1 17th International In this issue Contributions by 3 Opening Speech by Communist Party, Turkey 8 Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism Meeting of Communist 12 Communist Party of Azerbaijan 15 Brazilian Communist Party 18 Communist Party of Brazil and Workers’ Parties 23 Communist Party of Britain 26 Communist Party of Canada 29 Socialist Workers’ Party of Croatia 34 Communist Party of Cuba 37 Communist Party of Bohemia & Moravia 41 Communist Party in Denmark 44 Communist Party of Denmark 47 Communist Party of Macedonia “ The tasks of Communist 50 German Communist Party 53 Communist Party of Greece and Workers’ Parties to 61 Hungarian Workers’ Party 64 Tudeh Party of Iran 68 Communist Party of Kazakhstan strengthen the struggle of 73 Communist Party of Kurdistan - Iraq 75 Lebanese Communist Party 78 Communist Party of Malta the working class against 81 Communist Party of Norway 84 Palestinian Communist Party capitalist exploitation, impe- 87 Portuguese Communist Party 93 Russian Communist Workers’ Party 97 Communist Party of the Russian Federation rialist wars and fascism, for 101 Communists of Serbia 105 South African Communist Party workers’ and peoples’ eman- 109 Communist Party of the Peoples’ of Spain 113 Communist Party of Sri-Lanka 116 Communist Party of Sweden cipation, for Socialism” 120 Communist Party of Ukraine Other Contributions 125 Communist Party of Luxembourg 128 Phillipine Communist Party [PKP-1930] 132 New Communist Party of Yugoslavia 136 Communist Party of Tadjikistan Instanbul, Turkey, 138 Communist Party USA 30 October Documents to 1 November 2015 145 Press Release by Communist Party, Turkey IB 2016 www.solidnet.org 2 Solidarity Statements 147 Solidarity motion on the ban of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan 148 Solidarity Motion On the dangerous situation in the Eastern Mediterranean 149 Support for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel 150 Statement in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli Occupation for a just peace 151 Stand against reactionary forces and imperial- ism We salute the patriotic people of Syria 152 Solidarity with the struggle of Communists of Ukraine 153 Solidarity Statement with the people of Cyprus 155 Solidarity with the struggle of The Lebanese people and its progressive democratic union movement and grass roots movement Participant Parties RedLinks IB 2016 www.solidnet.org Dear comrades, 3 Opening I welcome you to the 17th International Meeting of Com- munist and Workers’ Parties. As the Communist Party in Turkey, we are very glad to see our comrades from all over Speech of the world here in Istanbul. I assure you that we try our best for a productive, secure and comradely meeting that is re- alized under continuously changing and quite challenging Communist circumstances. Yet all we can do is to apologize in advance for any sort of possible inconveniences. I don’t prefer to start with the cliché phrase that “in these Party, Turkey difficult times we’ve been passing through...” There has never been an easy time for the working class movement. It is not surprising that today capitalist classes attack on labor movement and strive to abolish all the acquirements that working classes has gained along centuries, they have KEMAL OKUYAN done each time when capitalism passed through succes- KEMAL OKUYAN sive economic and political crisis. It is not surprising that contradictions among imperialist powers deepen and the threat of war and fascism rise. It is true that this threat implies additional difficulties for the communists. Restrictions, bans, arrests, persecutions, murders… We have countless examples of such aggres- sions by the bourgeoisie in the history of communist move- ment. Right here, in our country, communists were forced to engage in clandestine struggle for decades. Today is no exception. There is only one meaning of the unjust im- plementations that we do and will protest in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Hungary, Baltic countries and others: we cannot speak of any real freedom or democracy under capitalism! Comrades, There are no reasons to tell that certain periods provide “smoother” conditions for the communists. And, I mean the periods when capitalism gains relative stability and extend the scope of bourgeois democracy due to one reason or the other. Of course, this can be asserted only if we are still committed to our only reason for being: the claim to estab- lish a classless society free from exploitation. A stabilized capitalism would not and does not resolve exploitation, unemployment, inequalities, poverty and the possibility of crisis. The stability of capitalism provides dominant class with additional opportunities to deceive working masses. In that regard, the difficulties for the communists increase in certain ways. Dear comrades, We must get rid of capitalism. Humanity can no longer put IB 2016 www.solidnet.org up with this barbarism. I dare to declare this in a country We know this by our experiences in this country. 4 where we faced with one of the worst electoral results a communist party can get, just four months ago. Dear comrades, I dare it not because we are dreamers, utopians, adventur- If I ask you what comes to your mind as revolutionary pol- ers or fools, but because we are communists! iticians when you hear the name Turkey… It is a beautiful and lively country both with its historical and natural rich- It is clear that the struggle for socialism demands patience es. It is the homeland of the great poet Nazim Hikmet, and and persistence. We would not make a revolution but cre- it is the homeland of dedicated revolutionaries. Yet that is ate caricatures, with a voluntarism that does not take into not all. You would definitely think of military coups, fas- account objective conditions, nor we would without taking cists, militarism and religious fanatics. Today, many tell us pains. Caricature is an impressive, creative and cheerful that it is meaningless to speak of socialism in such a coun- art; yet those who become caricatures themselves in poli- try. They tell us that our priorities must change when the tics would cheer no one but our enemy. freedoms are overridden to such a great extent. And this is not all! What would cheer our enemy, the cap- Yet we know that military strikes happened in our coun- italist class, is the claim to socialism being sunk in the try, precisely for this reason; that is to secure the capitalist oblivion. order as a whole. When the pro-NATO generals staged the coup in 1980, one of the prominent capitalists in Turkey Comrades, declared: “it is our time to laugh now.” The history of the communist movement is full of great vic- The same goes for the religious fanaticism. Yes, the religion tories and achievements. Taking it further, I can say that itself is much older than capitalism, but it invaded the po- if the communists were taken out from the history of last litical sphere of Turkey via US dollars and German marks. 160 years, the world would not only turn into a hell, but The rational was to prevent the social revival in Turkey. it would become barren in every sense of the word. The In that regard, it is a great mistake to count the Islamist communists left their mark on their epochs in the fields of movement only as an anachronistic phenomenon. You can science, art and culture. only come to a correct interference if you use the term “anachronistic” for capitalism as well. We must understand Than why are we less influential today? that today, the most prominent monopolies in the world are waging a war against modernity. We must bravely ask this question. We must do so, in order that our enemy cannot cheer up anymore. Dear representatives from fraternal parties; We are less influential today, since the very idea; the very Our party’s struggle is based on three inseparable and fun- hope that another world is possible has been on the wane. damental elements. It is a deadly blow for the communist movement if the goal for socialist revolution looses its actuality. Although it is First is the fact of imperialism. What should we understand true that the communists take sides with peace and free- by that? First of all, we do not regard imperialism as a mat- dom; their historical legitimacy stems from nothing but ter of foreign affairs for Turkey. Nor imperialism means sim- their goal for a classless society. ply a problem of dependence for the country. We have no doubt that Turkey is open and fragile to the influence and The goal of socialist revolution was on the first rank in interventions of powerful imperialist centers, notably the 1919, when the Comintern was established, not because USA and Germany, in terms of economy, politics, military the member parties were powerful. We all know that many and culture. We struggle against that and we defend an in- of the parties, which took the name of “communist” then, dependent and sovereign Turkey. We do so, not because were not any stronger than the parties that we call “small” tactical reasons but because we are communists, and we today. The advancement of the October Revolution proved are patriots. In connection with this, we fight for the an- the intermittent and surging features of the struggle for nihilation of imperialist institutions such as NATO and EU, socialism. The Russian revolutionaries won a victory, in which afflict not only Turkey but all the oppressed of the which no one would believe a couple of years prior to 1917. world. Today, socialism is not any farther away than in 1914, and it cannot be so! IB 2016 www.solidnet.org But how can one distinguish this struggle from the one have always defended the freedom of belief and worship, against domestic and foreign monopolies, and against the to abandon the principle of keeping the religion out of po- 5 very foundational order of those monopolies: the capital- litical life.