities of socialism, and comprehend the true scale and nature of the various difficulties by assessing them in the light of history. We respect the sovereign right of the communist parties of the socialist countries to solve the emerging problems for the benefit of their own peoples and believe that they are capable of ensuring the society's continued and accelerated progress.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ With Whom and Against WhomAn objective analysis of the present international situation leaves no doubt that the danger of war hanging over the globe is posed by the most aggressive circles of imperialism stubbornly pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe. It shows that the socialist countries have been and continue to be the crucial factor in averting war and the chief guarantor of preserving peace. That was most emphatically reaffirmed by the Declaration of the Warsaw Treaty's Political Consultative Committee "For Eliminating the Nuclear Threat and a Turn for the Better in European and World Affairs" (October, 1985), which once again showed very well that while imperialism, US imperialism in the first place, is nursing plans for world domination, with a stake on the arms race and armed confrontation, socialism wants an easing of international tensions for its extensive programmes of peaceful construction. The participants in the Sofia meeting called on the governments and peoples of all the countries of Europe and other continents to join efforts in combatting the threat of total annihilation hanging over mankind, and for solving all the international 256 problems, even the sharpest and most intractable ones, by political means, through negotiation and a productive dialogue based on a consideration of the parties' legitimate interests.
We are convinced that internationalist solidarity in the fight against the danger of war can be truly effective only if there is awareness of these truths. Todpy, with life on our planet itself at stake, this awareness is necessary in order to clearly see the possibilities of averting a nuclear holocaust and the ways to make the fullest use of them. These possibilities are great. They key antagonism of the present epoch-that between socialism and capitalism-is evolving into a global contest between the "war party'', represented by the aggressive monopoly circles, and the peoples, who are committed to preserving peace, and this affords the objective premises for the shaping of a worldwide coalition of anti-war forces. The social and political framework of their international cooperation is being enlarged, and its content and role being essentially determined by one thing: rejection of war and a readiness to fight against it.
We believe that it is a realistic prospect to confront the excessively self-assured and blind forces of war with a coalition of reason uniting all those who want to preserve peace, among them members of the bourgeoisie itself, including a section of monopoly bourgeoisie: after all, the ultimate end of many ``classical'' armed conflicts in the past boiled down to creating the conditions for the expanded reproduction of capital, a prospect that cannot even be imagined in the event of a nuclear catastrophe.
Perhaps proletarian internationalism, with its clear class orientation, is at odds with those ideas? Historical practice testifies that it has never been a barrier separating the working class from the other social forces. Marxists have always been able to strengthen international solidarity with their allies, without forgoing class interests. The humanistic and anti-militaristic tenor of the communist ideology has great attractiveness for the broad public strata, a feature that was vividly manifested in the period of battles against fascism, when it fully revealed the communist parties' capacity to stand up for the peoples' national interests and for general human values.
257The Communists were among those who started the antiwar movement, and they remain its active participants, consistently conducting the line of uniting all the peace fighters, irrespective of their convictions and political views. The key historical task today is to unite mankind for the sake of its survival, check the aggressive tendencies of imperialism, and the Communists' struggle to do so is a reflection of their broad democratic approach not contrasted to proletarian internationalism, but based on it. There is no contradiction between the general democratic and the class principles of international solidarity, which take shape and develop in the course of their living and dynamic interaction.
It is, of course, not right to underestimate the complexity of the problems produced by the diversity of ideological and political positions among the peace forces, and the specifics of their activity in the capitalist and the socialist countries. They naturally now and again have their differences, especially on issues in determining the sources of the war danger and its culprits, and the priority goals and concrete actions. And that is understandable. But the adversaries of the anti-war movement speculate on such differences in their efforts to divide its participants and to isolate them from common action against the nuclear threat, and from the organisations of peace fighters in the socialist states. Such speculations are clearly aimed to create more favourable conditions for conducting the imperialist policy of aggression and the arms race.
Our party regards resistance to such attempts as a task of fundamental importance. We stand for joint discussion of any issues agitating the minds of activists in the anti-war movement in the various countries. The main thing is to have the differences overcome in an atmosphere of respect for the independence and equality of all its trends for the sake of averting a thermonuclear catastrophe, and preserving and strengthening world peace.
The mounting aggressiveness of the US reactionary circles, their boundless ambitions, and their lost ability to make a sober assessment of the realities of the nuclear age, all tend to increase friction and call for higher vigilance by the peace forces and fresh efforts for unity. The US 258 plans to militarise space and Washington's implementation of its Star Wars programme are a source of especial alarm. A joint statement issued in the summer of 1985 by the Communist Party of Luxembourg, the Communist Party of Austria and the German Communist Party says: "This course is a challenge to all democratically-minded and rational champions of peace. We Communists are doing all we can to create a coalition of common sense and goodwill, block the reckless Star Wars plans, secure a ban on the militarisation of outer space and thus eliminate the threat of nuclear catastrophe.''^^8^^
Elimination of the danger is the key but not the sole problem whose solution requires deeper international solidarity of the progressive forces. The plight of the peoples of the developing countries, whose condition keeps worsening, presents some extremely acute international problems. While supporting their struggle for stronger independence and against the interventionist policy of imperialism, we attach much importance to broadening the involvement of the national liberation potential in the international antiwar front.
__*__International by nature and character of its development, the communist movement is more capable than any other social force to unite effectively, in the interests of all the peoples the ranks of those who are working for the consolidation of peace and an end to the arms race, for progressive social development, the wiping out of hunger, poverty and illiteracy, protection of the environment, and solution of other human problems. The Communists' militant spirit and the cohesion of their ranks need to be enhanced if this mission is to be fulfilled. Proletarian internationalism is not a thing of the past; it is the present and the future of our movement.
~^^1^^ Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 6, p. 497.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol.2, p. 109.
~^^3^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 292.
~^^4^^ 24. Kongress vun der Kommunistescher Partei vu Letzebuerg, 259 Esch-Uelzecht, February 4-5. 1984. p. 27. s V. I. Lenin, Coiiected Works. Vol. 29. pp. 191--192. ~^^6^^ D. Urbany, Pour I'unification du peuple Luxembourgeois, Luxembourg, 1937. ' 24. Kongress vun der Kommunisfescfier Partei vu Letzebuerg, p. 27.
~^^8^^ Information Bulletin, No. 16, 1985.
[260] __ALPHA_LVL2__ At a Crucial TimeThe WMR Editorial Council held a special meeting in Prague fn April 1986 to consider the programme guidelines laid down by the 27th Congress of the CPSU and the strategy of other fraternal parties in the efforts to build up world security.
The meeting was opened by the WMR Managing Editor Sergei Tsukasov (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Papers submitted for discussion were prepared by Gancho Ganev (Bulgarian Communist Party). William Stewart ( Communist Party of Canada), Alvaro Oviedo (Colombian Communist Party). Pavel Auersperg (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), Ib Neirlund (Communist Party of Denmark), Zenon Zorzovilis (Communist Party of Greece), Randolfo Banegas (Communist Party of Honduras), and Nairn Ashhab ( Palestinian Communist Party). The participants in the discussion were: Ali Malki (Socialist Vanguard Party of Algeria), Orel Viciani (Communist Party of Chile), Francisco Gamboa (People's Vanguard Party of Costa Rica), Antonio Diaz-Ruis (Communist Party of Cuba), Agamemnon Stavrou (Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus). Luis Emilio Veintimilla (Communist Party of Ecuador), Roland Bauer (Socialist Unity Party of Germany), Donald Ramotar (People's Progressive Party of Guyana), Sandor Szorcsik (Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party), Satiadjaya Sudiman (Communist Party of Indonesia), William Somerset (Communist Party of /re/and), Khalid Salam (Jordanian Communist Party), Rafic Samhoun (Lebanese Communist Party), Sam Moeti (Communist Party of Lesotho), Felix Dixon (People's Party of Panama), Cesar Augusta Jimenez ( 261 Peruvian Communist Party), Jerzy Waszczuk (Polish United Workers' Party), Jaime Barrios (Communist Party of El Salvador), Semou Pathe Gueye (Senegal Party of Independence and Labour), Khalid Hammami (Syrian Communist Party), Ali lleri (Communist Party of Turkey), John Pittman ( Communist Party USA), and Duong Ngoc Ky (Communist Party of Vietnam).
Contributions in writing were submitted by: Unni Krishnan (Communist Party of India), Elean Thomas (Workers Party of Jamaica), Georg Kwiatowski (German Communist Party), and Badamyn Lhamsuren (Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party).
The following is a summation of the discussion of the problems involved in further vitalising the efforts to avert the nuclear threat and ensure disarmament.
__b_b_b__The Communists of all countries have always given close attention to congresses of the party of Lenin, which has for almost seven decades headed the building of the new society in the world's largest socialist country. While making this point, speakers at the meeting stressed that the ideas, conclusions, and resolutions of the 27th Congress of the CPSU elicited particularly great interest in the fraternal parties.
The congress took place at a time of change for the Soviet people, international socialism, and the entire world. History has confronted the USSR and the socialist community as a whole with the need to make fuller use of the new social system's advantages to speed up scientific, technological, economic, and social progress, enrich the socialist way of life with new forms and a new content, upon which socialism's force of attraction will depend to a decisive degree, and reinforce socialism's position on the international scene. The nuclear threat created by imperialism has grown unprecedentedly acute, and it has become the world community's most vital need and the cardinal aim of existing socialism, of all the forces of peace, progress, and democracy, to avert this threat.
Responding innovatively to the challenges of the times, the Soviet Communists have charted the ways for resolving complex problems of domestic and foreign policy. The 262 27th Congress demonstrated that the CPSU is able, on the basis of an in-depth, critical analysis, to draw the maximum lessons from the past, gain a Leninist, broad understanding of the present period, and formulate a scientifically substantiated action programme. The CC Political Report delivered by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev, the new edition of the Party Programme, and other documents of the congress reply to crucial issues of the day and formulate new tasks of immense political significance.
Participants in the Editorial Council meeting spoke highly of the guidelines given in the documents of the congress as indicating that the principal aim of Soviet foreign policy in the immediate future is to carry out the programme, advanced in the Soviet Statement of January 15, 1986, for destroying nuclear and other weapons of mass annihilation and creating a world-wide system of security. Fulfilment of this programme would inaugurate a fundamentally new period of development for humanity.
At the meeting representatives of many fraternal parties emphasised that the resolutions passed by the 27th Congress reinforce the confidence that further headway will be made by the struggle for social progress, induce creative research into theory, and foster energetic mass actions in political practice. By linking the strategy of accelerating Soviet society's development with a wide-ranging programme for preventing a nuclear holocaust and saving world civilisation, the CPSU showed that it is a party of social progress and peace, that its policies are consistent with the vital interests of all nations, of all humankind.
The participants in the meeting declared their wholehearted approval of the Soviet peace programme, noting that it had opened new opportunities for the struggle to remove the nuclear threat, for curbing the arms race and further vitalising and uniting all peace forces. It was noted that there was a need for a deeper understanding of the CPSU's role in international affairs at the present watershed stage of world development, for an exhaustive study of its approach to the present epoch's realities and of the distinctive features of the new political thinking clearly 263 exemplified in the programme documents adopted by the 27th Congress.
In parallel, the discussion focused on pressing issues of the political struggle to turn peaceful coexistence into a norm of world politics and restore the detente process, to bridle the arms race and usher in nuclear disarmament, and to mobilise opposition to the US Star Wars programme and imperialism's policy of aggression. The point of departure for the discussion of these issues was the Marxist philosophy of peace with account of the actual conditions under which the communist and workers' parties function in the various countries.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Philosophy of Peace and ProgressThe CPSU's creative, innovative approach to the dialectics of peace and social progress permitted the 27th Congress to make a more profound analysis of the epoch's realities and substantiate a political line consistent with these realities. The congress documents, speakers said, embody the solid unity between theory and practice, and the continuity and innovation in the development of Marxist-Leninist thought.
The world, it was said at the congress, has entered a new period of the historical process. Scientific and technological breakthroughs have resulted in a qualitative advance of the productive forces. Humanity's creative potentials have grown enormously as a result of the broad utilisation of new machinery and technologies in all areas of life. Further, the revolutionary changes in science and technology have led to qualitative and quantitative changes in the means of warfare, confronting civilisation with a real threat of self-destruction. On account of class egoism, for the sake of enriching the elite ruling the capitalist world, products of human intelligence and hands are turned against humankind by being used for the creation of weapons with an enormous destructive forces. "The policy of the imperialist circles, which are prepared to sacrifice the future of whole nations,'' states the new edition of the CPSU Programme, 264 ``is increasing the danger that these weapons may actually be put to use.''^^1^^ Imperialism is responsible for the growing danger of a global military conflict in which there would be neither victors nor vanquished, but in which world civilisation would perish. This is what makes the situation fundamentally new.
The main trends of world development, it was pointed out at the meeting, are shown comprehensively in the new edition of the CPSU Programme. These are, above all, the steady consolidation of socialism's positions in the world and the growth of its prestige and influence; the growing role played by the peoples fighting for national liberation and social emancipation, for life's renewal in keeping with the principles of justice and humanitarianism; the unrelaxing and, at some critical moments, heightening counteraction by imperialism's reactionary, aggressive circles to positive changes in the world. In giving a more profound characteristic of the present epoch, the 27th Congress identified an essentially new factor-the consolidation of the peace forces now uniting not only the socialist countries, the communist and working class movement, and the peoples of the new nation-states but also massive anti-war, democratic movements. The interaction of these forces is the factor that determines the general direction of world development in our epoch.
The world of today, speakers said, is full of conflicting economic, social, political, and ideological currents. The most deep-rooted of these manifest themselves in the competition between the two opposed social systems that differ substantially from each other in their readiness and ability to comprehend current problems, suggest the means for resolving them, and pursue the appropriate policy. Between imperialism and the developing nations there is now a wide and mobile spectrum of contradictions. On the one hand, there is the slow and laborious but irreversible process of fundamental social and economic changes in the life of these peoples, who comprise the majority of mankind, a process by which the role and prestige of the Asian, African, and Latin American nations are growing steadily. On the other hand, the ruthless exploitation and pillaging of the developing nations are, to a large extent, still the 265 foundation on which the system of imperialism stands, for they are a major source for funding its militaristic preparations.
The crises constantly shaking various regions of the world, the social antagonisms in capitalist society, and the international conflicts compound the task of delivering humanity from the dangers hanging over it, from the nuclear threat in the first place. The question of where this threat emanates from and who generates it, speakers at the meeting pointed out, has been and remains of fundamental significance. The direction of the efforts to safeguard peace depends upon the answer to this question.
The facts that are piling up indicate that the danger of war is rooted in imperialism's, particularly US imperialism's, aggressive policies. Developments are bringing the essence of these policies more and more distinctly into view: the itch to wreak social vengeance by achieving military superiority over socialism, the suppression of progressive, liberation movements, the maintenance of international tension at a level that would justify the creation and build-up of new types of weapons and the militarisation of outer space. Imperialism bears the burden of responsibility for the fact that despite the recent gleams of hope the acuteness and the complexity of the problem of preserving peace, of preventing nuclear catastrophe are not diminishing, and that the avenues for the solution of this problem are being blocked. The following are some facts to which reference was made in the speeches.
In defiance of the Soviet moratorium on nuclear tests, militarist quarters in the USA continued to explode nuclear devices, thereby spurring the arms race and the appearance of new and more destructive types of armaments, and extending the potentialities for using them. Against the protests of the peoples, these quarters have started to put the Star Wars programme into effect. By their terrorist actions against Libya they have inflamed to bursting point the situation in the Mediterranean. Imperialism and reaction are responsible for the continuing undeclared wars against the peoples of Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Kampuchea, and Southern Africa.
As the Political Report to the 27th Congress of the CPSU noted, "the modern world has become much too small and 266 fragile for wars and a policy of force. It cannot be saved and preserved if the thinking and actions built up over the centuries on the acceptability and permissibility of wars and armed conflicts are not shed once and for all, irrevocably.''^^2^^
Many of the speakers emphasised the importance of the CPSU's conclusion that it is crucial to put an end to outdated political thinking and to develop and introduce into international practice a new type of consciousness consistent with the realities of the nuclear age. To think in categories of military strength in our day is to accept the possibility of humanity committing suicide. Today, when humanity is confronted with the question of "to be or not to be'', there has to be a radically new approach to settling the cardinal issues of world politics. This approach is to be seen in Mikhail Gorbachev's Statement of January 15, 1986 and the Political Report to the 27th Congress of the CPSU. The innovative concept, advanced in these documents, of an interdependent world throws light on the dialectics of class and human interests and aims.
The Communists' inherent optimistic view of the world's future, it was declared at the meeting, cannot be based on a simplistic, superficial understanding of historical progress. The life of humanity with its many aspects and contradictions is seen by the Marxists as a coherent process unfolding on the basis of common regularities. The peoples are today drawn into a ramified system of diverse links and relations; this is the first time in world history that they are so closely bound by a common destiny.
``The prevailing dialectics of present-day development,'' states the Political Report to the 27th Congress of the CPSU, "consists in a combination of competition and confrontation between the two systems and in a growing tendency towards interdependence of the countries of the world community. This is precisely the way, through the struggle of opposites, through arduous effort, groping in the dark to some extent, as it were, that the controversial but interdependent and in many ways integral world is taking shape.''^^3^^
In contrast to imperialism's militarist philosophy, which sets its aspirations above the interests of humanity, the 267 Marxist philosophy of peace proceeds from human interests and values. Frederick Engels' words that "Communism stands, in principle, above the breach between bourgeoisie and proletariat, ... because Communism is a question of humanity and not of the workers alone"^^4^^ were quoted in this context at the meeting. This attitude was enlarged upon and acquired the significance of a programme guideline at the 27th CPSU Congress, at which it was stressed that in its practical work the party orients itself on Lenin's postulate that human life and the opportunities for its allsided assertion constitute the greatest value, and that the interests of society's advancement stand above all else.
The communist world-view sees the human being with his interests and concerns as being at the centre of historical processes. This is precisely why the Communists hold that the appearance of thermonuclear weapons has raised the task of ensuring universal peace, of preventing a catastrophic conflict to the level of the paramount value in any hierarchy of international values, and that in order to achieve this aim it is necessary to "be above national egoism, tactical calculations, disputes, and discords, which are worth nothing compared with the main value-peace, a dependable future".^^5^^
With the entire international situation undergoing a qualitative change, the Leninist concept of peaceful coexistence, which was further substantiated at the 27th Congress, remains the ideological foundation of the new Soviet initiatives. Peaceful coexistence is seen not merely as the absence of wars. It is a world order under which not military strength but goodneighbourly relations and cooperation would prevail, an order under which there would be a broad exchange of scientific and technological achievements and of cultural values for the benefit of all peoples. Deliverance from the expenditure of vast resources on military requirements would make it possible to use the products of labour exclusively for constructive purposes. Countries taking the road of independent development would be safeguarded against impingement from without, and it would be easier for them to proceed with the task of promoting national and social development. Moreover, it would be possible to resolve global problems with all states pooling their efforts. 268 The CPSU, it was said at the Editorial Council meeting, has advanced the conclusion---of immense significance in terms of theory and practice-that on the international scene the objective conditions have taken shape in which the confrontation between capitalism and socialism can proceed only and exclusively in the form of peaceful competition, of peaceful contest.
In considering the propositions on peaceful coexistence, speakers noted that, essentially, they are principles synthetising the experience of the anti-war struggle of the Soviet Communists. In the discussion it was stated that realisation of the thesis, stemming from this experience, that it is possible to exclude wars from society's life would, in its significance for the destiny of the world, be commensurate with the Great October Revolution and the victory over Hitlerite fascism.
The political philosophy underlying the Soviet peace programme is a philosophy of social progress, speakers said. This philosophy proceeds from the premise that the future of peace is ultimately linked to all countries having a progressive, democratic system, to their peoples enjoying the right to free, independent development. It is beyond anybody's power to maintain a perpetual status quo in the world. Neither the class struggle of the working people, nor the national liberation movement, nor the ideological confrontation on the world scene can cease. In the nuclear age it is madness to attempt to put bade the clock by force, export counter-revolution, and use ideological contradictions for undermining state-to-'state relations. The Communists hold that it is futile and impermissible to push revolution from without, let alone by military means.
In the light of these propositions of the 27th Congress of the CPSU, it was noted at the discussion that the growth of the war threat significantly influences the struggle of the working people for social progress. That there is a definite regularity here was ;pointed out by Frederick Engels: "If conditions have changed in the case of war between nations, this is no less true in the case of the class struggle."^^6^^ What does this signify for the working class and its party in the present situation when the nuclear-missile factor has entered the sphere of social confrontation?
269Speakers said that this means, in the first place, that it is essential to preclude developments that could lead to a world nuclear catastrophe. What progress can one speak of if the preservation of the human race and normal conditions for its vital activity are not ensured? The historic mission of the working class is now getting a new dimension-that of using all its strength to prevent a nuclear conflagration, while the unalterable aim of the Communists to liberate humankind from all forms of exploitation and violence remains inseparable from the task of preserving life on earth.
In specifying these propositions, participants in the discussion emphasised that the problems of war and peace have now acquired an unparalleled social significance. To say nothing of the missile-nuclear threat, the arms race nourishing it is very adversely affecting society. The gigantic growth of military spending places a heavy burden on the peoples, results in cuts in social programmes, increases unemployment, and perniciously influences civilian branches of the economy.
Representatives of fraternal parties from developing nations pointed out that while gigantic material and intellectual resources are being spent on the senseless arms race being spurred by the military-industrial complex, vast regions in Latin America, Asia, and Africa lack the means for satisfying the most elementary human requirements, and hundreds of millions of people are destitute, hungry, and exposed to disease. The following statistics were cited. Per capita income in the Third World countries is, on the average, one-eleventh of the comparable income in industrialised states; 570 million people in the developing world are undernourished; 800 million adults are illiterate; 250 million children have no access to education; medical facilities for 1,500,000,000 people are meagre, to say the least, or non-existent altogether. The situation is compounded by the involvement of developing nations themselves in the arms race. The annual growth rate of their military budgets averaged about 7 per cent in the 1960s, but went up in the 1980s to almost 15 per cent, a figure in excess of the growth rate of their GNP.
The war threat has coupled socio-economic problems to 270 the task of fighting the arms race, militarism, and imperialism's aggressive policies. This link is so direct that no single major social issue can in fact be resolved without putting an end to militarism in politics, in international relations. This conclusion bears out also the following reference, made in one of the papers, to the Political Report to the 27th Congress of the CPSU: there is an irrefutable causal connection between the trillion-sized debt of the developing nations and the more than trillion-sized growth of the US military expenditures in the past ten years. The 200-odd billion dollars that are being annually pumped out of these countries by imperialism and the practically equal size of the US military budget in recent years are no coincidence.
Militarism, it was said at the Editorial Council meeting, has a direct interest in preserving and hardening the system of neocolonialist superexploitation. One can thus see why imperialism seeks to make the possibility of disarmament dependent on the developing countries renouncing their efforts to reinforce their sovereignty and on the socialist countries halting their support for these efforts. For the peoples of the developing world, who comprise two-thirds of the world's population, these terms signify that attempts are being made to confront them with the dilemma: either accept the perpetuation of servile dependence on the imperialist monopolies and remain without existing socialism's support or bear the responsibility for blocking agreements on disarmament and the ensuing threat of annihilation to humankind, of which they are a part. This is a fabricated dilemma. Between the struggle for peace and the struggle for national independence and social progress there is no conflict but rather a profound and productive interaction that has to be promoted in all countries and regions.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Socialism's Response to the ChallengeAn analysis of the basic tendencies and contradictions of the world of today compellingly shows, it was said at the meeting, that the destinies of peace and social progress 271 are now closer linked than ever before to the dynamic economic and political development of the socialist community. Its countries are working to avert the war threat not only because peace is the only acceptable alternative to nuclear catastrophe but also because socialism's nature is oriented on peaceful constructive work. The fulfilment of its long-term plans and the safeguarding of peace are twin tasks. The accelerated promotion of socialism's creative potentials depends largely on the international climate just as the consolidation of peace depends on the rate of the new social system's further development.
Thus, speakers emphasised, it was indicative that at a turning-point for the world precisely socialism in the person of the Soviet Union advanced a series of foreign policy initiatives aimed at enabling humankind to meet the year 2000 under a peaceful sky and a peaceful outer space. At the core of the Soviet programme is the clear and concrete aim of abolishing all nuclear weapons. A successive, phased reduction of the arsenals of these weapons with a ban placed on the development, testing, and deployment of space strike armaments must be started by the USSR and the USA, and this process would then be joined by other nuclear powers, thereby making it possible to consummate nuclear disarmament everywhere by the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The material conditions and guarantees for the consolidation of peace, from which the Soviet programme proceeds, are of particularly great significance for world security, it was said at the discussion. "... The most superficial observer,'' one of the speakers said, quoting Marx, "must admit, that the prospects of peace being circumscribed within the limits of talk, the prospects of war, on the contrary, are based upon material facts.''^^7^^ The situation on the international scene has changed radically since these words were spoken. Today socialism with its economic and defence capability and its influence on world politics has become a powerful material factor of peace. The recent congresses of fraternal parties of socialist community countries have reaffirmed socialism's ability and determination to change the course of events in favour of peace. Addressing the 11th Congress of the SUPG, Mikhail Gorbachev said: "The 272 decisions of our party congresses are together providing socialism's response to the challenge of the times. Understandably enough, in its concrete manifestations this response will be multifarious, reflecting fraternal countries' specific features of development. But it will be one and the same in terms of principle because we have common goals and the same, communist, world outlook.''^^8^^
Referring to the programme documents of their parties, representatives of fraternal parties of socialist countries on the Editorial Council noted that the Soviet peace programme fosters foreign policy cooperation and solidarity among the states of the new, socialist world. For instance, at the 17th Congress of the CPCz it was declared that the Communists and people of Czechoslovakia wholeheartedly support this grand programme and are using all the means and potentialities at their disposal to make the most effective contribution to its implementation. Warm support for the Soviet initiatives, which are consistent with the aspirations of all peoples, was expressed by the 13th Congress of the BCP. They, it was stated at the 11th Congress of the SUPG, are entirely in keeping with our ideal of a world without armaments and violence, a world in which every nation freely decides the question of the ways for its development. The Soviet peace programme is inseparable from the coordinated collective foreign policy of the Warsaw Treaty member-states, comprising its foundation, as it were, said the representative of the PUWP. Socialist solidarity with and unequivocal support for this programme has been expressed also by the Communists of Hungary, Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam.
In characterising the foreign policy line of the CPSU as an amalgam consisting of the philosophy of making the world safe and a platform of concrete actions, members of the Editorial Council said that it sets the orientation toward a campaign for detente, demanding, above all, action, political will, and determination to attain the set aims. It was noted that in the face of the nuclear threat the crystallisation of new thinking must be accompanied by the development of appropriate vigorous actions to remove this threat.
Formulated by the 27th Congress of the CPSU, the Fundamental Principles for an Ail-Embracing System of 273 International Security are a new road in world policies and encompass all the key areas of international politics. They help to define the concrete directions of such action, it was said at the discussion. These Principles, it was noted, demonstrate the Soviet Union's sense of responsibility for the destiny of humanity and its striving to put an end to the balancing on the brink of war, to the "balance of fear'', and move to genuinely humane forms of relations between countries on the basis of peaceful coexistence. In the nuclear-space age the only intelligent option is collective security on the principle that the "security of each is the security of all''. National security is a fiction if it does not fit into the pattern of universal security. The concept of an all-embracing system of security contains the prerequisites for the materialisation of the idea of a new political philosophy of peace.
This concept emanates from the premise that the character of present-day weaponry leaves no country with any hope of safeguarding itself solely with military and technical means. With the appearance of a huge capacity for mutual overkill it has become senseless to increase the size of the military arsenals of the USSR and the USA, of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation and NATO. The task of preserving civilisation, some of the speakers said, rises above bloc, national, and other interests. In this context it was stressed that more vigorous efforts had to be made to expose the attempts being made by Washington to impose a concept of security backed by space-based nuclear weapons as the alternative to the approach that calls for settling the problems of security by non-military, political means. Implementation of this concept would turn outer space into a source of a lethal threat to humankind and open the floodgates to an uncontrollable arms race.
If nuclear arsenals continue to be increased, even strategic parity will at best ensure equal danger, not equal security, it was said at the meeting. Continuation of the nuclear arms race will inevitably heighten this equal threat and may bring it to a point where even parity will cease to be a factor of military-political deterrence. Consequently, it is vital, in the first place, to dramatically reduce the level of military confrontation. For the Communists this means, 274 above all, acting jointly with other participants in the peace movements in order to bring greater pressure to bear on the governments and parliaments of imperialist states. Mass actions are the only factor that can compel them to institute steps to remove the nuclear threat and achieve disarmament.
All this is made all the more important by the fact that the programme for a nuclear-free world advanced by the CPSU was given a hostile reception by the ruling circles of the imperialist powers. Although they talk about easing international tension and, at times, declare that they are prepared to abolish nuclear weapons, they either shun constructive action as soon as the question of practical steps is brought up or confine themselves to vague promises that mislead world opinion.
It was pointed out that in contrast to this posture the USSR and its allies are showing that in socialism's foreign policy words do not conflict with actions, that this policy is stable, consistent and immune to fleeting situation changes. A fundamental task of the peace forces, it was declared, is to explain to the people the fundamental distinction between the two lines in world politics.
Participants in the discussion, particularly representatives of communist parties of developing nations, focused much of their attention on the idea of creating a system of international economic security. Such a system would, on the one hand, release the peoples from the unbearable burden of the arms race and, on the other, protect every nation against discrimination, sanctions, exorbitant debt commitments, and other attributes of imperialist policy. A world congress on economic security, at which it would be possible to consider the entire spectrum of issues straining world economic relations, would help to further vitalise the struggle of the peoples of developing countries for national independence and social progress and link it up with the struggle against the war threat.
By advancing a constructive programme for nuclear disarmament and ensuring universal security, socialism has given a clear and explicit reply to a question of vital significance to all peoples, the question of the ways for ensuring peace. However, the struggle will be an uphill one, it was 275 stressed at the meeting, and there should be no illusions on this score.
To make the tactics and strategy of the Communists' struggle for peace effective there has to be a constant analysis of long-term and current, transient changes in the alignment of social and political forces on the world scene and in the capitalist countries. This requires taking into all-sided account the alignment of strength among the ruling circles of each of these countries, the distinctions between the bellicose and the more moderate, realisticallyminded members of the various factions of the bourgeoisie, the inter-imperialist contradictions, and the correlation between centrifugal and centripetal tendencies in the interaction among imperialism's main centres. But the main thing is to strengthen the coalition of peace and intelligence uniting all who are opposed to the nuclear threat.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Diverse Conditions,The fraternal parties see the Soviet peace programme as an effective alternative to the imperialist policy of aggression and diktat. The front along which imperialist reaction is launching its assaults is widening, and the intensity of these assaults is mounting. This requires closer unity and a further vitalisation of the peace forces. Noting that the peace programme advanced by the 27th Congress of the CPSU is giving a powerful impulse to fighters for peace, freedom, and national dignity, many of the speakers dwelt on how individual communist parties, functioning in different countries and under different conditions, could more effectively counter imperialism's aggressive policies.
Unquestionably, the paramount task is to prevent the reactionary circles from starting a nuclear war. The forms and modes of action are dictated to the Communists by the actual situation, the character of the militarist pressure, and the correlation of the forces confronting each other. The solution of the global task of removing the threat of nuclear catastrophe, is seen today in a gradual paring 276 down of imperialism's possibilities for using military strength to attain political aims.
In fashioning the strategy and tactics of their work the fraternal parties are taking into account the fact that the solution of national or regional problems is inseparable from a fundamental improvement of the international situation as a whole. The arms race unleashed by the USA, its neoglobalist claims backed by a show of military strength, its gross interference in the affairs of other nations, and its undisguised piracy are today becoming a factor of the national life of many countries. At the meeting it was noted that this manifests itself most clearly in the planet's flashpoints, where the confrontation between the forces of peace and progress and the forces of war and reaction have reached a high pitch.
Representatives of communist parties spoke with anger and horror of the crimes being perpetrated by imperialism and Zionism in the Middle East and in a vast zone of the Mediterranean. Every act of aggression by them is another step in the escalation of armed violence and criminal operations against nations. The attacks against Lebanon, Tunisia, and Libya are milestones of the escalation of international terrorism in the region.
The policy of the present US administration features shameless propaganda campaigns in combination with military strikes at what are seen as ``uncongenial'' states, speakers said. The bandit attack on Grenada was one of the steps toward the assertion in Washington of the dangerous imperial philosophy that it can do anything it likes. US imperialism has started an undeclared war against Nicaragua, whose people want to live in accordance with their own laws and reject foreign diktat in any form. If the aggressor is not stopped, there will undoubtedly be other victims.
The logic of the escalation of imperialist interference and piracy is well known to the peoples of Indochina from their own experience. Their struggle is still far from having ended. Having suffered defeat in its war against ;Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea, the USA has not abandoned its attempts to take revenge for that defeat. At present it elects to act through mercenaries. Given favourable conditions, 277 the US military may, here as well, drop all camouflage and decide upon direct aggression.
Imperialism is employing analogous tactics in Africa. It uses dependent regimes, mercenaries, and the armed forces of South Africa's racists to fight countries that have elected to follow the socialist orientation. Bandit attacks are staged not only against Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Now the target is the whole of Africa, all the African peoples striving to cut short the imperialist pillage of their national wealth.
Conflicts called regional in Washington are much wider than their formal local character would suggest. In fact, the American attempts to bring pressure to bear by force, it was noted at the discussion, are actions in defiance of the world community of nations. It must be borne in mind that the "doctrine of neoglobalism'', by which the ruling circles of the USA are now guided, is no more than an apologia for confrontation with existing socialism, with all whom the Washington administration finds objectionable, an aplogia for establishing US hegemony in the world.
The Communists and the other peace forces are concerned about the situation in regions where the Second World War came to an end more than four decades ago. In Europe the US military are constantly enlarging the nuclear forces targeted on the socialist world. The continued deployment of first-strike Pershing Us und cruise missiles, alongside the further build-up of the British and French nuclear capability, undermines the military balance on the continent and universal security. In the Far East and in the Pacific the USA has put together the second largest military group after the one in Western Europe in terms of numerical and military strength. This group poses a threat to the socialist states and independent nations in Asia. The Pentagon's militarist preparations are being joined more and more actively by the armed forces of Japan and South Korea. The US Pacific Fleet has long ago extended the sphere of its operations to the Indian Ocean-Combat units of this fleet are on constant patrol off the shores of South and Southwest Asia.
An analysis of the situation in various parts of the world compellingly confirms the significance of new efforts being made to cut short the plans of the imperialists. The objectives 278 inspiring these efforts are the abolition of conditions for imperialist armed interference, the cessation of the arms race, a ban on the deployment of weapons in outer space, a drastic cut in military spending, and the creation of a dependable system of common security.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Changes in Favour of PeaceAt the Editorial Council meeting it has been noted that changes are taking place in the social consciousness, and these are evidence of a new, affirmative attitude of many people in the non-socialist world to the wide-ranging Soviet peace initiatives. Some are still only pondering the ways proposed by socialism for resolving the problems of the entire world community, others have come round to understanding the need for their personal participation in the defence of peace, and still others have long ago joined in the work of peace organisations. This is opening up new possibilities for enlisting various social groups and organisations into the peace movement. Conducive conditions are taking shape for dialogue and cooperation with people who do not in all cases oppose imperialism consciously, are often not in agreement with the ideological and political posture of the Communists, but are concerned for the destinies of peace and, without abandoning their own views, prepared to help resolve the main issues of the times. Various socio-political forces are increasingly gravitating toward close peaceful interaction on the national and international levels. It was noted at the 27th Congress of the CPSU that the "trend towards strengthening the potential of peace, reason, and goodwill is enduring and in principle irreversible. At the bade of it is the aspiration of people, of all nations to live in concord and to cooperate.''^^9^^
At the meeting facts were given to illustrate the changes that have taken place in the social consciousness in the face of the mounting dangers to humanity. The following are only some of them. At the congress of scientists and workers in culture held in Warsaw within the International Year of Peace framework, eminent scientists, writers, 279 workers in the arts, and men of conscience-people of different countries and with different world-views-adopted a joint appeal that is consistent in spirit and orientation with the Soviet peace programme. In Jordan a group of political personalities, members of parliament, and representatives of national progressive forces, women's, workers', trade union, and other public organisations published a statement declaring their total support for the proposal for abolishing rHiclear and all other weapons of mass destruction by the year 2000. At the close of March 1986, despite the stormy weather and cold rain, 380,000 people filled the streets and squares of cities in the FRO in the course of only four Easter days. The columns of demonstrators formed a kaleidoscopic picture of the peace movement in all its breadth: lilac for Christians, red for the Communists, the Social Democrats, the Union of Young German Workers, the Young Socialists, and the Marxist Union of Students and the most diverse coloured banners and streamers of trade unions, the Greens, women's organisations, various individual groups, and shopfloor and office workers of many industrial facilities. Speakers drew special attention to the fact that socialism's peace offensive is powerfully influencing the course of the ideological struggle, restricting the opportunities of anti-communism and anti-Sovietism, and giving the peace forces moral and political predominance. The Communists characterise the Soviet peace programme as their powerful weapon against imperialist aggressiveness: this weapon is shattering the social props of imperialism's militarist policies. As the representative of the Communist Party USA said, the Statement of January 15, 1986 "dealt a blow to US imperialist ideology and to Reagan himself. The next move is now up to him. What will his answer be?''
Public opinion is with increasing clarity seeing through the demagogic assertion that "both superpowers are reponsible" for the arms race, the aggravation of international tension, the representative of the Communist Party of Greece declared. People representing diverse social strata are stating their views about the present world situation in the newspaper Rizospastis. Leading political personalities, retired generals, and the leadership of mass organisations are coming to the conclusion that anti-war demands should 280 now be addressed to only one side, the USA, for the USSR suggests and even unilaterally implements the measures whose adoption is sought by the peace movement itself.
Analogous conclusions, the representative of the German Communist Party said, are being drawn by large sections of public opinion in the FRG. The view, advanced in the peace movement for years, that the threat to humankind comes in equal measure from the two ``superpowers'' got very little support at the Easter marches this year. The thesis about superpowers did not figure in the exhortations -to these marches for the first time. There was good reason for this. More and more people in the FRG consider that the USA is flouting the interests of the overwhelming majority of the world's population.
In Ireland, said the representative of that country's Communist Party, many people are drawing attention to the fact that every new peace initiative by socialism is quickly and flatly rejected by the US administration and its allies. This hasty response validates public suspicion that these initiatives are not even properly studied and that the policy of rejecting proposals "from the East" is determined by a small group of people. This is making large numbers of Irish people doubt the Western stance on questions of war and peace and demolishes the contention of the right-wing leaders in the peace movement that both sides bear an "equal responsibility" for the deadlock in the disarmament negotiations.
Despite repressions by the authorities the peace fighters in Turkey, noted the representative of the Communist Party of Turkey, are growing more militant, rejecting the wornout lie about the "threat from the North''. Even right-wing politicians belonging to bourgeois opposition parties are stating bluntly that in its foreign policy the USSR is guided by the principles of goodneighbourly relations and peace, while the USA regards Turkey as a colony, as a springboard for aggression against socialism.
The Communists of Senegal note that the bourgeois press is having difficulties in its attempts to develop a suitable tone toward the Soviet Union and its peace initiatives because the "Soviet military threat" myths are no longer effective. New myths of this sort for anti-Soviet and anti-- 281 communist campaigns have yet to be fabricated. The peace forces should use this in their mass explanatory work in order to widen the struggle against US imperialist policy, which is the actual threat to all nations.
Participants in the discussion assessed as a positive phenomenon the fact that socialism's peace offensive is becoming a tangible factor of national life in non-socialist countries. The need was stressed for a more effective utilisation of the new opportunities being opened by the foreign policy of the USSR and other Warsaw Treaty Organisation countries to enlarge the peace movement and upgrade the forms and methods of rebuffing imperialist propaganda.
In the view of the Danish Communists, in the present situation more is needed than general statements. The question stands concretely: How can the growing awareness of the people be turned, to use Marx's words, into a material force? In working out the strategy of the peace struggle it is expedient to take a closer look at the ways and means employed by the militarist forces in their actions. In order to mobilise public opinion in defence of peace it is mandatory to show what benefits are sought by the politicians who support the arms race and what can be done to halt that race.
Imperialism is conducting its preparations for war intensively and in many directions. This makes it all the more important for the peace forces to achieve mutual understanding on how to stop dangerous developments, notably the arms race.
The first step in the direction of genuine disarmament, speakers said, could consist of partial measures, for example, a moratorium on nuclear tests as is suggested in the Soviet peace programme. Such a 'moratorium could mark the beginning of the process of abolishing nuclear armaments. It is obvious that this is a realistic proposal: it does not clash with anybody's national interests and has been made by a power whose words carry weight. The efforts to put an end to nuclear tests are illustrative in the sense that the militarists can no longer misrepresent what is clearly apparent to the eye. The USSR has raised the question of a ban on nuclear tests in such concrete and clear terms that this had a tremendous impact on world public opinion, 282 made it easier for people to understand the problem, and thereby boosted the efficacy of the mass struggle.
Militarist circles it was said at the discussion, are using anti-communism and spreading lies, preconceptions, and prejudices in their attempts to create an atmosphere of war hysteria. Consequently, the task is to combat this antihumane atmosphere and uphold the ideals of peace and friendship, realism and truth. These are highly significant ideals and they help to unite the peace forces.
The unleashing of a war is, as a rule, preceded by a destabilisation of the international situation that sows confusion among large sections of the population and allows catching them by surprise. In this light, participants in the meeting said, it is immensely important that state-to-state agreements are signed on a renunciation of the use of nuclear armaments and of force generally to settle international problems. When countries make the commitment, as the USSR and the People's Republic of China have done, that they will not be the first to use these armaments they thereby acknowledge that nobody has the moral right to threaten to start a nuclear war. To get all the nuclear powers to make such a commitment means to help stabilise international relations and consolidate world security.
The fraternal parties hold that conducted in all these directions the struggle for peace can unite a huge majority of people in joint actions regardless of ideological differences. In the face of such overwhelming activity the warmongers would have to be careful not to find themselves isolated. Imperialism can and must be compelled to look into the eyes of truth, to reckon with present-day realities!
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Growing RoleThe Communists are represented in all the main motive forces of social development, playing the unique role of the factor linking up the struggle against imperialism with the struggle for peace, democracy, and social progress. No other political force is able to perform this function. Hence the special responsibility of the Communists for the preservation of life on earth.
283A cardinal task, speakers said, is to explain the peace initiatives of the USSR and the other socialist countries more actively in order to deprive militarist propaganda of the possibility of unfluencing public opinion. This will enable the peace movement to win to its side new forces, including realistically-minded members of the bourgeoisie-political personalities and businessmen who are not making a profit out of the arms race. Besides, this will help the people see the ways for resolving urgent problems linked to disarmament, putting an end to backwardness, and eradicating hunger and disease.
Wide publicity for the Soviet peace programme, the representative of the Senegal Party of Independence and Labour said, would make the work of the Communists more effective, facilitate their contacts with the masses and gradually tear down the veil that imperialism uses to distort the image of socialism and prevent people from understanding developments in socialist countries. Before reporting Soviet initiatives the mass media in Senegal used to wait for an interpretation of these initiatives by Washington. It was only through American propaganda spectacles that the Senegalese people looked at what the Soviet Union was doing. Today there is a demand for a different type of information, for unbiased information: the people want to know what is really taking place in countries of the socialist world, what their intentions and actual affairs are. More people have begun to believe the Communists, to heed their voice.
This is a noteworthy development. In capitalist countries the Communists are regarded by the people as the natural allies of socialism, and it is socialism that is offering humanity the true road toward deliverance from the threat of destruction. Of course, a considerable effort has still to be made to turn interest in the Soviet programme into readiness to contribute to the building of a nuclear-free and safe world. As the participants in the meeting pointed out, imperialism and reaction have no intention of taking up defensive positions. They have powerful information media whose potential for influencing public opinion is far superior to the possibilities at the disposal of the Communists and other progressive and peace forces in capitalist 284 countries. The anti-Soviet and anti-communist propaganda campaign is by no means folding up. But with humankind's survival at stake, imperialism's line toward confrontation with socialism, the fanning of tension in the world, and the suppression of liberation struggles generate protests among the masses and a striving to join in repulsing the warmongers.
In Greece, said the representative of the Communist Party of Greece, the peace movement has a clearly pronounced anti-American slant and this gives it wide scope. Of course, not everybody is as yet convinced that the war threat is rooted in the nature of imperialism. Many people feel this rather by intuition than by anything else. However, experience has shown the masses that in all the complex problems encountered by Greek society in the past 20 years (the dictatorship of the Blade Colonels, the dismemberment of Cyprus, the dismantling of US military bases, and so on), the interests of the NATO militarists, of the US militarists in the first place, have come into conflict with those of the people.
Imperialist dictation and aggression evoke growing, opposition in Central America, the Middle East, and Asia, actuating liberation processes and arousing strong counteraction from fighters for peace and social progress. Every Latin American, said the representative of the Communist Party of Chile, is now aware that the USA cannot be permitted to intervene in Central America. The movement for a political settlement of the region's problems and solidarity with the peoples of Nicaragua and El Salvador are steadily growing in strength. There is a broad consensus in democratic circles also in regard to the campaign to annul the external debt of the Latin American countries and establish a new international economic order. Noting these tendencies, the Communist Party of Cuba and other fraternal parties in the region are trying to raise the level of interaction and cooperation between various socio-political forces, of the Communists with the Social Democrats and Christians in the first place. Their positions are drawing closer in the main thing, namely in the efforts to create conditions for the free and peaceful development of nations and to do away with everything likely to trigger tension.
285In the Middle East, it was said at the Editorial Council meeting, the Communists are working to unite the patriotic forces on the basis of a just settlement of the region's problems in keeping with the interests of all its peoples, including the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own. In the prevailing situation they are acting to counter the imperialist-Israeli aggression, block the Camp David conspiracy and other capitulatory agreements, and extinguish the flashpoint of civil war in Lebanon. The fraternal parties of Arab countries see their efforts as a contribution to the common cause of defending peace.
The Communists of the developing states of Asia and Africa attach special significance to mobilising public opinion against the Pentagon's plans for harnessing these states to the USA's bloc policy and thereby creating new springboards of aggression against socialism and the national liberation movement.
Although they work under different conditions, speakers pointed out, the Communists take into account the line pursued by socialism and other forces of peace and progress in their own plans and actions. They harmonise their potentialities with the intentions and plans of their partners in the peace movement and endeavour to unite them in the face of imperialism's course toward aggression. The 27th Congress of the CPSU and the congresses of the fraternal parties of other socialist countries gave fresh impulses to this many-sided activity, which organically fits into the coherent programme for making the world safe. The Communists are now clearer about what they can do themselves and also about what their allies in the joint struggle are doing and trying to achieve.
__*__The epochal significance of the Soviet peace programme, it was stated at the Editorial Council meeting, is that it opens up the prospect for a fundamental improvement of the international situation. Humankind is getting the opportunity to build up, by common effort, a dependable system of security that will provide military, political, economic, and social guarantees for the peaceful development of every people. This opportunity will not be missed, the 286 representatives of fraternal parties said, if the entire potential for peace, common sense, and goodwill is mobilised.
The discussion showed that the Communists are at one in answering the question: Will the human race carry on or will it perish? Their reply is: Social progress, the life of civilisation must and will continue. This confidence, founded on the historical optimism inherent in the Communists, is sustained by profound knowledge of the objective laws of social development, brought to light and substantiated by Marxism-Leninism. It is backed up by the preparedness of the communist movement to promote constructive cooperation with all the forces concerned about the destinies of humanity, by the unflagging, persevering efforts of the fraternal parties on behalf of peace and progress.
~^^1^^ Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, A New Edition, Moscow, 1986, p. 20 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Mikhail Gorbachev, Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 27th Party Congress, Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow. 1986, p. 74.
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 23.
~^^4^^ Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 4, pp. 581--582.
~^^5^^ Pravda, January 16, 1986.
~^^6^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works in three volumes, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1969, p. 199.
~^^7^^ Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 16, p. 261.
~^^8^^ Information Bulletin, No. 12, 1986.
~^^9^^ Mikhail Gorbachev, op. cit., p. 83.
[287] __ALPHA_LVL2__ For Stronger SolidarityThe international communist movement is the most important consistent and organised force of social progress. It is active throughout the world in the principal revolutionary currents that objectively promote soviety's world-wide transition to socialism. It is one of the political forces that shape international relations. Aware of their historical responsibility for the future of nations and working people, the Communists are the most resolute champions of the struggle to avert the threat of nuclear catastrophe, for durable peace and security.
This article presents the HSWP view of certain topical issues concerning the development of today's communist movement.
The working class movement is constantly developing, responding to the changes in the conditions of our struggle, and that is why it has, over the 150 years of its history, radically transformed our world and developed into the most important political factor of our age. Although communist influence differs from region to region and from country to country and although the sister parties differ in terms of their numerical strength and degree of organisation, the movement displays a long-term trend towards a more powerful capacity to attain its goals. This trend is clear from the growth of the parties' number and membership and from the steady expansion of their social base. While the Founding Congress of the Communist International in 1919 brought together 35 communist parties and left organisations and there were 65 parties participating in the momentous Seventh Congress in 1935, today the world has 288 over 100 communist, workers' and Marxist-Leninist vanguard parties. Having long spread beyond Europe, our movement unites more than 80 million Communists on all five continents.
The historical record shows however, that the development of the movement has been a complex and contradictory process, has proceeded differently in different regions and travelled a fluctuating, not straightforward course. Upsurges such as those that occurred in the wake of the two world wars alternate with intervals of inaction, with periods in which the movement gathers strength and even with slumps affecting whole regions.
Our movement is affected by diverse international and local factors that are often mutually contradictory. Its effectiveness is now decisively dependent on the state of the world socialist system which influences the world by the power of its example, by the successful tackling of its internal tasks. Progress in the building of socialism adds to the appeal and prestige of the movement. The growing prosperity of the people, the continuous expansion of socialist democracy and the radical transformation of the cultural fabric clearly demonstrate that socialism presents a truly historic alternative to the capitalist system.
The socialist community countries ensure the maintenance of a military balance of forces, thus making it possible to preserve peace on Earth. Their foreign policy is a paramount factor in the curbing of the arms race and in the easing of international tensions. A peaceful, stable and balanced international situation enhances the ability of Communists in non-socialist countries to attain their objectives and goals, reduces the danger of counter-revolution being exported and helps objective laws of social development to assert their role. On the other hand, the difficulties that sometimes arise in the building of socialism, as well as accidental mistakes and deformations weaken the appeal of our system and, as one can see from historical precedents, encourage aggressive imperialist designs, create a beachhead of sorts for an anti-communist propaganda offensive and thus restrict the opportunities and the scope of action of sister parties in capitalist and developing countries.
Foremost among the factors that have adversely affected 289 the development of the communist movement in recent years have been the acceleration of the arms race and the heightening of international tensions, both brought about by the policy the aggressive imperialist quarters pursue in their bid to secure military superiority over the socialist community. The bourgeoisie is striving to mount a counteroffensive not only in individual countries but also on an international scale; a wave of conservative attitudes has risen in the capitalist world (mostly due to internal reasons). It proved difficult for several communist parties to consolidate and sometimes even retain their positions in this situation. In an effort to oust these parties from the political scene, the reactionary forces are bringing open pressure to bear on some West European countries. Savage attacks are being launched against the national liberation movements, against the communist and Marxist-Leninist vanguard parties of newly liberated countries and against progressive governments that steer an anti-imperialist course.
The changes in the world economy-both those that have occurred over the past 15 to 20 years and those we encounter today-have also produced a generally negative impact on the state of the movement. The leading imperialist powers have embarked on a policy of greater protectionism; political considerations prompt them to increasingly resort to discriminatory moves and embargoes in their relations with the socialist and other progressive countries. This has adversely affected these nations, particularly if one takes into account the general rise in international political and economic tensions. The exacerbation of crisis developments in the world capitalist economy, their pernicious impact on national economies and the insecurity they result in have done nothing to promote the work of communist parties in industrialised capitalist countries.
The situation in newly free countries with their backlog of acute problems such as socio-economic underdevelopment, the external debt, the population explosion, hunger and the deterioration of the environment exerts a distinctive influence on our movement. The aggravation of these problems-which can be solved only through international cooperation-is bad for the global alignment of socio-political forces. Several grave local crises are fraught with the threat 290 of outside interference and with the escalation of armed conflicts. Preventing it and ensuring an equitable settlement of the existing problems is an important goal of all realistic and progressive forces.
A difficult situation is thus arising; in our age, developing countries offer a particularly favourable opportunity for a geographic expansion of the world revolutionary process; however, the class enemy seizes upon any step in this direction as a pretext for exacerbating international tensions. The socialist countries regard vigorous support of progressive processes as their internationalist goal and hold that it should be accompanied by efforts to preserve world peace, strengthen international security and promote cooperation between countries with different social systems. This was reiterated in the statement the Warsaw Treaty countries adopted at the Sofia meeting of their Political Consultative Committee in October 1985.
Suspension of detente, a deteriorating international climate, changes in the world economy and socio-economic restructuring were, along with other radical shifts, typical of the 1970s and 1980s. They were behind the problems that confronted individual communist parties each in its own way, depending on the specific conditions obtaining in this or that region or country. Our movement encountered new phenomena, and its development became more contradictory.
Over the past decade, the sister parties of the socialist world have been tackling their constructive tasks in a complicated situation, which arose due to unfavourable international developments. The need to both combat imperialist attempts at upsetting the military equilibrium and display solidarity with the forces of national independence and social progress made it necessary to exert much greater efforts than before. The economic complications of the 1970s hampered the transition of several socialist countries to intensive national economic growth; national income growth rates declined, and there have even been a few disruptions. Those socialist countries who are at a lower level of economic development and working to overcome their legacy of backwardness have had to cope with considerable difficulties.
291Of crucial importance for the work of communist parties in capitalist countries was the fact that, as noted at the 13th Congress of the HSWP, despite the aggravation of the general crisis of capitalism, the latter proved that it possessed considerable economic and political reserves: even grave phenomena such as unemployment and inflation have failed to produce a directly revolutionary situation. Moreover, we hold that the developments of the 1970s and 1980s have shown that an attempt to carry yet another leftward democratic shift within the capitalist system to its conclusion would have encountered very serious internal and international obstacles. Vigorous efforts to promote the revolutionary struggle are hampered by the internationally intertwined character of capital and by the bonds linking most capitalist countries together: the military, political and integration alliances they have set up are functioning effectively enough in spite of all their innate problems.
The Communists of the developing countries have their share of difficulties. The working class has not yet taken definitive shape in most of these countries, and the sister parties are drawing on the experience of the struggle for national liberation, not on militant working class traditions. Although former colonies and semi-colonies have attained independence, many retain close ties to their former colonial powers, depend on the capitalist economic system and are subjected to open or veiled imperialist pressure, up to and including direct interference in their internal affairs. A number of communist parties in Asia, Africa and Latin America are unable to work legally so as to ensure genuine independence, national revival and social progress for their countries. In some countries, the Communists are forced to wage an armed struggle against dictatorships and foreign intervention.
The prospects for the development of the communist movement and the future expansion of the socialist world depend primarily on how effectively individual parties will be able to restructure their activities, gear them to the new global, regional, national and local conditions and change these conditions to their own advantage and on whether it will prove possible to solve acute problems of our age properly and in time.
292A desire to find an answer and a creative search for ways leading ahead are a salient feature of our movement today. This search has become comprehensive: it covers both efforts to elaborate a strategy and the parties' practical activities. Significantly, their policies are increasingly adapted to distinctive national conditions and their programmes, to the specific situation and historical traditions of this or that country. Many sister parties are striving to tackle topical problems above all on a national scale. A creative approach is essential here because there is no ready made cure-all that could guarantee a successful solution of these issues. Precepts of Marxist-Leninist theory and the experience of other communist and workers' parties can be effectively applied only if they are adapted to the specific conditions obtaining in each individual country or region.
A diversity of forms is another important feature of our movement at the present stage. This diversity is rooted in the fact that the parties can attain their goals-the goals that coincide in their principal essence-only if the common ideological principles and experience are applied to the distinctive conditions of each nation.
History shows that the Communists' influence increases only when such diversity is combined with a common purpose, when their policies are realistic and adjusted to the actual situation. For example, the new strategy which was adopted by the international communist movement in the 1930s, which was more attentive to the distinctive conditions individual parties operated under and which granted them greater independence made it possible to double the membership of the communist parties.
Differentiation and regionalism are typical of our movement today (one does not rule out the other). The former feature is expressed in the diversity of theoretical views and political practices: even parties holding positions that are close and acting mostly in the same way nevertheless differ from one another and strive to steer a course of their own. The latter feature means that similarities in geographical position and in the level of economic development as well as a common history give rise to similarities in policy and promote regional unity among parties.
293These distinctive features do nothing to change the international character of the communist movement. However, they obviously affect the forms of cooperation: parties strive to maintain ties that are up-to-date, reflect specific demands of the moment and are based on firm principles; preference is accorded to those types of cooperation that not only guarantee respect of each party's independence and its full equality but also ensure the effectiveness of the movement as a whole.
The sister parties are united by a common goal, that of replacing capitalism with a new, democratic and humanistic society without exploitation. The Communists proceed from a common ideological and conceptual platform that includes the classical theory of Marxism-Leninism, the long experience of the working class struggle, as well as theoretical and practical lessons. The coincidence of the fundamental objectives pursued by the Communists makes it necessary for them to close their ranks and support one another; this need is reflected in the principles of proletarian internationalism and international solidarity, the most important features of our movement. Today, the actual meaning of its unity is determined above all by the joint efforts of the communist parties to defuse the threat of a world war and by their struggle against imperialism, for socialist goals.
The movement's unity is not an immutable state but a process whose content changes as it develops. It is natural that creative quests and the diversity of the forms of struggle have led to a reappraisal of the meaning of unity; its content has become more complex than before. The type of unity that existed (and was indispensable) in the period of the Communist International is a thing of the past, and there is no need to return to it. Today's communist movement has neither an organisational nor a political centre; the sister parties act independently to elaborate their policy and to find the best ways of solving their tasks within their national framework. Unity is expressed in the community of their principles and purposes, in joint and parallel efforts undertaken in pursuit of common goals. This means that we are dealing with a trend of promoting unity through practical action.
294The road to greater unity in our movement leads us above all to precisely identify our international interests, to carefully adjust the distinctive interests of individual parties to these international purposes and to choose forms of action that would serve both the attainment of our common goals and the solution of the specific tasks facing the Communists of this or that country. Recognition of the fact that distinctive national conditions give rise to distinctive interests, as well as the striving to realise these interests do nothing to weaken the international unity of the movement as a whole; on the contrary, they are an important factor in the consolidation of this unity. The unity and the joint efforts of the parties create favourable international conditions for the attainment of their goals.
The diversity of the conditions in which the parties operate, their independence and responsibility for the policy they conduct shed new light on their ideological unity. We know that the Communists' views are rooted in their common intellectual heritage. However, in analysing new aspects of their struggle and in the course of their creative quests, they often give different answers to the same questions. Only time and practice will tell who is right and who is wrong. The emergence of an ideological unity consonant with the new conditions and demands of our time is a process in which all parties are responsible for upholding the purity of our movement's ideological and conceptual precepts and for ensuring their creative development. The organisation of international meetings and theoretical conferences, cooperation that involves different research institutes maintained by individual parties and the establishment of collective research centres by several parties can serve to further this unity.
The common ideological basis of the international communist movement is neither a code of dogmata nor a closed system but a body of ideas and experience constantly renovated and added to in the course of the transformations the world is going through.
In the past, too, more or less lively exchanges of views occurred when individual parties compared their answers to the questions they encountered and the experience they gained in different conditions. This is perfectly natural. 295 Suffice it to recall the sharp debates Marx and Engels conducted to defend their theory or the devastating force of Lenin's polemical articles. It is a law of dialectics that contradictions and, consequently, discussions are an essential concomitant of development.
There was a period when ideological differences again increased in the communist movement; this produced certain tensions which affected the relations the parties maintained among themselves. Different parties still view some problems differently. The bourgeois mass media distort and exaggerate these differences in an effort to prove that the movement is in crisis or about to break up.
The exchange of views and the discussions in question resulted mostly from a creative search for ways to advance. Domestic and external changes that accompanied the building of socialism prompted the sister parties of the socialist countries to carefully assess available options and select the best ways of accelerating socio-economic development and the means of perfecting economic management and the system of political institutions. The Communists of industrialised capitalist countries reflected on how they should pursue their revolutionary strategy in the new situation that differed so greatly from what they dealt with in the past. The communist parties of developing countries where the situation was particularly fluid and different factors of the revolutionary struggle sometimes exerted mutually contradictory influences also reappraised and redefined their strategy and tactics. The debates concerned a number of issues facing the socialist countries and questions related to the mode of transition to socialism, the attitude to Marxism-Leninism and the issue of proletarian internationalism.
In devising a strategy geared to the changes that had occurred in the conditions of the struggle, some communist parties refused to accept the socialist countries as a suitable model, arguing that socialism had taken shape there in a different period, under different circumstances and at a lower level of development. These parties attempted to elaborate different concepts of socialist society and to outline the forms it should take in their national conditions. Specifically, these views arose in connection with the fact 296 that in some aspects, the historical development of socialism proved to be different from what we expected: there surfaced considerable discrepancies between our somewhat idealised picture of what the new social system should be like and its actual image.
Attempts were made to suggest one's own solutions to various questions-whether the use of force is essential for the victory of a socialist revolution, if this victory can be attained only with the help of a dictatorship of the proletariat or whether there can be another way of securing this victory. Several parties stress that in this day and age, only a peaceful transition to socialism is acceptable; otherwise a global armed conflict may break out or a pretext may arise for the export of counter-revolution as a result of military and economic imperialist integration. Some communist parties categorically reject the use of force and the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat. Making an absolute out of democracy, they aim at building a pluralistic socialist society. However, very many parties question the validity of such views; others believe that if at all possible, these ideas can only be realised in individual countries and under distinctive conditions; besides, the feasibility of these options is yet to be proven in practical terms.
The debate over the attitude to Marxism-Leninism developed because several parties deleted from their policy documents all reference to Marxism-Leninism as the common ideological basis of our movement. They cited different arguments in support of their decision; some did not marshal any arguments at all. It is not the question of which term we use that is central to this discussion, although that, too, is important. For example, if a party defines its ideological foundations not as Marxism-Leninism but as scientific socialism, this term in all probability refers both to the theory of Marx, Engels and Lenin and to the works of this party's own outstanding theorists. As far as the HSWP is concerned, we squarely identify our philosophy with MarxismLeninism because we regard it as the ideological basis of all work Hungary's Communists are doing.
The controversy over the concept of "proletarian internationalism" gained in intensity primarily because, citing the changes in the character of the relations obtaining in the 297 communist movement, some parties prefer "new internationalism" a new term used to describe a broad unity of left, progressive, anti-imperialist forces. We hold, however, that while this cooperation is important and necessary, it is no substitute for the close cooperation maintained by the communist parties, for their joint action on specific and topical issues of the movement's development. The important thing is what meaning is read into the concept of proletarian internationalism. Comrade Janos Kadar, HSWP General Secretary, had this to say at the 1976 Conference of European Communist and Workers' Parties in Berlin: "The idea of internationalism has been added to constantly, its influence has been growing, and its strength has helped the international communist movement to develop into the most powerful political movement in history. We believe that the idea of proletarian internationalism implies harmony between national and international interests, for the successes scored by individual parties strengthen the international working class movement, while the consolidation of the international communist movement helps individual parties. Proletarian internationalism stands for mutual solidarity and support, for comradely cooperation that implies the independence and equality of individual parties, as well as non-interference in one another's internal affairs.''^^1^^
A correct understanding of the nature of our differences and of our cooperation is of key importance to our movement. Differences of opinion that are rooted in the objectively different positions the Communists hold in different countries or debates prompted by dissimilar assessments of the situation do not have to be an obstacle to joint political action. However, there are, of course, some contradictory positions that can give rise not only to public discussions but also to regrettable tensions in relations between certain parties.
Public controversies have been noticeably less intense in recent years. Cases of a party openly criticising the socialist countries, calls for action without regard for others and violations of solidarity have become much less frequent. The parties formulate their objections not so often and not so sharply. In some cases, mutual understanding has improved 298 and the methods, the style of expressing one's own views have changed. This is an important factor as far as relations among the parties are concerned. These views are essentially hypotheses born of the wish to pay greater attention to distinctive national conditions; they can be described as experiments, as attempts to make a party better adapted to the actual realities. Here, too, practice is the yardstick to prove or deny their viability.
Such debates create problems in inter-party relations only if, having advanced a new concept, a party tries to elevate it (and the corresponding political practice) to the rank of a universal law, of the only true solution which applies to, and is therefore binding for, all other parties. Specifically, such was the case with some views on the historical paths to socialism and on the current practices of the socialist countries.
In the decisions of its 13th Congress the HSWP stresses that as a component of the international communist movement, it regards the task of promoting the movement's unity as one of its priority objectives. Invariably guided by the principle of proletarian internationalism, the HSWP is fighting together with all other sister parties for the preservation of universal peace and for social progress.
We will continue to take part in joint creative efforts aimed at solving topical issues of our age, at identifying and overcoming differences of opinion. The Hungarian Communists strive to make inter-party discussions serve our common interests and greater unity, promote a high sense of responsibility for the purity of Marxism-Leninism and stimulate its creative development. Theoretical debates conducted in an appropriate form do not weaken unity because they do not hamper joint political action. On the contrary, discussions can help parties to better grasp one another's positions and the conditions obtaining in other countries and to bring their positions closer together.
It is our firm conviction that there is no universally applicable or binding model of socialism or way to socialism. However, general laws of its building and operation do exist. A considerable body of historical experience has been accumulated in this field, and it is important to use this experience for guidance-naturally, in a way that would 299 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1987/CRCOT359/20080714/359.tx" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2008.07.14) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [*]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ ensure its best possible application to specific national conditions. Each party is entitled to decide-proceeding from the distinctive conditions and traditions of its country-which forms should be used to create the favourable conditions for a transition to socialism, which methods make the building of socialism more successful.
We support all forms of cooperation which are consonant with today's situation in the communist movement and with the norms of relations existing among the sister parties. We promote regular contacts, exchanges of views and comradely discussions with other parties, including those that assess some aspects of international politics and of communist strategy differently. We are convinced that alienation and severance of relations serve only to harm, not to benefit the movement. We know from our experience that frank exchanges of views and patient efforts to explain and convince produce understanding, thus consolidating unity and improving the opportunities for joint action.
Our party attaches great importance to bilateral ties. We regard our cooperation with the CPSU as vitally important, and we continuously exchange our experience with regard to all aspects of the social and party fabric. The historical example of the building of socialism in the USSR helps us to solve our own tasks.
Our cooperation with other sister parties of the socialist countries is also developing. The community of our interests increasingly enriches the content of this cooperation. It helps us to learn more about one another's achievements and to apply them to the national conditions of this or that country, Interparty cooperation serves to strengthen friendship among nations, consolidate our community and bring us close to our common goals.
At the 13th Congress the HSWP reiterated its commitment to expand its relations with the sister parties of industrialised capitalist countries. We follow their creative quests closely and affirm our solidarity with their struggle to restrict the sway of monopoly capital, to champion and broaden the democratic rights of working people and to achieve social progress. These parties are our reliable allies in the struggle for peace and international cooperation.
The HSWP also displays unflagging solidarity with the 300 communist parties of newly free countries. The congress urged that greater attention be paid to the parties which had been established in socialist-oriented countries relatively recently and which had adopted Marxism-Leninism as their basic ideology. We will do what we can to help them in their just struggle to eliminate their legacy of underdevelopment, uphold their economic and political gains, make progressive change irreversible and accelerate socialist-oriented transformations. We assert our solidarity with the national liberation movements and assist them in their struggle against racism, dictatorships, neocolonialism, for genuine independence and social advancement.
Aside from biJateral ties, our party attaches great importance to the development of multilateral cooperation. The role of international theoretical conferences is growing. We hold that these meetings offer a good opportunity for a frank, comradely exchange of views, for learning about one another's experience, for identifying the spheres of future joint action for consolidating our unity.
The HSWP supports all initiatives to organise bilateral and multilateral meetings that advance the common cause of the international communist movement, strengthen it and help settle disputes. We are aware of the fact that some time ago, a number of communist parties raised the question of a new universal communist conference (this view was expressed in World Marxist Review articles too). The changes that occur on the world scene no doubt demand that we consolidate our unity. This calls for forms of work which make it possible to better take the possible divergencies of interests, concepts and plans and the great diversity of the movement into account. Therefore, in assessing the question of convening such a universal conference of the communist parties, we note the changes that have occurred in their cooperation. One might, for example, recall the diversity of positions which surfaced in the summing-up of the results achieved at the Berlin Conference of European Communist and Workers' Parties.
As the HSWP reiterated in the decisions adopted at its 13th Congress, our party believes that it is useful to exchange views with all non-communist parties and movements responsibly upholding the cause of peace. 301 Ideological contradictions and dissimilar assessments of various social and international phenomena are no obstacle to moving closer to and cooperating with them in the tackling of issues that affect the future of humanity, in the struggle to preserve universal peace, for disarmament, for peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems and for the expansion of mutually beneficial ties.
1 Janos Kadar. A szocializmusert-a bekeert. Budapest, 1978, p. 437.
[302] __ALPHA_LVL2__ With Banner UnfurledThe 27th Congress of the CPSU showed that the CPSU is consistently carrying forward the cause of the Great October Revolution and confidently advancing along the course charted by Lenin. It demonstrated the party's ability to draw maximum lessons from its own experience and map out a realistic and thoroughly considered action programme.
The principal tendencies and contradictions of our time were elucidated profoundly and comprehensively in the CC Political Report delivered at the congress by Mikhail Gorbachev. An all-sided survey was presented of the state of Soviet society, of its successes, shortcomings, problems, and difficulties, and clear-cut guidelines were given for the basic orientations of the party's economic and social policy and for the further democratisation of society's life. The cardinal aims and directions of the CPSU's foreign policy strategy were defined. The report expressed historical optimism and confidence in the triumph of the great cause of peace and socialism.
For our party and the entire people the adoption of the new edition of the CPSU Programme by the 27th Congress was an event of epochal significance. The founders of Marxism-Leninism saw the party programme as the concentrated, coherent expression of the party's world-view and revolutionary transformative work, of its ideology and policy. As Engels put it, the party programme is "a banner publicly raised and the outside world judges the party by it".^^1^^
303The explicit and clear formulation of the principal aims of the CPSU's domestic and foreign policies is of immense international relevance in the complex world of today with its many sharp contradictions. This is seen in the following basic directions.
First, the Party of Lenin laid the beginning for the world's most notable process, that of building socialism and communism. In heading the practical work of millions of people, it has no experience of predecessors to draw upon. In paving the way to the future, the CPSU acts as the trailblazer in giving shape to and developing the new, communist civilisation.
Many, very many questions arise on this road. How to build up a highly efficient economy and advanced productive forces that undividedly serve the interests and requirements of working people? How to build up relations between classes, social groups, nations, nationalities, and individuals in keeping with the principles of humanism, freedom, and justice and, at the same time, reinforce unity of will and action, organisation, and order in society? How to ensure the coordinated functioning of the state apparatus and, at the same time, broadly promoting democracy, drawing citizens into the management of production and society's affairs? How to ensure in society's intellectual life the priority development of advanced socialist ideology and, at the same time, give wide scope for cultural and historical national identity, for creative quests in literature and art, in culture? Lastly, what should be the role of the party as society's leading and guiding force, and what should be its ideological principles, organisational foundations, and methods and style of work under present-day conditions?
All these questions are answered in the new edition of the CPSU Programme and other documents adopted by the 27th Congress. While assessing what has been achieved, shedding light on the problems that arise, and formulating the tasks involved in ensuring Soviet society's further progress, the party defines the ways for developing the new socio-economic system at its most advanced levels---in the USSR.
Second, war and peace are the central problem of 304 international life today. The issue here is humankind's survival in the nuclear age. How to deliver it from a global catastrophe, halt the ruinous arms race, free the peoples from the accumulated arsenals of weapons of colossal destructive force, and use the products of human thought and labour exclusively for peaceful construction? The new edition of the CPSU Programme gives compelling answers to these questions. It generalises the vast experience of the struggle for peace, for easing international tension, indicates the way for applying the principle of peaceful coexistence of states in international political practice, and profoundly and credibly defines the posture of the USSR in the question of preserving and consolidating peace. A task of epochal significance prescribed by it is that the CPSU should do all in its power to preserve peaceful conditions for the Soviet people's constructive labour, normalise international relations and end the arms race, and avert the threat of nuclear war.
Third, the world revolutionary process continues to make headway. Many countries and peoples are bending every effort to assert national independence and moving along the road of revolutionary transformations. What motivates the ongoing revolutions, the replacement of outworn by progressive regimes, many of which adopt the socialist orientation for their development? What are the motive forces of and prospects for the revolutionary process? These global problems are likewise dealt with all-sidedly in the Programme.
The CPSU is the guiding ideological and political force in a country that has the largest economic, scientific, technological, and cultural potential in the socialist world and enjoys immense international prestige. For that reason its policy and its programme guidelines for the main orientations, its work on the great dual task of perfecting socialism, gradually advancing towards communism, and ensuring peace, preventing a nuclear catastrophe express the Soviet people's interests and are important for all humankind.
Through its Programme, which rests on existing socialism's immense potentialities, the CPSU demonstrates' that socialist aims are attainable. This helps huge numbers of people throughout the world to see the prospects for the 305 competition between the two socio-political systems and is thereby a source of inspiration for all fighters against social and national oppression, for peace and socialism.
The loftiness of the aims spelled out in the Programme, the historical optimism permeating it, and the humane spirit of its ideas evoke the confidence that, to quote Lenin, "our programme will serve as extremely effective material for propaganda and agitation; it is a document which will lead the workers to say: 'Here are our comrades, our brothers; here our common work is becoming reality.'"^^2^^
The new edition of the CPSU Programme is a striking continuation of the entire ideological-theoretical heritage of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. In generalised form it organically incorporates the extensive experience accumulated by the party and embodies its fidelity to the underlying principles of Marxism-Leninism. It is a direct continuation of and enlargement upon the party's preceding programmes. The fact that these documents are successive shows that the Leninist stage of Marxism's development perseveres.
A quarter of a century has gone by since the party's third Programme was adopted in 1961. In carrying it out, the Soviet Union has advanced impressively. Although objective and subjective reasons prevented some tasks from being carried out within the established time limit, our successes are indisputable. The USSR now has an enormous economic and intellectual potential and has built an integral economic complex. Large areas in the country's North and East have been developed. In 1985, as compared with 1960, the national income grew almost 4-fold, industrial output increased 5-fold, and agricultural output went up 1.7-fold. The growth of the productive forces made it possible to accomplish much in social terms, to raise the people's living standard substantially.
Work on the Programme adopted by the 22nd Congress proceeded under complex international conditions. This work involved, in parallel, expanding the productive forces, raising the people's living standard, and reinforcing the country's defence capability with considerable outlays of resources and labour. Nevertheless, the Programme's key target was achieved, namely, that of utilising all means to prevent a world war, establishing military-strategic parity 306 between the USSR and the USA, and ensuring socialism's successful development.
However, not all the assessments and conclusions recorded in the Programme were borne out by life. There were miscalculations in scheduling the solution of some concrete problems. New problems arose in perfecting socialism, in accelerating its development, and in international politics, and these grew acute and required attention. All this had to be mirrored in the Programme.
The probing analysis made of the present state of Soviet society at the CC Plenary Meeting in April 1985 and then at the 27th Congress led to the unquestionable conclusion that in the prevailing situation theoretical and political thinking have to be directed towards developing well-- founded ways and means of acce/erating social and economic progress, with the accompanying qualitative changes in various spheres of life. The sense of the CPSU's strategy enunciated in the new edition of the Programme is precisely that there have to be changes, that the dynamic of society's development has to be stepped up.
The Communists and the entire Soviet people highly acclaimed the constructive, innovative, and self-critical spirit permeating the decisions of the 27th Congress. Concreteness and a constructive approach, scientific objectiveness in assessing what has been achieved, the uncovering and surmounting of shortcomings, the weeding out of passiveness and inertia, a bold quest for effective methods of carrying out current and long-term tasks, addressing the people directly, exactingness of the work of executives of all levels, and broad publicity---these hallmarks of the Leninist style of work are being developed throughout the party. The determination and courage with which it is criticising negative phenomena and omissions in work are evidence of its strength, its firm confidence that the aims it has marked out are attainable, and its striving to identify the best and shortest way of achieving them.
In defining in the Programme the general course of longterm domestic policy the CPSU proceeds from the premise that socialism and communism are two consecutive phases of the integral communist system between which there is no distinct boundary. The party is focusing on socialist 307 society's all-sided improvement, on bringing to light ever more fully and making the utmost use of socialism's potentialities and advantages.
At the present stage a central issue of the historic competition between the two opposing socio-political systems is which of them can make the most effective and best use of science's great breakthroughs and the revolutionary changes in machinery and technology. Will these be placed in the service of the forces of reaction and war or used for the benefit of the people, for building a better future for the nations? How this issue is decided affects the destinies of all humanity.
The Soviet Union has been and remains the personification of the age-old social aspirations of working people. The Programme sets the task of placing the socialist economy on the highest possible level of organisation and efficiency. The paramount aim of economic strategy is to ensure a cardinal acceleration of scientific and technological progress, the energetic and broad application of the achievements of science and technology, and a new technical reconstruction of the economy.
It is planned to make science definitively serve the requirements of production, assign to it a bigger role in and responsibility for developing the theoretical principles of fundamentally new types of machines and technology, make the economy highly receptive of scientific and technological progress, and give all elements of the economy a vital interest in such progress.
The economic provisions of the Programme are specified in the Guidelines for the Economic and Social Development of the USSR for 1986--1990 and for the Period Ending in 2000. This document encapsulates earlier far-reaching programmes on key economic questions. Considerable importance is attached to turning the agro-industrial complex into a highly developed sector of the economy, a sector with the task of satisfying in full the Soviet people's demand for diverse and high-quality foodstuffs.
A point of departure of the new edition of the Programme is that remuneration for work will remain the principal source of incomes throughout the first phase of communism. Hence the accent on giving incentives for highly-skilled and 308 high-productive work in the interests of society, on the utmost assertion of the prestige of honest and conscientious work. The growth of remuneration for work will be accompanied by an increase of the social consumption funds and an upgrading of how they are distributed. These funds are to play an ever greater role in the solution of many social problems.
In the Programme priority is given to updating the forms and methods of management, to steadily enhancing the efficiency of administration and planning. This will allow identifying and using new potentialities of socialism's economic system, this being a factor of immense social significance. Economic development creates the prerequisites for promoting the people's living standard and further consolidating social equality and justice, collectivism and mutual assistance as basic values of the new social system.
One of the aims for the next 15 years is to double the resources used for meeting the requirements of the people. The party sees the task of speeding' up the solution of the housing problem as of special social significance. By the year 2000 every Soviet family will have a separate dwelling--- an apartment or a house of its own. The demand for preschool facilities is to be met in full in the immediate future. The line towards raising minimum wages and pensions, reducing taxes from the population, and lengthening paid leaves is to be continued.
An exhaustive study of the standing of classes and social groups in socialist society led the party to a conclusion of fundamental political and theoretical significance, namely, that under socialism society's division into classes is erased, society becomes homogeneous, and a classless structure takes shape.
The fact that the nationalities question has been resolved in the USSR is among the points meriting special attention throughout the world, which is inhabited by a huge number of nations. In the Soviet Union the relations among nationalities are characterised by a further burgeoning of nations and nationalities, and their steady drawing together on the basis of free will, equality, and fraternal cooperation. The CPSU will go on doing everything to strengthen 309 the Soviet multinational state, promote the growth of each republic's material and intellectual potential, and foster the maximum utilisation of this potential for the harmonious development of the entire country, for the all-sided development of the integral multinational Soviet culture in keeping with the finest achievements and distinctive traditions of the people inhabiting the USSR.
Evolving from the dictatorship of the proletariat the socialist state of the entire people is today increasingly coming forward as power exercised by the working people themselves in their own interests. Socialist self-- administration by the people is the substance of the Soviet power. One sees increasingly compelling confirmation of Lenin's prevision that "only socialism will be the beginning of a rapid, genuine, truly mass forward movement, embracing first the majority and then the whole of the population, in all spheres of public and private life".^^3^^ The CPSU is set upon extending and enriching the socio-economic, political, and personal rights and freedoms of citizens and creating conditions conducive for their full implementation, for the active participation of citizens in society's political, economic, and cultural life.
Provision is made for promoting the work of the local government bodies on the basis of collective, free, critical, and constructive discussion and solution of issues, publicity, regular accountability of executive bodies, and the right of the constituency to recall deputies who fail to justify the trust placed in them.
The big and complex tasks mapped out in the Programme require more effective ideological work. It is the party's aim to turn the Marxist-Leninist world-view into a firm conviction of the Soviet people, into the guide for practical action, into an active stand in life.
By and large, the sections of the Programme related to social processes reflect the CPSU's objective of building a society of social justice, a stainless, lofty, and highly moral communist social system measuring up to the dignity of the human being.
The Programme links the fulfilment of the tasks confronting the country to the development of the Communist Party itself. As the vanguard of the working class and the Soviet 310 people as a whole, the party is the core of Soviet society's political system. Acting in keeping with the Soviet Constitution, the CPSU directs and coordinates the work of the other elements of this system, doing everything to enhance their activity and responsibility. The party's patten of inner life sets an example of service in the interests of the people, of compliance with the principles of democracy.
For the CPSU it is a law to abide scrupulously by the Leninist norms of party life, by the principle of collective leadership, steadfastly promote and deepen inner-party democracy, enhance the responsibility of party bodies and their officials to the people, ensure the conditions for the free and constructive discussion of matters related to policy and practical work, foster criticism and self-criticism, and extend publicity. Membership of the party gives no privileges. All it gives is a greater measure of responsibility for everything being done in the country, for the destiny of communist construction.
With Marxism-Leninism as its point of departure, the new edition of the Programme gives an analysis of world development, of its innermost processes and long-term tendencies, and defines the central aims and basic orientations of the CPSU's policy on the international scene. In characterising the present epoch, the Programme notes that its content is defined by the struggle of the forces of socialism, the working class and communist movement, the peoples of developing countries, and the mass movements for democracy and peace, against imperialism, against its policy of aggression and oppression.
Foremost among the main forces opposed in our epoch to imperialism and determining the trunk road of humankind's progress, the Programme names the socialist community, which is objectively the most dependable bulwark of the principles of peace and democracy in the relations between nations, of respect for the inalienable rights of peoples and states, of the development of broad exchanges of material and intellectual values. It is the major force in confrontation with imperialism, the cardinal factor of the defence and consolidation of peace, of struggle for social progress.
Experience has shown the vast range and diversity of the 311 ways for socialist development. This is due to the dissimilarity of the levels of economic development, the specifics of the culture and historical traditions of countries, the distinctions in the alignment of class forces and in the political experience of parties, the specifics of their international position, and other factors. But however wide the spectrum of the national features of individual socialist countries, general laws operate in them, and the realisation of these laws expresses the essence of socialism.
The development of the socialist system has produced a new type of international relations founded on friendship and cooperation in tackling the tasks of socialist construction and safeguarding the new society, on equality, and on respect for the independence and sovereignty of each state. These relations do not develop automatically. Their locomotive consists of the ruling communist and workers' parties. The CPSU regards the crysta//isat/on of solid comradely relations and many-sided cooperation between the USSR and all the other countries of the socialist community as the priority orientation of its internat/ona/ policy.
As long as the NATO imperialist military bloc exists, the party considers that it is vital to do everything to facilitate the upgrading of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation as an instrument of collective defence against imperialism's aggressive aspirations, joint efforts for lasting peace, and the promotion of international cooperation. The Warsaw Treaty Organisation has produced major initiatives aimed at consolidating peace in and outside Europe and preventing nuclear war.
The Programme envisages energetic efforts by the party to continue deepening socialist economic integration. It defines as an objective of historic significance the consistent coupling of the efforts of fraternal states in key areas of the intensification of production and acceleration of scientific and technological progress so that the socialist countries could move to the forefront of science and technology and thereby create the optimal conditions for the further rise of the living standard of their peoples and the consolidation of their security.
Socialism is developing in a situation marked by an acute confrontation between the two world systems. Imperialism 312 seeks to benefit by any problems that arise and uses nationalistic sentiments for subversive purposes. Under these conditions solidarity among the socialist countries and their joint resistance to anti-communism and anti-Sovietism acquire particularly great significance. The Programme contains the important conclusion that, given total compliance with equality and mutual respect, the fraternal countries will move towards growing mutual understanding and draw ever closer together. This will be facilitated by the CPSU.
The Programme gives an in-depth analysis of the present state of the capitalist world and of the development trends in it. The processes in capitalist society in the latter half of the twentieth century have fully borne out Lenin's conclusions characterising its highest stage-imperialism. The Programme offers a considered, dialectical assessment of present-day capitalism. Attention is focused on showing the socio-economic contradictions in the capitalist camp, the deepening of capitalism's general crisis. Further, it is shown that capitalism is a strong and dangerous adversary, which has not exhausted its potential for development, constantly manoeuvres, and endeavours to adapt jtself to the changing domestic and international situation.
State-monopoly capitalism is quite patently unable to cope with the social effects of the scientific and technological revolution---chronic unemployment, rising cost of living, growing social tension, and crisis of trust in bourgeois society's social and political institutions. Militarism is growing as a cancerous tumour. Imperialism has started an unparalleled arms race, in which the armaments monopolies, the government bureaucracy, public relations agencies, militarised science, and other components of the militaryindustrial complex have a material stake. It is the principal bastion of extreme reaction, the main source of the threat of war in the world of today.
US imperialism has become the citadel of international reaction. It regards force as a principle of its international policy, unceremoniously interferes in other nation's internal affairs, is escalating the arms race, and intends to spread it to outer space. The Programme lays bare the tendency, implicit in imperialism, to intensify reaction across the board. Its contradictions with humankind's vital interests 313 are to be seen with growing clarity. And it refuses to be reconciled to the fact that its social system is outworn.
In the Programme it is declared that the working class has been and remains the principal revolutionary class of the present epoch. The composition of the working class is being steadily augmented by other contingents of the army of wage workers, including members of intellectual professions.
The international communist movement, including the ruling parties of socialist countries, is today a most influential ideological and political force. The communist parties, which have a/ways been the most consistent champions of the interests of the working class and all other working people, are now on the frontline of the struggle to save humanity from a world war. It is the Communists who are showing reliable ways out of society's state of crisis, advancing a realistic alternative to the exploiting system, and giving socially optimistic replies to the cardinal questions of our day. Acting independently, the communist parties strive to perfect their strategy and tactics, seek to broaden class alliances on a platform of anti-monopoly and antiwar actions, and defend the economic interests and political rights of the working people on the premise that the struggle for democracy is part and parcel of the struggle for socialism. The Communists are the true spokesmen and staunchest champions of the national interests of their countries.
The growing antagonism between the monopolies and the vast majority of the population has generated in the capitalist world a powerful upturn of mass democratic, antiwar movements. These are objectively spearheaded against the policies of imperialism's reactionary circles. They are merging into a common torrent of struggle for social progress and have become a long-term and influential factor of society's life in many countries.
Proletarian internationalism is acquiring growing significance as the imperialist circles of different countries closely coordinate their actions against the communist movement, endeavour to range some fraternal parties against others, and combine undisguised anti-communist propaganda with support for elements in the working class movement that 314 attack class policy and internationalist solidarity. It incorporates revolutionary solidarity and recognition of the independence and equality of each party.
The CPSU regards the anti-imperialist struggle for social progress by peoples who have shaken off the yoke of colonialism as a major component of the world revolutionary process. Resistance to neocolonialism is mounting everywhere. The Programme shows the prospects lying before the newly-free countries that have adopted the line of socialistoriented development and assesses this as being of considerable historical significance. It is the intrinsic right of the newly-free nations to determine their own destinies. The CPSU staunchly champions the equal participation of these countries in international affairs and a bigger independent role for them in matters related to peace and social progress.
The CPSU's analysis of the main motive forces of world progress in the present epoch has led it to the historically optimistic conclusion that the steady growth and interaction of these forces are the guarantee that the hopes of the peoples for a life of peace, freedom, and happiness will be translated into reality.
Whatever the political and ideological orientation of the participants of the international historical process, they take up a position on one or the other side of the watershed in relation to the key problem that is today of crucial importance to all of them, namely, the problem of war and peace. The threat of a world nuclear war, which would wipe out humankind, has grown. That is why the CPSU emphatically declares: "There is no loftier or more responsible mission than of safeguarding and strengthening peace and curbing the forces of aggression and militarism for the sake of life of the present and future generations.''^^4^^
The Programme reiterates the momentous conclusion that a world war is not fatally inevitable and that it can be prevented. By concerted effort, the peoples can and must avert the threat of nuclear incineration. This conclusion has an incontrovertible foundation. Imperialism's policy of aggression is countered by the vigorous, consistent policy of peace pursued by the socialist states, by their growing economic and defensive might. A huge role in maintaining 315 peace is played by the military-strategic parity between the USSR and the USA and between the Warsaw Treaty Organisation and NATO. Aggression and militarism are opposed by the overwhelming majority of the newly-free states and ever broader masses of people on all continents.
The CPSU Programme repeats to the whole world that the only acceptable policy today is one of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. The CPSU will champion this principle firmly and steadfastly and facilitate its assertion in international relations world-wide.
The Programme affirms the party's clearly expressed determination to work constructively in all directions of the struggle to improve the international situation. In it is emphasised the striving to normalise relations with the USA, to promote peaceful, goodneighbourly relations with the states of Western Europe, and to spread detente throughout the world. The CPSU attaches great political importance to economic, scientific, technological, and cultural cooperation and urges the development of stable and broad relations in these areas. In order to reinforce security, confidence, and peaceful cooperation among countries, the CPSU will work to put an end to the world's division into military-political groups.
The all-embracing, constructive proposals put forward by the CPSU in order to bridle the arms race and move towards disarmament are generalised in meaningful words: "There are no weapons that the Soviet Union would not be prepared to limit or ban on a reciprocal basis with effective means of verification.''^^5^^ The Soviet Union does not seek military superiority, but it will not permit any upsetting of the present military-strategic equilibrium. It will direct its efforts towards steadily lowering the level of this equilibrium.
The call for peace, goodneighbourly relations, and constructive cooperation among countries is a keynote of the Programme. Its entire content lucidly demonstrates the CPSU's fidelity to the banner of peace, which the Soviet Union has been holding on high ever since the October Revolution.
The Programme's provisions lay down solid foundations and cornerstone principles of the CPSU's policy, an explicit 316 guideline for the immediate and the long-term future extending into the twenty-first century. The CPSU has always sought to put into effect the lofty, peace-loving principles of its line in international affairs, and it is continuing these efforts today with greater energy and on a larger scale than ever before.
Compelling evidence of this is seen in the plan for the abolition of nuclear weapons advanced by Mikhail Gorbachev on January 15, 1986, the conclusions and foreign policy guidelines advanced by the 27th Congress of the CPSU, and the concept put forward by it for the creation of an all-embracing system of security. The Soviet initiatives are addressed not only to governments but also to the peoples, to all social forces and people of goodwill, for deliverance from the threat of a world war is a matter of concern to every person. The Soviet idea of a nuclear-free earth is supported by millions of people throughout our planet. The USSR is working purposefully to ensure the solution of cardinal problems of our time and pave the way for the establishment of enduring peace by the force of its own example, constructive ideas, and realistic initiatives.
The new edition of the CPSU Programme adopted by the 27th Congress has generated enormous interest world-wide. This is not surprising. Ever since the October Revolution the collision between accurate and false notions about socialism and its policy has been in the focus of the ideological struggle. These issues have become particularly pressing today with the adoption of the party Programme, which gives a coherent presentation of the CPSU's domestic and foreign policies, when our party and people are placing on the scales of history what they are offering humankind as an alternative to capitalism, when it is a question of the main content and historical destiny of the competition between the two world socio-political systems. In a situation marked by an acute ideological struggle on the international scene, the CPSU Programme is a substantive reply to imperialism's global strategy of aggression.
In recent years reactionary ideologists have undertaken, as they have done so many times before, to prove that the theory of socialism and the social practice based on it are 317 untenable. However, the principal outcome of the development of the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries is evidence that socialism is the most dynamic and forwardlooking system creating optimal social conditions for humankind's scientific, technological, and cultural progress, for the assertion of freedom and justice. In considering socialist reality in the Soviet Union, the stages of its formation and development, and the tasks now confronting the party and the people in all their complexity, with all their difficulties and contradictions, the CPSU Programme charts realistic ways of translating the ideals of the founders of Marxism-Leninism into life. Entirely in keeping with the theory of Marx, Engels, and Lenin it enunciates our ultimate goal-the building of communism.
Capitalism's apologists repeat over and over again that Marxism-Leninism cannot be an effective instrument of socio-economic transformation in industrialised countries. Yet our Programme from beginning to end is a programme for the development of a highly industrialised society such as the Soviet Union is today. Its content totally refutes that anti-communist thesis.
Bourgeois propaganda depicts all liberation movements, all progressive, revolutionary changes wherever they take place, and even the peace movement as the "handiwork of Moscow" and thereby endeavours to justify imperialist interference in the affairs of sovereign nations. The Programme convincingly and clearly refutes inventions of this kind. Revolution, it says, is the natural result of social development, of the class struggle in each given country. The CPSU sees the ``export'' of revolution, the imposition of a revolution from without, as fundamentally unacceptable. But any form of ``export'' of counter-revolution is likewise a flagrant impingement on the free expression of the peoples. The Soviet Union influences the course of world events not by force of arms but by the force of example.
The Communists, the working people, and progressive opinion throughout the world have given the Programme a warm reception. They see it as a strictly objective, scientific, and concrete embodiment of the realities of Soviet society and its prospects, as a genuinely humane society. This unquestionably reinforces the attractiveness of 318 socialism for huge numbers of people throughout the world.
The Programme's provisions will give a powerful impetus for making the Soviet Union's relations with fraternal socialist countries more dynamic and for expanding these relations. The ideas and experience accumulated in the Programme will, we believe, be useful for the new states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that have embarked upon independent development, particularly for those of them that have elected to build socialism. The argumented assessments given in the Programme may be used in the activities of communist and workers' parties, of all progressive democratic circles. The fact that it spells out the essence of the Soviet foreign policy of peace will help to vitalise the struggle of the broadest democratic anti-war forces against the policy of militarism and aggression.
The discussion of the draft new edition of the CPSU Programme in the entire party and by the whole people showed the close attention and approval that this document received from the Communists and all other Soviet people. They identify the flourishing of socialism and their own bright prospects for the future with the implementation of tasks outlined in it. The ideas advanced in it inspire the day-to-day work of the people and urge them on to new accomplishments. The all-sided upgrading of socialism and the gradual progress towards communism will raise still higher the prestige of the Soviet Union and increase its influence on the course of world history.
~^^1^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works in three volumes, Vol.3, Moscow, 1970, p. 36.
2 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29. p. 222.
~^^3^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 472.
~^^4^^ The Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (A New Edition), Politizdat, Moscow, 1986, p. 61.
5 Ibid., p. 71.
[319] __ALPHA_LVL2__ Unity and DiversityThe WMR Commission on the Exchange of Party Experience held a meeting in Prague in June 7986 to discuss some meaningful problems in the communist movement today. It was attended by representatives of the fraternal parties on the journal, and a group of researchers from the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU CC: Prorectot Yuri Krassin, department head Grigori Vodolazov, Dr. Sc. (Hist.), Mikhail Basmanov, Dr. Sc. (Hist.), and Alexander Volkov, Dr. Sc. (Hist.).
The opening speech at the meeting was delivered by WMR Managing Editor Sergei Tsukassov (CPSU). Among those who took part in the discussion were: Jose Maria Lanao (CP Argentina), Bert Ramelson (CP Great Britain), Duong Ngok Ky (CP Vietnam), Donald Ramotar (People's Progressive Party of Guyana), Roland Bauer (Sociaiist Unify Party of Germany), Zenon Zorzovilis (CP Greece), Kamel Magdi (Egyptian CP), Kadhim Habib (Iraqi CP), William Stewart (CP Canada), Alvaro Oviedo (Colombian CP), Francisco Gamboa (People's Vanguard Party of Costa Rica), Antonio Diaz Ruis (CP Cuba), Gunnar Wahl (CP Norway), Felix Dixon (People's Party of Panama), Cesar Jimenez (Peruvian CP), Domingos Lopez (Portuguese CP), Jaime Barrios (CP El Salvador), AM Ahmed el Tayeb (CP Sudan), Ali lleri (CP Turkey), Georg Kwiatowski (German CP), Orel Viciani (CP Chile). Rodny Ohman (Left Party-Communists of Sweden), Raja Collure (CP Sri Lanka), and Elean Thomas (Workers Party of Jamaica).
Below is a report on the discussion. The international communist movement, speakers said, is 320 a most influential ideological and political force of our day and continues its forward development. At the same time, the Communists have been faced with new problems and tasks in the past several years, and there is every indication that our movement has entered upon a qualitatively new phase. That, as the congresses of several fraternal parties noted, calls for a bold and imaginative approach to the problems generated by the changing situation in the world, and for an in-depth analysis of the new phenomena reflecting the law-governed processes and tendencies of the current stage and its specifics, for the purpose of deciding on the most effective and objectively warranted ways and means of combatting the growing war danger, and carrying on the struggle for the peoples' peaceful future and for social progress.
That is the approach, speakers emphasised, which one will find in the documents of the 27th Congress of the CPSU and they show the dialectics of peace and social progress, and of the social contradictions of our day, and formulate the principles of the new political thinking in the context of the realities of the nuclear age. The ideas put forward by the congress are a reflection of the Communists' capacity to take account of changes in the situation in due time, and to face the reality; they are innovative and give much food for thought about the present state and prospects of the communist movement, and its role in the struggle for peace and social progress.
What then are the concrete realities of our day urging the need for a further development of theory and a renewal of the practice of the communist forces' activities?
First of all, participants in the discussion said, there is the qualitative change in the content of the struggle for peace in the face of the imperialist nuclear threat, a struggle aimed not just to avert war, but to save human civilisation from destruction, a fact which requires a deeper comprehension of the correlation of defence of peace and the struggle for social progress.
There are, furthermore, the dynamic processes in the development of existing socialism, which has set the task of utmost intensification in building the new society and enhancement of its influence on world developments.
321There is the technological revolution signifying a radical break in the development of the productive forces, and entailing deep changes in the population structure, and so also in the communist parties' social base, especially in the industrialised capitalist countries.
There are the changing conditions in which the Communists of the Third World have to fight, with mounting crisis tendencies caused by the policy of imperialism and internal reaction, on the one hand, and a spread and deepening of the liberation movement, on the other, a fact which increases its global importance.
There are, finally, the processes of internationalisation, in which some erstwhile national or regional problems are evolving into mankind's problems, a fact that also sheds a largely new light on the international cooperation of the communist parties, and of all the other progressive and peace-loving forces.
The world as a whole is changing rapidly and becoming ever more diverse. It abounds in sharp contradictions and unprecedented dangers, but, as never before in the past, clearly reveals its oneness, and that the most varied phenomena, objective and subjective factors of human existence, the international and the national, the social and the individual are intimately interdependent.
It was said in the course of the discussion that the process of adapting to the changing situation is no simple one, and that it is fraught with contradictions. But is the novelty of the circumstances fraught only with difficulties, does it not also offer the Communists fresh perspectives? Speakers said that the communist movement has more favourable opportunities for development today than it did yesterday. However, these need to be comprehended and clearly defined. An in-depth and objective examination of presentday realities can alone make it possible to use in policy all the pluses of the existing situation, and to reckon with the minuses and to neutralise them to some extent. The emerging possibilities can undoubtedly be translated into life by the communist parties' joint efforts, but that also calls for new political thinking, a new approach to outstanding problems.
``Are we not perhaps in a hurry to declare as new 322 something that is not such in fact?'', asked Bert Rome/son. The problems being discussed here have been the subject of debate in the communist parties of the Western countries for many years. Are we not perhaps overdramatising some of the phenomena regarded as some kind of sudden and recent revolutionary changes, to which the communist movement has not yet managed to adapt itself? Take the threat of nuclear war. Did it not exist back in the 1950s, when these death-dealing weapons were first developed? If there is anything new about that, it is that it has taken decades to become aware of the danger to mankind's very survival.
The new realities in the world and in the communist movement are there, Domingos Lopez objected, although, of course, they should not be set up as an absolute by declaring that something had not existed in the past. The most difficult thing about theory, as the present discussion shows, said Gr/gori Vodolazov, consists in a clear-cut definition of the novelty of the problems. Nothing emerges or disappears all of a sudden. There is always a connection with the past and it is, of course, highly important to indicate it. But it is equally important to bring out, within the framework of this continuity, that which is truly novel, if one is to have a clear view of the substance of the problems and, consequently, of the ways to solve them. The issue of peace now clearly presents itself in a different way from that of the time of Marx and Lenin or even in the 1950s and 1960s. And the point here is not just the need for insights into this problem, but above all the objectively determined changes in its content and the nature of its impact on social development.
The discussion was, therefore, concentrated mainly on determining in what the novel concretely consists, and on the implications of this and other above-mentioned problems.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Peace: The Overriding TaskThe historical mission of the working class and of the communist parties in the nuclear age, many speakers stressed, objectively acquires a broader dimension: it is not only 323 the revolutionary transformation of human civilisation, but also its preservation, and prevention of a nuclear catastrophe. It was said that this thesis in general terms is not, in fact, a controversial on within the communist movement. Discussions arise whenever it is considered in connection with the formulation of strategy and tactics in the revolutionary struggle, and is concretised in such problems as: how can the Communists effectively advance to the attainment of their ultimate goals while giving priority to the task of safeguarding peace? Is there not, perhaps, here the danger of establishing a sort of social status quo that would, even if partially, compel ``sacrifice'' of the interests of the revolution?
Securing peace throughout the world and, consequently, preserving life on the globe, said Georg Kwiatowski, is the basic prerequisite for the solution of all the other problems and for the triumph of the ideas of socialism. It is a task that unites people, irrespective of class, ideological, party, political or national boundaries. The contradiction between the peoples and the most aggressive forces of imperialism, at a time when mankind is faced with the "to be or not to be" question, has become the main political contradiction of our time.
That, however, does not in any way minimise the significance of the contradictions produced by social antagonisms and the existence of two social systems, he said. These have their objective basis and are inevitable. That is why it is altogether wrong, for instance, to speak of a "civil peace" between workers and "good capitalists'', an idea implying abandonment of the struggle for higher wages and preservation of workplaces at enterprises whose owners take a common-sense attitude to the defence of peace. Yet another point'has to be borne in mind. While peace may be of concern to mankind as a whole, it still has some class aspects. The danger of war springs from the substance of imperialism, from the monopolies' urge to maximise profits and expand the sphere of their domination. Another important aspect is that existing socialism is the chief force for peace, and that the working class and its organisations have a considerable role to play in the peace movement in the capitalist countries.
324Speakers emphasised that there is now a need for a fundamentally new approach to these problems, requiring a full comprehension of the spontaneous force of mankind's self-preservation and the involvement of working class vanguard in it, without claims to re-orienting it towards other goals. The new approach also requires the ability to influence that force in such a way as to bring out and widen the peace forces' anti-militaristic potential, to help the masses see more clearly where the sources of the war danger lie, and to concentrate their efforts on blocking them.
While social and national oppression continues, it is, of course, impossible to imagine a halt to the peoples' revolutionary struggle for their liberation, for independence, and for a better life. It is another matter that the progressive forces in any country have a growing responsibility for every decision, and that there is ever greater significance in scrupulously taking account of the class situation within individual states and in the world arena. This implies a deep comprehension of the forms of the revolutionaries' international interaction, and a search for effective ways of fending off the imperialist aggressive policy aimed against the peoples that have taken the road of revolutionary transformations.
It is, of course, no simple matter in practice to blend the two aspects of the historical mission of the working class, for it involves a great many concrete problems, but it is a historical necessity to do so. It is connected with the formulation of new political conceptions and an understanding that, despite the gulf dividing socialism and capitalism, the people living within these two systems will either perish or survive together.
The nuclear threat sheds a new light on many, if not all, of the problems connected with the dialectics of peace and social progress, said Roland Bauer. We feel that the new situation compels a deeper comprehension and even reappraisal of some of the Communists' theoretical positions, strategy and tactics on war and peace, and substantially amends the concept of priorities.
Thus, the only realistic way to lasting peace during the First World War lay through the socialist revolution. Today, prevention of a nuclear conflagration, preservation of peace 325 on the Earth, and pacific settlement of regional conflicts are the key prerequisites for social progress. Unlike wars in the past, nuclear war would not be a continuation of policy by other means, but an end to all policy and, naturally, an end to all progress.
The experience of the class struggle shows: a peaceful situation never acts as a brake on social progress and conversely, every success scored on its way serves to strengthen peace. From the standpoint of our class interests and ultimate goals, the peculiarity of the present situation leaves no other choice but to regard peace and the struggle for stronger peace as the cornerstone chiefly because the nuclear threat posed by imperialism is fraught with mankind's annihilation, and because its survival is a necessary prerequisite for social development. An analysis of the conditions that shape the contradictions constituting the basis of dialectical ties-both of the general and of the particular-between peace and social progress gives an important clue to their understanding. They have the same social roots, and essentially one and same enemy-imperialism. We believe, however, that the struggle for peace and for social progress spring from two different types of contradictions, and so develop in different spheres and mobilise different motive forces. Consequently, the resolution of these contradictions requires differing ways, means and methods.
The struggle for peace proceeds mainly in foreign policy, international law, and the norms and rules governing the relations between states and peoples, the speaker went on. After all, the threat of war and the struggle against it are rooted above all in class and other contradictions which are manifested precisely in the sphere of these relations. Social progress and its highest form-socialist revolutionare another matter, for they spring primarily from the society's internal contradictions. Their development is not frameworked by inter-state relations, but by internal, social, political and other conditions in a given country. The attained level of social progress depends primarily on the correlation of the class forces on the national level, and on the intensity of the popular mass struggle in the individual countries.
326 __ALPHA_LVL3__ Retaining the Class ApproachExperience shows, said Donald Ram of or, that objective conditions in the less developed countries prevent the masses from comprehending the full importance and complexity of the problems in standing up for peace. Nor is that so only in these countries. Why do voters in some imperialist countries, for instance, vote for conservative parties, which pose a threat to peace? There the progressive forces have apparently failed duly to tie in the economic and social tasks of the working class with the anti-war struggle, for otherwise how can one explain, say, the fact that Reagan was twice elected to the presidency? It means that far from everyone is still agreed with us that peace is the supreme thing. The same is evidenced by the attitude of many voters in Great Britain, the FRO, and France. The Communists evidently need to be more active in showing the close connection between peace and social progress, between peace and the working people's immediate interests.
Grigori Vodolazov said that there was some onesidedness to the thesis that the struggle for peace is a prerequisite for social progress. It is equally, true, after all, that the struggle for social progress is a prerequisite for strengthening peace. Indeed, isn't the struggle against militarism, the militaryindustrial complex and its agents, the struggle to remove the reactionary faction of the bourgeoisie from political and economic power such a prerequisite, and doesn't it coincide with the stand for peace? These are, rather, two aspects of a single process.
This idea was elaborated by Yuri Krassin, who said that the complexity of these problems lies in the fact that there is no automatic connection between the movement along the way to lasting peace, and social-class interests. There is a need for intellectual effort and much political work to tie everything into a single package. The Social Democrats have been instrumental in launching the now widely current formula: "Without Peace Everything Is Nothing''. While it is true, it fails to express the whole complexity of the present situation. To it should be added this other thesis: Peace is the main thing, but it is not yet everything. It does not invalidate the other values, including the revolutionary goals 327 before the working class and the Communists. But even that is not enough: the strengthening of peace is impossible outside the context of the main content of the present epoch, i.e., outside the development of the main forces of social progress, which include world socialism, the communist and working class movement, the forces of national liberation, and the mass democratic movements.
The contradictions over the struggle for peace, the speaker went on, tend to unfold within the stress field of the basic contradiction of our day, that between the two social systems, i.e., there is here necessarily a social-class aspect. For its part, the revolutionary process does not at all depend only on the contradictions in the national arena. Consider, for instance, the revolutionary substance of the CPSU's programme for accelerating economic and social development, which is that its fulfilment will influence the whole of world development and the resolution of the basic contradictions of our epoch, and that this is bound to have an effect---not mechanically, of course, but through an intricate prism of national conditions-on the internal situation in the various countries.
Peace is an international and simultaneously a strictly national phenomenon, because it depends on what is being done to strengthen it by this or that country, this or that social force or party operating on the national soil, said Antonio Diaz Ruis. On the other hand, social progress always has national roots, although it is closely bound up with international processes. Thus, the revolution in Cuba would have been impossible but for the fact that its internal impulses ware amplified by favourable external factors. There is now a growing interdependence of the national and international aspects of the struggle for peace and social progress. In the light of this, the CP Cuba strives to have every Cuban prepared to defend the gains of the revolution arms in hand, if imperialism should dare to encroach on them, and at the same time does everything to support the Sandinist Revolution in Nicaragua and the Salvadoran patriots. In this way, the interconnection between the struggle for peace and the struggle for social emancipation and national liberation is manifested in concrete practical form in the Latin American region.
328In the present situation, Alvaro Oviedo added, a narrow interpretation of the interests and historical mission of the working class is unacceptable. However, one should also consider the other extreme, namely, the danger of the class factor being eroded in the approach to the problems of safeguarding peace. Such a danger exists in various contingents of the working class movement and circles close to the Communists. One should always bear in mind what Lenin said about it being necessary for the working class and its vanguard to hold high the banner of peace and democratic demands in order to rally the masses, while ensuring proletarian leadership in the social movement.
He urged efforts to keep the social aspects of the struggle for peace constantly in the field of vision and to expose the character of the forces against which it is directed. The important thing is to show the class content of the basic source of war, which is imperialism, and also the reactionary role of the military-industrial complexes, the real warmongers. We declare: the first thing is to fight for peace and to safeguard it, but that does not at all mean that the imperialists are best left alone so that peace is not disrupted. We need peace, but we must not give up social change, democratic and revolutionary transformations, which imply the idea of destroying 'imperialism.
The Communists, who are opposed to war on principle, cannot afford even today to forget that there are just and unjust wars, said Kadhim Habib. If their country is subjected to aggression, their duty is to defend it. Resistance to imperialist aggression, armed struggle for independence and social progress are legitimate and well-justified. Nor does that contradict the general principles of our approach to the problems of nuclear war and universal peace, whose solution calls for scrupulous consideration of the concrete conditions in each country, and of the regional and national specifics of the tasks facing the Communists, and the other peace and anti-imperialist forces.
The present situation, said Raja Co/lure, does indeed require a new approach by the Communists to the question of peace, but not a reappraisal of their conceptions of the nature of imperialism. One should not, of course, lose sight of the possibility that in certain conditions the struggle for 329 social emancipation and national liberation could lead to such a confrontation with imperialism that, in desperate straits, it would risk going to the extreme. Does it follow that one should abandon the revolutionary struggle? No, it does not. There is a need, however, constantly to bear in mind the tremendous responsibility for the destinies of the world, and to act in such a way as ttf restrain imperialism from any mad gambles.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Hunger, DependenceIt was pointed out in the course of the discussion that whereas in some regions the threat of a nuclear catastrophe is regarded as the most acute problem, so that the anti-war movement there surpasses in scope all the other forms of protest, elsewhere socia^^1^^ calamities, deprivation and racism often have a more immediate impact on the mass consciousness and behaviour than the not-always-- palpablyperceived danger of war.
The peoples of most less developed countries, said A/i Ahmed el Tayeb, are concerned above all with such burning problems as hunger, which daily takes the lives of many thousands of human beings, the lack of medical care, illiteracy, etc. These problems are being aggravated by imperialism's neocolonialist policy. It is natural that the struggle for economic independence and for stronger national sovereignty has become the main line of activity of revolutionary and all the other progressive forces in the less developed countries. We believe that this struggle serves not only the cause of national liberation and social progress, but also the strengthening of peace. Thus, the overthrow of the dictatorial regime in the Sudan did much to undermine the positions of the militaristic circles of US imperialism and helped to reduce the danger of war in the region.
Indeed, the problem of peace is not perceived as acutely in the less developed countries as it is, say, in Western Europe, said Kamel Magdi. However, the most explosive hotbeds of tension are located in the Third World. That is where the first spark of a nuclear war may well flare 330 up. Preparations for such a war are essentially under way, especially in the Middle East, where Israel has joined the "star wars" programme, and where US nuclear-armed warships are allowed to use the Suez Canal. However, comprehension of the war danger is getting through to the broad masses slowly, for they are most concerned with their social plight and the need to fight for their democratic rights and freedoms.
Mass action under purely anti-war slogans is relatively rare in Argentina, said Jose Maria Lanao. The powerful democratic movement, which is under way in that country, as it is in other countries of the region, objectively promotes the strengthening of peace, and it is important to develop action aimed directly against militarism and war, and not to confine oneself to national demands. However, it is extremely hard to do so in a country where millions of people have death staring them in the face from chronic hunger, and not from a nuclear conflagration.
There are three erroneous conceptions on the question of peace in the less developed countries, the speaker went on. Some say that priority should be given to the national liberation movement, even allowing for the risk of a world war. Others believe that national liberation tasks should be completely subordinated to the efforts to preserve peace. Finally, the most widespread attitude may be designated as intermediate: its advocates condemn war, but in practice ignore or underestimate the positive influence of the struggle for peace on the peoples' liberation movement.
In order to resist these tendencies and to stimulate the anti-war protest in these regions, it is important for the Communists to work, in the first place, for an understanding by broad public circles of the connection which exists between their vital problems and international developments.
This conclusion was supported by Orel Viciani, who stressed the need to use various instruments of propaganda and organisational influence to mobilise the masses for the struggle for peace. The masses learn mainly from their own experience and will never join in the struggle merely under general slogans. That is why there is a need to analyse the concrete tasks the struggle sets before them. In Latin 331 America, the struggle for peace means, first, solidarity with the peoples of El Salvador and Nicaragua, and second, solution of the external debt problem. If the anti-war movement in the West came to understand the importance of tying in the debt problem with spending on the arms rape, which is being whipped up by imperialism, he said, it would be a strong stimulus for the peace forces in the Third World. The struggle of the peoples in their countries for the removal of the US military bases in Panama, Turkey and Egypt, said Felix D/xon, A/; fieri and /Came/ Mogdi, is a concrete manifestation of the concurring goals of the antiwar and the national liberation movements.
Mikhail Basmanov expressed this in concrete terms by drawing the attention of the participants in the discussion to the fact that the less developed countries account for three-quarters of the world's arms imports. An end to the arms race would unburden them of these expenditures. Advance towards disarmament would release resources for economic assistance to the young states. The money it is planned to spend on the SDI project by the United States alone could help to clear the trillion-dollar debt of the less developed world. And the main thing: a stable international order based on the principles of peaceful coexistence would shift the accent in human effort from the problem of the nuclear threat to the problems of development, creating a climate favourable for international cooperation in their solution, and for dismantling the system of neocolonial dependence.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Feedback EffectThe mounting anti-war protest, despite the patchwork of forces involved, speakers said, objectively expands the communist parties' potentialities. The broadest masses of people, encompassing the members of the most diverse strata, join in active politics through the struggle for peace. The human urge for survival unites those whose class tendencies often diverge and are sometimes even antithetical. This calls for the formulation of an anti-war policy taking account not only of the discrepant, but also of the conflicting interests.
332The German CP, said Georg Kwlatowski, does not regard the diversity of the peace movement as a weakness, but as a strength, because it includes the most varied public circles. Attempts to reduce them to a common denominator and to impose the same organisational forms on them would weaken the struggle. But this question arises: how are the joint peace-making efforts to be concerted? Each party decides on this for itself, in the light of its country's concrete conditions. There is no room here for stereotypes. While the FRG Communists take their own stand in the peace movement, they make a serious effort to reckon with the views of its other participants, and consider themselves to be partners, lay no claims to leadership, and expect to be treated by others in the same way.
The new approach to these problems, speakers said, has to be hammered out in the face of difficulties, among them anti-communism and chauvinism, the uneven and contradictory development of the mass consciousness, the lag of anti-war action behind the rapid material preparations for war, and the still insufficient activity of the working class in some cases in the struggle for peace. Nor does the moulding of a political thinking adequate to the presentday realities and comprehension of the need to combine the two lines of struggle---for peace and for revolutionary class goals-run a smooth course within the revolutionary movement itself.
Some Communists, said Gunnar Wahl, are apprehensive about our potentialities for playing an active role in the peace movement because of the diversity of views and standpoints within it. We feel that the real problem is a different one: it is the need to rise to the level of world problems and comprehend the new situation, which makes the movement such a tremendous force. There is, for example, the experience of Norway, where the peace fighters have most effectively altered the political atmosphere, something that no other public movement could have done. The Conservative Party in the country is now gradually finding itself in political isolation after many years of being at the helm. That has resulted from the fact that security and foreign policy issues have ceased to be the preserve of the traditional parties, including the Conservatives.
333There is yet another lesson to be learnt from the Norwegian experience. For a long time, the country's trade union movement was under complete influence from the social-- reformists, and the Communist Party tried to change the situation without much success. Within the framework of the peace movement, the Communists' efforts in this direction proved to be more effective. Why? Because it turned out that within its framework the traditional forms of activity and relationships between the parties tend to change; those who are truly fighting for peace are much more receptive to political questions and are more willing to enter into discussion. At any rate, after the trade unions joined actively in the mass anti-war movement, they themselves evolved and became more militant.
It is usually assumed, the speaker said, that the working class movement has to influence the peace movement, and that is, of course, right. But one should also reckon with the possibilities of influence the other way. The working class can learn a lot from the peace movement. There should be no apprehension that the Communists' participation in it will be insufficiently authoritative or that it will obscure their class stand. The CP Norway still has few leading posts in the trade unions and other mass bodies, but it seeks to right the situation. Our first and truly major success is work in the peace movement, which has proved to be an excellent political school for the Norwegian Communists. They have amplified their understanding of the pressing tasks and have acquired new experience of discussion with people of other ideological bearings. All of this has added strength to the Communist Party and has helped it to invigorate many other spheres of its activity.
William Stewart spoke of similar experience. The peace movement in Canada helps to activate the working people's struggle as a whole. Trade unions, Social Democrats and Communists work together in broad anti-war actions. More and more members of various strata and categories of the working people are acting together with the Communists for the working people's social rights, and against the reactionary policy of the monopoly circles.
334 __ALPHA_LVL3__ How Is the Vanguard to Act?Changes in the society's social structure, caused primarily by the technological revolution, confront the Communists with some tough questions: to whom are they to look in their current work and over the long run? How are they to adapt to the new changes in all aspects of the communist parties' activity and inner life? How are they to update their policy and modernise their face, while remaining the basic type"^^1^^ of revolutionary parties of the working class?
The analysis made by the participants in the discussion shows that today, as in the past, the traditional strata of the industrial workers---miners, metallurgists, builders, etc.--- continue to be the mainstay of the communist movement, especially in the industrialised capitalist countries. They are concentrated at large enterprises, have a high degree of unionisation, much experience in class battles, and militancy. Despite the shrinking of their numbers, their weakening bargaining position due to the crisis, and the threat of redundancy, these strata are expected to remain a major component of the working class for a long time to come.
It is quite right, speakers said, that the communist parties regard as an integral part of their social base the `` unwanted'', those who have been expelled from production by capitalist modernisation. The effects of the crisis are most painfully felt by the unemployed, by those engaged in arduous labour, the low-paid, and the old-age pensioners who barely make ends meet. It is up to the Communists to develop and direct their social discontent potential along the right lines. While standing up for the dispossessed and involving them in political struggle, the communist parties regard the social forces which are the vehicles of progress, and which have a future before them as their long-term support.
These forces, primarily working class groups which are most solidly integrated with the high-technology system are the nerve-centre of present-day capitalism, said Alexander Volkov. The Communists' programmatic demands oriented towards these ``new'' workers show that ever greater importance is attached to ensuring conditions for creative labour, the right to information about enterprise activity, 335 participation in decision-making and democratic control, and environmental protection. All of this should help to introduce the socialist consciousness into the new strata of workers and promote their ideological and organisational integration into the militant ranks of the working class.
Some speakers noted in this context that while recognising the objective necessity and reality of technical progress, it is important to use every opportunity to turn developments along lines more advantageous to the working people even under the existing system. This question has been asked: is there now perhaps some priority for the relatively modest but pressing task which concerns not only the Communists, but also the other left-wing forces, namely, that of standing up for an alternative development of capitalism to counteract the "conservative counter-revolution" and help to increase the influence of the working class and of the democratic public on every aspect of social life? Should not the solution of this problem perhaps come ahead of the formulation of slogans for deeper democratic transformations, which the documents of some parties designate as anti-monopoly democracy? There is also this other question: how is one to act? Is it by further diversifying the specific demands and deepening the individual approach to the various categories of wage-workers, or by emphasising their fundamental entity, which springs from the root contradiction between labour and capital?
Bert Rome/son said that it is futile to lay emphasis on a categorisation of the working class; the important thing is to insist on unity, and to prove to each working person in the capitalist world that tomorrow they may well find themselves jobless, regardless of their skill standards and the industry in which they are employed, to bargain for collective agreements with an eye to the interests both of ``new'' and ``traditional'' workers, etc. At the same time, he stressed that a lasting solution of economic and social problems can be attained only under socialism.
The idea of intermediate steps towards an anti-monopoly coalition was formulated by the Communist Party of Canada at the May Plenary Meeting (1986) of its Central Committee, said William Stewart. The party believes that one should not confine oneself to vigorous action only during 336 electoral campaigns, and then wait for the next such opportunity, allowing the government to conduct an antipeople policy. The CPC intends to give greater scope to the extra-parliamentary mass struggle, above all under the slogans of averting the danger of war and abandoning the line of bending the country to US interests.
A// lleri remarked that the primary goal of the Turkish Communists, who have to work in a country under a repressive regime, is complete realisation of bourgeois democracy today, within the framework of capitalist social relations.
Dom/ngos Lopez spoke of the Portuguese Communists' tasks at the present stage and singled out among these the defence of the gains of the April 1974 Revolution, and the interests of the working class, which is being subjected to ever fiercer exploitation. The working people of Portugal, as those of all the other countries of Western Europe, are faced with the vital problem of safeguarding and strengthening democracy. For all that, he stressed, one should not for a moment lose sight of, or omit the main thing in propaganda: the socialist perspective.
The representatives of several Latin American and Caribbean parties expressed the view that the struggle for some limited democratic transformations under capitalism can hardly be set there as a strategic goal. The advance to socialism is being placed on the order of the day as the main goal by the exacerbating contradictions, the close interconnection between the local oligarchy and imperialism, the weakness and surbordinate status of the Latin American bourgeoisie, and the level of the revolutionary consciousness of the popular masses, Antonio Diaz Ruis emphasised.
This conclusion was supported by E/ean Thomas: Jamaica's economic and social problems cannot be solved without socialising the basic means of production and deep changes in the relations of production; the road of reforms within the framework of neocolonialism is getting narrower. Expecting social progress under capitalism is a typically West European view of the problem, said Jaime Barrios. In El Salvador, the stratum which used to be called the national bourgeoisie no longer has anything truly national about it today, and it caters for US imperialism. That is why 337 there is a need for a democratic revolution as the first lap on the way to socialism.
Speakers noted the need to unite the ranks of the working class and to strive to form round it the broadest front of popular forces concerned with change. The Costa Rican Communists' prestige in the midst of the people, said Francisco Gamboa, is based on the sincerity, firmness and clarity of their course, and their capacity to act together with those whose views do not entirely coincide with ours. He stressed that it was well to modernise the party itself and its work, as this would help to draw new strata of the working class Into the party ranks. The Communists of Costa Rica believe that it is necessary to give up obsolete and amateurish forms of activity in favour of scientifically-based forms meeting the requirements of the epoch. This will enable them to pursue a more flexible policy and to take part in broad alliances on the basis of respect for diverse views, while maintaining the party's ideological purity and integrity, and its inner unity on Lenin's organisational principles.
The problem facing the Peruvian CP and the Left Forces Unity, said Cesar Jimenez, is not a shrinking of the social base, but the need for new methods of work to involve those who look for true leadership in the struggle for the interests of the people and the working masses. Bourgeois reformists, like those in APRA, the ruling party in our country, which combines anti-imperialism with certain reactionary attitudes, have tried to confuse people with their demagogy. On the other hand, extremists of various stripes keep calling for and resorting to acts of terrorism, which are harmful. The Peruvian CP strives to show that it is the vanguard not only in word, but also in deed. This makes it important to develop criticism, self-criticism, and inner-party democracy, and relentlessly to combat factionalism, favouritism and sectarianism. Overt and honest action will bring the Communists even closer to those who sympathise with their ideas, to those who are, for various reasons, outside the party, but who are prepared to act for the people's cause.
The Workers Party of Jamaica, said E/ean Thomas, believes that it is its duty to oppose every manifestation of sectarianism and dogmatism, right-wing opportunism and 338 that which is called "abstract Marxism''. The party takes account of the interests of the new social forces and addresses itself not only to those who always support and share the Communists' views, but also to a broader mass by arranging a constructive dialogue without bias or preconceived formulas. The WPJ seeks ways of enlarging its ranks, notably by setting up party-support groups from among its sympathisers for the purpose of steadily recruiting new members.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Shunning Oversimplified SchemesSpeakers were agreed that the modern world is simply inconceivable without the Communists, and they will undoubtedly remain in the front ranks of the struggle for goals meeting the vital wants of the working masses, concentrating fire on the arch-enemy: the reactionary imperialist forces, those who are prepared to start a nuclear war. Almost all the contingents of the communist movement have become stronger and are developing, said Duong Ngok Ky. It has reached a level of maturity which enables it resolutely to consolidate its positions and firmly adhere to MarxistLeninist principles, rallying the anti-imperialist and progressive forces and standing up for peace and socialism.
It was noted, at the same time, that the movement is passing through a hard period of transition to a qualitatively new stage of its development. The past few years have brought out the unusual complexity and unevenness of the process of transition to the new social formation. Not very long ago the Communists believed that the twentieth century would be one of world-wide triumph for socialism. But it is now clear that, however great the revolutionaries' natural desire to bring on the hour of victory, this goal has receded into a more distant future. The truth, said Bert Rome/son, is that we tended to underestimate capitalism's capacity to adapt to the chronic crisis, and its viability, while overrating our expectations of the speed with which socialism would spread its influence.
In this context, Yuri Krassin recalled Lenin's idea that the working class movement does not develop in an evolutionary 339 way, but in leaps and bounds. These have sometimes been unperceived, with the proletariat accumulating its forces in something like behind the scenes, unnoticeably, a process which caused some intellectuals to be disappointed about the solid and viable nature of the mass movement. Then came the turning point, and new revolutionary forces, whose existence no one had even suspected earlier on, surged up, as if from the earth, to go on and solve the new problems.^^2^^ It looks as though the working class and communist movement is now going through just such a phase of accumulating forces.
Considering the realities of the communist movement, Roland Bauer gave some data from which it follows that, while the number of Communists on the globe totals more than 80 million, only an insignificant part of them belongs to parties operating in the industrialised capitalist and less developed countries. Beyond the boundaries of the socialist world, the weight and influence of the communist parties (apart from a few of the most massive ones) on the political life of their countries can hardly be said to have grown in every case. Another problem, he said, was the inadequate and often lacking internationalist unity of Communists.
The participants in the discussion said that the existence of two or more communist parties in some countries is a painful fact. It was suggested that one of the reasons may lie in the differentiation of the working class, which has brought about important changes in the social base of the parties, especially in the zone of Industrialised capitalism.
Considering this hypothesis, most speakers stressed that it can hardly help to explain the occasional fragmentation of the communist movement on the national level. Life shows that many parties working under the scientific and technical revolution and the social processes it generates have preserved solid unity in their ranks.
The existence of two or more cojnmunist parties, said Oomingos Lopez, will now be found in some countries of Western Europe and elsewhere. The objective social situation can cause this phenomenon, but it is not based on the differentiation within the working class. The conditions in each individual country need to be closely examined, and they differ even within the framework of one continent: in 340 Spain, Sweden and Finland the Communists face their own specific problems. The Portuguese CP's view is that everything needs to be done to attain the utmost possible unity of the Communists.
The creation of a truly democratic climate within the party itself is of much importance in this context, he went on, but it does not signify a mere subordination of the minority to the majority; it implies frank comradely discussion from top to bottom, and consideration of all the opinions and arguments. There is, naturally, no need to devote excessive time to discussions, but it is necessary to take account of the Ideas expressed by the Communists. That is the PCP's view of democratic centralism.
Describing the experience of the Peruvian CP, which has gone through a number of grave crises and factional struggles leading to splits, Cesar Jimenez accentuated the effect of the subjective factor. It is most manifest when people without solid Marxist-Leninist grounding or renegades infiltrate high posts, which produces internal conflicts and may even lead the whole party astray, to the point of a loss of its "basic type''. That is due to breaches of Lenin's norms of party life and various types of distortions. We believe that it is highly important for the party to take a well-- considered and responsible approach to promoting committed and ideologically well-seasoned cadres.
There was a situation in El Salvador in which there were simultaneously five revolutionary political organisations, including the Communist Party. Painstaking work by the Communists, who established mutual understanding with other comrades-in-arms, helped to set up the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front in 1980; all its members are working for a common goal and acting under common slogans. The vanguard, said Jaime Barrios, is not those which lay claim to such a role, but those who actually lead the mass movement.
The Communist Party of the Sudan faced a split in 1970, after a new situation was created in the country when a group of "free officers" seized power. At the time, liquidationist tendencies appeared in the leadership, with an abandonment of the class approach and an urge to dissolve the party in a common political organisation with the petty 341 bourgeoisie. The liquidotionists were defeated at an extraordinary party congress, left its ranks and set up what was, in effect, a parallel party, although it was never officially announced. Our party, said All Ahmed el Tayeb, creatively applied Marxism-Leninism in the concrete conditions, consistently and selflessly stood up for the ideals of the communist movement, succeeded in overcoming the crisis, and became an important factor in the development of the people's struggle, which led to the overthrow of Nimeiri's bloodstained dictatorship.
Kadhim Habib declared that the Iraqi Communists reject any arguments that could appear to justify the existence or emergence of two parties in one country. The working class, the peasantry and their allies have been and continue to be the communist party's social base. Changes in the structure of the working population under the impact of the scientific and technical revolution call for more intense ideological struggle against petty-bourgeois views, efforts to raise the political consciousness of the working class, and a firm stand for proletarian internationalism. The existence of two communist parties in a country signifies that one of them is moving along the wrong road. This phenomenon cannot be regarded as being objectively justified and it cannot be accepted: it tends to weaken the communist and the whole working class movement both on the national and on the international level.
The reasons for the lack of unity in the communist ranks in some countries, said Bert Rome/son, appear to lie in their dashed hopes for the collapse of capitalism under the crisis, and for an early solution by socialism of all the problems in developing the new society. Undoubtedly the effect of these two opposing but complementary blows to the expectations of many Communists has been to create doubt and confusion about the relevance of long-held theoretical concepts. It led some to question the validity of aspects of Marxism-Leninism and/or look towards other sources of inspiration---creating tensions within parties and even splits. These experiences rather than the "social change in the population" are the most relevant objective factors leading to divisions. However, the need is not only to understand the processes which cause division, but to seek ways for 342 overcoming disunity, to recreate and maintain unity through frank but comradely discussion of the differences, within the framework of democratic centralism-which, to be of constructive assistance, must be exercised with a considerable degree of tolerance.
One event has taken place in Greece, said Zenon Zorzovilis, as a logical outcome of the activity of the splitters in the country's communist and working class movement: the so-called internal party, which had ranged itself against the Communist Party of Greece in 1968, held its Fourth Congress in Athens (spring 1986), which considered the ways of its development. Within a year there is to be another congress to decide on the establishment of a "new organisation'', with new Rules, and on its name. That is the outcome of a long process of the ``internals'" departure from the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in theory and organisational practice, their anti-Sovietism, and refusal to carry on a political fight for Greece's withdrawal from NATO and the EEC. He said the evolution had been caused by the absolutisation of the changes under way in the structure and material condition of the working class, loss of the class perspective and the mechanical transfer to the national soil of the experience of some other parties operating in different conditions. The decision on ``transforming'' the CPG (Internal) and the subsequent setting up of a "new organisation" will make it easier, the Greek Communists believe, for the left-wing and progressive forces to cooperate in fighting for genuine change in the country.
Grigori Vodolazov added in the context of the question that to identify the objective and subjective causes behind the two-party phenomenon does not at all signify an attempt to justify it. It is merely an actual phenomenon which needs to be sorted out. Evidently, it is not the differentiation within the working class that itself leads to splits, but the Incapacity of Communists in some cases to unite its various contingents into a single whole; it is not so much pressure from bourgeois ideology as inability or refusal to resist it.
He said that it was much too categorical a conclusion to declare that with the existence of two parties, one of them necessarily travels the wrong way. He supported Rodny Obman's conclusion, who stressed the complexity of the 343 process in which the united party can be created and consolidated in a country, adding that now and again it is not just one, but both parallel parties that are acting incorrectly. He suggested the possibility of a different situation, when there are elements of the truth in the strategy and tactics of both parties.
The participants in the discussion agreed that the painful phenomenon of ``parallelism'' in the communist ranks needs to be analysed in all its interconnections, without oversimplifying, and refraining from any stark black-and-white division.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ International Solidarity:Communists in different countries, it was said in the discussion, now have more common tasks than they did in the past: solving global problems, above all preventing war and preserving peace on the Earth; converting STR achievements for the benefit of mankind as a whole; overcoming the trend towards a growing economic and social gap between the North and the South, between the ``poor'' and the ``rich'' countries; protecting the environment, etc. The need for better coordination of the struggles of the working class and the other working people against the sway of the transnational corporations and the urge of monopoly capital to bend the life of entire peoples to its interests is even more keenly felt. With a great many diverse but interconnected aspects of world development interwoven with each other, solving international solidarity problems is closely bound up with the need to deepen cooperation among the differently-oriented sections of the working class movement, the democratic and anti-imperialist forces, and all those who are worried about the threat of a nuclear catastrophe. What are the principles on which such cooperation can be based? Kadhim Habib said that the primary task is the utmost assertion of proletarian internationalism within the communist movement itself and the development on that basis of its solidarity with the other revolutionary forces. Yuri Krassin declared that one also has to see the positive 344 aspects of the ideas coming from the advocates of the "new internationalism'', meaning the need to work for the broadest possible compass of solidarity, going beyond class and national borders, when mankind's very survival is at stake. The objective need to enlarge the solidarity front, the speaker stressed, does not deny, but on the contrary, demands the strengthening of cooperation between the frontranking forces of the working class, the Communists in the first place. After all, they are the chief generator of the world-wide struggle to save our civilisation. The need for fraternal party solidarity and the need to make it more effective are ever more obvious, especially in the light of the policy of neoglobalism conducted by the imperialist forces.
There was a lively exchange of views on the question of coordinating the activities of the Communists, the working class and all the other working people in the fight against the transnationals. Raja Collure said that the TNCs are the common enemy of the peoples of the capitalist countries, both industrialised and less developed, and the TNCs predatory policy needs to be resisted in a common effort. At the same time, Bert Rome/son said, one should not assume that such resistance can be put up only on an international scale, for this tends to demobilise the working class movement in its fight at home for controlling the monopolies, curbing their power, and even nationalising them.
Like many other aspects of communist activity, resistance to capital on the national and international levels, said Georg Kwiatowski, requires a considerable improvement in mutual information. The Ford and Opel transnationals, for instance, have subsidiaries in many European countries, and their managements coordinate their intervention in the workers' social struggles and concert their decisions on the relocation of production. Meanwhile, communist party groups at these enterprises operate mainly on their own. The German CP believes that it was a great advance for the Communists of these concerns to meet, and is prepared to extend such practices.
When elaborating the lines of their joint efforts, the Communists of the industrialised capitalist countries should not fall into the error of Eurocentrism, Domingos Lopez emphasised. The effects of the new technological processes, 345 the problems arising from big capital's capacity to adapt the crisis, environmental protection, etc., are, of course, all highly important, but it is perfectly clear that there is now a pressing need to display greater solidarity with the revolutionary forces of the less developed countries, and above all to coordinate resistance to the most reactionary, aggressive circles of the United States and NATO.
The internationalisation of capitalist production throws an ever stronger light on the need to tie in more closely the revolutionary process in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America with the working class and mass democratic movements in the industrialised citadels of capitalism, and with the growing role of the socialist world in supporting the people's liberation struggle and checking the most aggressive forces of imperialism. It is important here, said Kadhim Habib and Donald Ramotar, that international solidarity should take account not only of the global balance of forces between the two world social systems, but also of the concrete factors of the class struggle in every country.
In discussing problems in the development of the Communists' internationalism, speakers emphasised the primary significance of the policies and practices of existing socialism. It is well known that its successes have always had a positive effect on the communist movement, while its failures, difficulties and mistakes have created certain complications. The growing dynamism of the new society and course it has taken for qualitative shifts are having a positive influence on the attitude to socialism on the part of various strata of the population in the capitalist world, including the working class.
It must also be taken into account, Roland Bauer said, that the example of socialism has not revolutionised the consciousness of the working people in the capitalist countries to the extent to which it was assumed a quarter-century ago it would. He drew attention to the new formulations in the documents of the 27th Congress of the CPSU concerning the diversity of the roads to socialism, the significance of collective experience, and the socialist system's greater attractive power on the international scale. All of that, together with a realistic assessment of the level of 346 development attained in the Soviet Union, given by the Congress, helps to eliminate the still existing preconceptions, misunderstandings and onesidedness in the appraisal of socialism, he said.
Our numerous associates, as we ourselves, are convinced said Ceorg Kwiatowski, that the line of accelerating the Soviet society's economic and social development will be successful and will eventually improve the conditions for the struggle of the Communist Party in the FRO and of all the other progressive and peace forces. He flatly rejected the ``recommendations'' which Communists are now and again given by Social Democrats and Greens about keeping a distance from the socialist countries, and about displaying a "critical solidarity" with respect to them. The GCP rejects such an approach, he said, because it cannot give the working class any socialist perspective, and would be tantamount to us distancing ourselves from our own future.
The influence of socialism is not an automatic reflection in men's minds in the West of the various actual processes; to make it develop in the right direction, the FRG Communists actively work to spread information about the successes of socialism, and expose the anti-Soviet campaigns by the bourgeois mass media. Among the most effective in the FRG were "Existing Socialism Weeks'', which the Communist Party held in 1983 and 1985, with dozens of invited speakers from the GDR and the USSR, who took part in numerous discussions across the country and met people from various strata of the society, including those whom it is usually hard to involve in measures arranged by the Communists. What turned out to be valuable, among other things, was that the participants in these meetings were able to address their questions directly to specialists from the socialist world, and to receive concrete answers.
Zenon Zorzovi//s described how the CP Greece countered the wild bourgeois propaganda campaign over the Chernobyl accident. In their contacts with people, and in their mass media, the Rfzospasfis newspaper in the first place, the Communists at once joined in the struggle and succeeded in changing the ideological situation at the very height of the anti-Soviet hysteria: marches and rallies against nuclear tests, the US policy of state terrorism, for 347 disarmament, and in support of the USSR's peace initiatives were held in Athens and other major cities in the middle of May 1986.
The ruling bourgeoisie and imperialism have the most modern technical facilities for manipulating the mass consciousness in the capitalist countries, but, he said, truth, the most powerful weapon, is on our side. Carrying it to the broad masses is the Communists' key task and a pledge of success in attaining their goals.
In discussing the problems of international solidarity, Raja Co/Jure, Gunnar Wahl and several other speakers expressed the wish that the Communists of various countries should invigorate their multilateral meetings to discuss and give thought together to the new cardinal problems, without necessarily adopting any collective documents. Duong Ngok Ky stressed the significance of international exchanges of experience, whose skilful application in the specific situation in each country enabled the fraternal parties to act more effectively at home and in the international arena. The conception of unity and diversity, formulated by the 27th Congress of the CPSU, was said to be a meaningful one in this context.
__*__The need for an imaginative quest of answers to these questions posed by life itself before the communist parties was an idea that keynoted the entire discussion. This means developing the Marxist-Leninist theory in accordance with the new situation of our day, with the new requirements and potentialities of the communist movement, and its flexible application in practice in the concrete conditions and the growing diversity of the modern world. There was emphasis on the pressing need to oppose any attempts to distort the fundamental principles of the communist world outlook. It was the general consensus that this struggle implies above all the solution of a number of major theoretical and practical problems now facing the fraternal parties, because our adversaries speculate on the fact that they have not been solved. The need was suggested to develop a constructive dialogue with representatives of non-Marxist trends in the working class, anti-war and other democratic 348 movements, with a view not only to expanding cooperation, but also to the positive role which personal acquaintance with their experience could have for correcting communist strategy and tactics.
In the course of the discussion, attention was drawn to the growing significance of the subjective factor in the development of the communist movement: the Communists' political activity and their capacity to comprehend the ongoing changes in due time, to discern and make utmost use of the new potentialities, and their will to attain the projected goals. It was said that thorough consideration of this factor is of exceptional importance for an objective assessment of its activity by each communist and workers' party, and for a correct understanding of the specifics of the strategy and tactics in the struggle for peace and socialism.
All the fraternal parties, it was stressed in the discussion, are self-standing, independent and equal. But while being national forces, they are also international forces. It was said that the different conditions in which they have to act. and disagreements on any issue are no obstacle to making cooperation between the Communists of the various countries more active.
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works. Vol. 19, p. 401.
~^^2^^ See V. I. Lenin. Collected Works, Vol. 8, p. 211.
[349] __ALPHA_LVL2__ Attractive Force of the October Revolution'sAs well as being our common international festival every anniversary of the socialist revolution in Russia is a further reiteration of that revolution's epochal significance, a further reminder of the Soviet people's hard-won, stirring advance from backwardness to progress within a relatively short space of time. The year 1987 will mark 70 years since the October Revolution, the birth of the world's first proletarian state, of a society of social justice, which ushered in the socialist era for humankind and laid the beginning for a fundamental reshaping of the planet's make-up. Socialism became a reality in one country, and then evolved into a world system, significantly limiting the sphere of imperialist domination.
A distinction of the present anniversary of the Great October Revolution is that it has been preceded by congresses of many fraternal parties. The documents adopted by them are a collective contribution to our common patrimony, to Marxist-Leninist theory and practice. Immense importance has been acquired by the congress of the Soviet Communists, with whom the like-minded people in different countries link decades of staunch fraternal relations and internationalist solidarity. Having gone through the flames of three revolutions, of battles with foreign invaders and the forces of reaction, and been tempered in struggle and labour the party of Lenin has at a crucial stage of the world's development marked out new milestones on the road to saving humanity and accelerating social progress.
350 __ALPHA_LVL3__ Historic DocumentsThe delegation of the Paraguayan Communist Party to the 27th Congress of the CPSU noted two distinctive features: continuity and innovation. The CC Political Report and the other documents of this congress enrich our political expertise and theory and inspire us in our struggle for socialist ideals. This is not rhetoric. It is a statement of incontrovertible fact.
The new edition of the CPSU Programme gives a profound analysis of present-day realities. As well as generalising the rich experience of revolutionary struggle and spelling out objectives on the national level, it marks out the prospects for humanity's advance to superior forms of socio-economic organisation. It may be said without exaggeration that this is the Communist Manifesto of the twentieth century, a document helping to reinforce the unity and cohesion of the international communist and working class movement, and to promote the world-wide struggle against the USA's drive for world supremacy and against the threat of nuclear catastrophe.
We were powerfully impressed by the plans for accelerating the Soviet Union's economic and social development. The CPSU assigns the principal, decisive role in their implementation to the human factor. Under socialism scientific and technological progress signifies rising efficiency in production, a rapid growth of the people's living standard, and the all-round development of the individual.
This is a vivid contrast to the situation in capitalist countries. Capitalism's apologists are unable to conceal the deepening contradictions and crisis in imperialism's main citadels and along its periphery, the exploiting system's degeneration, the unparalleled spread of corruption, crime, and drug abuse, and the calamitous condition of the working people.
As in most of the other Latin American states, in Paraguay, a nation dependent upon imperialism, the exploitation of the people by transnational corporations and the dictatorship obstruct the development of the productive forces. The cancerous foreign debt tumour is further aggravating 351 the economic crisis. Up to 80 per cent of the export revenue is used to service the foreign debt. The foreign currency shortage spurs speculation and a steady rise of the cost of living. Suffice it to say that a working person's average monthly wage (50--60 dollars) does not cover vital needs: this sum is not enough to pay for half of the food required by a family. Landless peasants live in unendurable misery. Young people have no jobs, and education is inaccessible to them. There is no future for them under the dictatorship. Against this background the example of the socialist countries-where the right to work and fair remuneration are guaranteed, where the population is provided with free medical services and free education, and rents are miniscule-is enormously attractive for the working class, progressive intellectuals, and other sections of the population in all parts of the world. The single fact that the means of production are in the hands of the people and revenue does not go into the pockets of a numerically small privileged class prompts a realistic way out of the crisis, for ending unemployment, social inequality, and poverty.
The documents of the 27th CPSU Congress provide our party with further potent arguments for exposing the antiSoviet campaign, for which funds are not stinted by the mammoth propaganda machine of imperialism and its local henchmen. The story that the Soviet Union is a land of slaves ruled by a "hierarchy of new tsars" flouting human dignity is now seen as ridiculous even by many conservatives. Neither slaves nor kings could have so rapidly taken a backward country to the highest summits of science, technology, and culture.
A growing number of people in the capitalist world are finding just as absurd the invention that there is "state capitalism" in the USSR and the malignant legend of a "Soviet threat''. Its direct enemies apart, the advantages of existing socialism are dismissed by only totally uninformed people and political myopics, who, as we in Paraguay say, have their eyes in the back of their heads.
Take, for instance, the preparations for and the proceedings of the CPSU Congress. The run-up saw a nation-wide discussion of the draft Programme, Rules, and other documents of the CPSU. Was this not a manifestation of 352 genuine democracy, of the mass participation of the people in deciding vital issues affecting their interests and destiny?
Moreover, the experience of the party of Lenin, reflected in the documents of its 27th Congress, shows us how to work in a new way, in an atmosphere of modern thinking, mutual confidence, cooperation and unity among the Communists, how to enhance the role and responsibility of party organisations.
Mikhail Gorbachev noted: "There is no vanguard role of the Communists generally; it is expressed in practical deeds.''^^1^^ This is for us an exhortation to make a serious, self-critical analysis, and to draw practical conclusions that will help to surmount obstacles and bring shortcomings to light. We see as productive also the example of collegia! leadership, which is the guarantee of successful activity by the party.
In other words, it is a question of consistently applying the Lenin style of work, reinforcing links to the people, and scientifically analysing objective reality. Further, it is a question of scrupulously training, selecting, and placing personnel, and constantly fostering criticism and self-- criticism, which are tested ways of identifying and rectifying errors, omissions, and defects.
The Soviet Communists have shown how the instrument of constructive critical analysis should be used. They have unflinchingly identified negative phenomena and launched an uncompromising drive to remove them. Not resting content with what has been achieved, they are seeking to achieve more, and meticulousness is growing in proportion to the growth of the sense of responsibility. They stress the need to promote creative initiative, and are intolerant of passiveness and indiscipline.
The acceleration of socio-economic development under socialism Is thereby assured. In the conditions prevailing in our country this example will help to build the new type of mass party heading the struggle of the working class, of the entire people to put an end to the fascist regime and develop the ways for proceeding with deep-going revolutionary-democratic transformations.
The CPSU's documents are the product of creative theory analysing the results of day-to-day practice, an expression 353 of the party's tireless concern for the welfare of the people and its striving to save the whole of humanity from nuclear annihilation, an illustration of a profoundly democratic spirit, immutable commitment to peace, and genuine humanism. For that reason the congress itself and its documents are of unfading significance and evoke a continuing response throughout the world.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ Two Worlds, Two PoliciesLet us recall Lenin's observation that the October Revolution was the first victory in the struggle to abolish war.^^2^^ One of the revolution's first legislative acts was, as everybody knows, the Decree on Peace. Since then, the CPSU and, later, all the other ruling fraternal parties of the socialist community countries have been steadfastly pursuing a foreign policy aimed at averting the threat of war to humanity. Such has been and will continue to be the reality. For us socialism is the guarantor of peace, the guardian of the security of nations. We see it as a society whose rationale and actions are directed towards upholding the aspiration of peoples for independence and social progress and subordinated to the cardinal objective of preserving and consolidating peace. There is no loftier and more responsible mission of the Communists than to curb the forces of aggression and militarism in the name of the life of present and future generations. Socialism's ideal is a world without wars, without armaments.
Given the accumulated destructive power of armaments any attempt to settle political disputes between states by war may prove to be suicidal for humanity. Motivated by their sense of responsibility for the advancement and security of their country, and for the destiny of the entire planet, and by their awareness, also, of the threat issuing from the policies of imperialism, of North American imperialism in the first place, the Soviet Communists and, with them, the other fraternal parties and all people of goodwill are calling for the planet's release from the danger of nuclear annihilation. They are putting forward constructive 'initiatives aimed at banning nuclear tests and phasing out nuclear weapons and eliminating chemical 354 and other weapons. One would think that it would be hard to take exception to this.
Yet US imperialism is bullheadedly seeking to shatter the military equilibrium, vainly endeavouring to achieve strategic superiority over the Soviet Union and the other socialist states, fuelling an already tense, dangerous situation, and pushing humanity into the chasm of nuclear extermination.
The contrast between the attitudes of socialism and imperialism to humanity's vital problems has most strikingly manifested itself during 1986, the International Year of Peace proclaimed by the UN. Underlying socialist countries' foreign policy is the Leninist principle of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. In this policy are expressed the objective imperative for addressing constructive tasks and the acceptance that there will be no winners in either a nuclear war or in the arms race. The only reasonable alternative is an effective system of universal security and a just restructuring of international relations.
Accentuating the danger of a nuclear war, the Soviet Communists have at their congress brilliantly analysed the correlation of forces in the world and drawn the conclusion that never before has the threat to mankind been as serious as it is today. But neither has there been such a realistic possibility of preserving and consolidating peace. By concerted effort the peoples can and must bridle imperialism.
We Communists see this as our common duty. Marx's conclusion, drawn in the nineteenth century, that only an international alliance of the working class can ensure its definitive victory^^3^^ has been borne out at every stage of history. The Great October Revolution was a triumph of internationalism and, at the same time, a new phase in its development. For the first time in history a state was proclaimed that adopted internationalist principles as the guide for its domestic and foreign policies.
The traditions of international solidarity laid down by the October Revolution have now acquired unexampled steadfastness and become a crucial factor of the growth of the anti-imperialist movement and of the struggle for 355 disarmament and peace, national liberation, the right of peoples to self-determination, democracy, and social progress.
While they have united internationally to protect their class interests, reactionary and militarist circles would deny to the forces of progress the right to internationalist solidarity. Imperialist propaganda uses every opportunity to misrepresent its essence and purpose. Take, for example, Soviet internationalist assistance to Afghanistan, requested by that country's government, to repulse foreign aggression. This assistance continues to be widely maligned in Latin America as well. Legitimate assistance to the Afghan people is labelled by US propagandists as a "punitive operation'', ``interference'', and "suppression of freedom''.
However, the truth is gradually paving its way to the minds of peoples across mountains of preposterous lies. Imperialism and its puppets would like to throttle the revolution in Afghanistan and turn that country into a base for missiles targeted on the USSR, a bridgehead for provocations. But the gun has backfired.
The Afghan people's resistance and the support they get from the Soviet Union have scuttled sinister plans. The undeclared war of the Reagan administration against the Afghan people's democracy is a futile labour. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the CIA to overthrow the Afghan government have not brought Washington any nearer to its objective. The stand adopted by the CPSU and the Soviet government has become the guarantee of the Afghan people's independence and freedom.
In truth, the party of Lenin can be depended upon. It not only does everything to ensure the ever fuller satisfaction of the Soviet people's requirements but is a dependable and strong friend prepared at all times to safeguard peace and the rights and interest of working people in any part of the world.
__ALPHA_LVL3__ The March of History Cannot Be StoppedThe Great October Revolution has become a challenge to world imperialism, which, suffering irreparable and 356 inexorably growing losses, continues to seek social revenge. Precisely imperialism is the source of war. It lays claim to world supremacy and proclaims entire continents as zones of its "vital interests'', forcing unequal relations upon other countries, backing repressive, anti-people regimes, and trying to export counter-revolution. We know this only too well from our own experience. One needs only mention that 90,000 persons have ``disappeared'' over the recent period in Latin America. Countless patriots have perished at the hands of CIA agents, the hired thugs of the local oligarchies, and the fascist killers in Paraguay and Chile.
In Paraguay domination by the Stroessner clan over a period of more than 30 years is culminating in a sharp aggravation of the crisis in our society. The dictatorship is ``compensating'' for its inability to resolve social and economic problems with harassment and repressions. There is no crime to which Stroessner and his confederate would not stoop in order to keep in power this decrepit regime, which is the most bloodthirsty, corrupt, and degenerate in Paraguay's history.
In line with its ``neoglobalist'' doctrine, US imperialism wants to retain our country as a base for aggression and a bridgehead for provocations in the heartland of South America. It is for that reason seeking to save the dictatorial regime with the establishment of a regimented, fraudulent democracy under which power and most of the wealth would stay in the hands of the monopolies and their local agents, a handful of venal generals and self-seeking oligarchs. However, nothing can stop the march of history. Our people will overthrow the dictatorship and win democracy and independence because the conditions have objectively matured for a democratic, agrarian, and anti-- imperialist revolution.
We of Paraguay want liberation from exploitation and privation. We do not want formal, lame democracy serving as a screen for the old anti-people and anti-national policy, which the people reject. It is not negotiations and dialogue with Stroessner and his clique, who are seeking to immobilise the people, but the unfolding of the broadest general struggle against the depraved dictatorship that 357 will lead to a real democratisation of society, to social justice.
We are preparing for stern battles, reinforcing the alliance and organisational structure of all democrats and patriots. We will press for the satisfaction of our economic and political demands and keep striking at the dictatorship until it is deposed and crushed once and for all.
While continuing to support Stroessner, imperialist circles in the USA are talking of the possibility of a replacement for him. Why, having imposed a fascist administration upon Paraguay, are they now speaking of a "peaceful transition to democracy"? The principal reason for this shift in US policy is that terrorist regimes headed by gorillas of the likes of Somoza, Duvalier, and Pinochet are no longer able to maintain inviolate the power and profits of the North American monopolies. Murderous dictatorships are aggravating the conflict between the people and the ruling classes, stoking the political and economic crisis, which is compounded by corruption in official quarters, and bringing hunger and desperation to the people. This is making revolutionary explosions increasingly imminent.
In Paraguay the masses are visibly becoming the locomotive of developments. This is alarming US imperialism and its local servitors. Some leaders of the bourgeois opposition assert that to avoid a radicalisation of the popular struggle, which is moving out of the control of the ruling classes, it is vital to reappraise policy and bring new faces into the government. They are afraid that the development of the democratic and revolutionary process will result in a situation similar to what took shape in Nicaragua, where the people brought down the Somoza regime and replaced it with a genuinely democratic government. Bourgeois quarters in our country would like a different variant, one that has been approved by Washington such as, for example, in Haiti. There it has sacrificed its faithful puppet Duvalier in an effort to dilute the revolutionary will of the people and preserve the former power structure and its privileges-but to no avail.
In connection with the talk about the possible `` retirement'' of Stroessner in Paraguay and of Pinochet in Chile 358 reactionary propaganda is asserting that in Latin America there are two other ``totalitarian'' countries-Cuba and Nicaragua-whidi have to be ``democratised''.
It is hardly worth the effort to prove that in these casuistic assertions the facts are turned inside cut. It was precisely in Cuba that more than a quarter of a century ago the people threw out the US-installed totalitarian Baptista regime and set up a popular democratic government. And it was precisely in Nicaragua that a little over seven years ago the democratic forces crushed the Somoza tyranny. The example of the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions are exercising a growing influence on the peoples of Latin America and no propaganda can undermine this influence.
The struggle waged by the people in our country is bringing closer the downfall of the totalitarian regime and the fulfilment of their economic and political demands. We expect that when the pro-imperialist oligarchy is overthrown the new, democratic government will integrate all the forces now fighting the dictatorship. This must be a government of the people capable of asserting freedom in the true sense of the word, and inaugurate far-reaching agrarian and anti-imperialist reforms.
Of course, if the reins of state administration pass from Stroessner to right-wing sectors of the opposition, democracy will be limited despite the erosion of the dictatorship's foundation. In this case our people will do everything to enlarge the breach and clear the way for radical changes.
Today, while identifying ourselves with the political, social, and economic demands of the masses, we are stepping up the struggle in defence of the patriots held in prisons or listed as missing and pledging solidarity with heroic Nicaragua, the peoples of Chile and El Salvador, and all the other peoples standing up for their inalienable right to freedom. Appreciating that there is a close relationship between national and international tasks, the Paraguayan Communists regard the preservation of world peace and the inhibition of the imperialist nuclear threat as the prime condition for social progress. We are in no doubt that support for the peace initiatives of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries is opening up new 359 possibilities for defusing international tension, promoting genuine independence, fostering friendship and cooperation among peoples, and liberating working people from exploitation and oppression.
The Communists' struggle represents a vital development of the ideals and cause of the October Revolution in the conditions prevailing today. It demonstrated their increased influence, internationalism, and their solidarity with revolutionary-democratic parties, the international working class, the national liberation struggle of peoples, and the general democratic movements. This is for us an inexhaustible source of inspiration and optimism.
~^^1^^ Mikhail Gorbachev, Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 27th Party Congress, Moscow, 1986, p. 89.
~^^2^^ See V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 56.
~^^3^^ Karl Marx, Friedridi Engels, Werfce, Vol. 16, Berlin, 1962, p. 322.
Signed for print: February 1987
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