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1999 Declaration of the International Communist Seminar
www.icsbrussels.org
Brussels, 4 May 1999
1. Today, communists all over the world are summing up the first century of socialist revolution, in order to prepare for greater struggles to come and to achieve ever greater victories. They will exert every effort for the 21st century to become the century of victory on a world scale.
2. The bourgeoisie struggled for three centuries in order to triumph over the forces of feudalism. The socialist revolution aims to put an end to the long reign of the exploiting classes and to eliminate all forms of exploitation of man by man. The final victory of socialism all over the world will take a whole historical epoch.
3. The twentieth century has witnessed great feats of socialist revolution and construction, but also treason and counter-revolution within communist ranks. The twentieth century has been one of dress rehearsal, during which the proletariat accumulated great positive experiences as well as negative and tragic ones. As long as the communist parties remained loyal to the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism, the world socialist revolution followed an ascending course. As soon as the revisionists imposed themselves on a great number of communist parties, the revolution began its downfall.
I A glorious experience
4. A hundred and fifty years ago, Marx and Engels published the "Manifesto of the Communist Party". The fundamental principles laid down by this great programmatic document remain valid for the proletariat of all countries.
5. Marx and Engels drew the lessons from the Paris Commune, the first revolution to take the path of socialist revolution, the path of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The different forms of power of the working class essentially correspond to the measures taken by the Paris Commune, and later by the Soviets, so as to allow the workers to become the effective rulers of society.
6. Struggling against social-democratic treason, the Bolshevik Party under the leadership of Lenin defended Marxism and developed the strategy and tactics of the socialist revolution, leading the October uprising and wrenching the workers from the barbarism of imperialist wars and interventions. Lenin formulated the general line for building socialism. The October Revolution created a new situation in the world: bourgeois order had to coexist with its opposite, socialist order: the existence of a large socialist country reminded all exploited and oppressed people that the unjust order of capitalism and imperialism could be overthrown. Basically, capitalism’s area of exploitation of both the work force and mineral resources was reduced.
7. Neither the international bourgeoisie nor the opportunists in the Bolshevik Party believed that socialism could last in one backward country alone. It was the Soviet working class and labouring masses, led by the Party with Stalin at its head, who put Lenin's political principles into practice and built a great socialist power, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.
8. The struggle for industrialisation, which mobilised millions of young workers, transformed a backward and feudal country into an industrial power able to stand up to world imperialism. Middle Ages agriculture was transformed, becoming mechanised and collective. Thanks to the cultural revolution, the former country of illiterate moujiks became a country of scientists, engineers and technicians.
9. The Bolshevik Party, under the leadership of Stalin, built the Red Army in a high spirit of initiative and heroism and forged close links between the army and the popular masses. Practically on its own, the Red Army defeated Hitler’s armies.
10. The Soviet Union's victorious anti-fascist war stimulated the development of the communist movement on a world-wide scale, especially in Europe and Asia. The victory of the Soviet Union over German imperialism gave new impulse to the revolutionary anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movement that shook imperialist domination in Asia and Africa. In several countries, people’s democracy and socialism triumphed.
11. In the wake of World War II, the focus of the world proletarian revolution shifted to Asia, where the most heroic wars of liberation were waged and won under the leadership of the communist parties of China, Korea and Vietnam.
12. By developing the theory and practice of protracted people’s war in the course of the anti-imperialist and democratic revolution in an immense Third World country, the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong made a contribution of international importance. He proceeded to transform the democratic revolution into socialist revolution, undertook socialist construction, put forward the theory and practice of continuing revolution to combat revisionism, prevent the restoration of capitalism and consolidate the gains of socialism.
13. At the time of Stalin's death, the socialist camp and the forces of anti-imperialist revolution enjoyed unprecedented power and prestige. They were on the offensive, the oppressed all over the world could look to the future with optimism.
II The rise of revisionism and the struggle against it
14. The advent of Krushchov at the head of the CPSU was a historical turning point. Krushchov’s group set off his work of destruction by denigrating the revolutionary struggles carried out by the Communists led by Stalin in order to implement the principles and orientations bequeathed by Lenin.
15. It took revisionism, initiated by Krushchov’s group, more than 35 years to completely destroy the work accomplished by Lenin, Stalin and three generations of Bolsheviks!
16. Today, it is clear why Stalin has been subjected to bitter slander and calumny by the enemies of socialism. Stalin remained loyal to Leninism. Under his leadership the Soviet people accomplished miracles. After Stalin's death, the revisionists and mainly Krushchov and Gorbachov rejected Leninist principles and went from failure to failure.
17. History proved that the fight against the ideas and the revolutionary practice of Stalin was a fight against communism.
18. The 20th, 21st and 22nd congresses of the CPSU were marked by the revision of Marxism-Leninism, setting off ideological and political degeneration and bureaucratism at the head of the State and Party.
19. Krushchov directly took many reactionary ideas from the renegade Tito. Krushchov's theories about the "State of the whole people" and the "Party of the whole people" led to the liquidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the ceasing of class struggle against the bourgeois forces and influences. The theory of "the cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union in the struggle for peace" inflicted blows on the anti-imperialist struggle. The theory of "peaceful and parliamentary paths towards socialism" strengthened the social-democratic currents in several communist parties.
20. Brezhnev put an end to some of the extreme forms of Krushchev's revisionism but he never questioned the revisionist programmes of the 20th, 21st and 22nd Congresses. Brezhnev put an end to the policy of open capitulation to american imperialism and he supported on the international stage different forces, which were fighting that imperialism. Under Brezhnev, a new petty bourgeoisie has arised from the bureaucracy and the intelligentsia and was the largest social basis of revisionism. It encouraged the development of a ‘shadow’ capitalist sector and stimulated a process of degeneration in the socialist enterprises.
21. Gorbachov's revisionism ultimately took outright anticommunist forms. The forces he led, supported by the international bourgeoisie, completed the counter-revolutionary process in the Soviet Union and led to the open restoration of capitalism in its crudest forms. Gorbachov and Yeltsin have been the executors of a triumph for the forces of imperialism and reaction of international importance.
22. Mao Zedong, Enver Hoxha and other eminent communist leaders, such as Kim Il Sung, Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh, brought their contribution to the struggle against revisionism. Their anti-revisionist struggle prepared the ground for a renewal of the communist movement on genuinely revolutionary foundations. Divergent opinions exist in the international communist movement about their respective contributions.
23. The open restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union proves that revisionism effectively is the most dangerous enemy of Marxism-Leninism. Life has proved that revisionism introduces the bourgeoisie into the communist movement and brings the latter under the leadership of the bourgeoisie.
24. Ideological struggle against revisionism is a complex and arduous task. Revisionism, which has destroyed so many parties, will not wither away spontaneously. If revisionist ideas and theses are not criticised and analysed in depth, they will continue to survive and the liquidationist current will strike again, felling new victims.
25. All the opportunist currents active in the working-class movement, the social-democrats, most revisionists and the trotskyites upheld the counter-revolutionary process in the Soviet Union, going so far as to approve the extreme-right coup d'etat of Yeltsin and the CIA in August 1991. This is an irrefutable fact, that unmasks once and for all these agents of the bourgeoisie and imperialism.
III Our cardinal principles
26. The victories of the international working-class and socialism in the era of Lenin, Stalin and Mao as well as the revisionist treacheries corroborate seven essential theses of Marxism-Leninism.
I
27. Under capitalism, the State is an instrument of bourgeois domination against the workers. The socialist revolution must completely destroy this tool of bourgeois oppression and replace it with a new, proletarian State.
28. The bourgeois states apply a form of democracy in accord with their class nature. Liberals talk about democracy in the abstract to mask the class character of bourgeois democracy, but Marxists always insist upon the following question: "Democracy for which class?". If there is democracy for the exploiters, there can be no real democracy for the exploited.
29. Under the capitalist regime, the democratic republic and general elections are instruments of the dictatorship of capital. Their aim is to give a democratic appearance to a system that is fundamentally built on the all-pervasive power of big capital, the dominant bourgeoisie and its forces of repression.
30. The parliament is not the real center of bourgeois power. The real power is in the hands of those who own the banks and the large companies. The parliament gives a democratic appearance to decisions which are taken in discreet bourgeois circles. In any serious crisis, the parliament is put aside by exceptional regimes. The communists can participate to the elections and enter bourgeois parliaments in order to prepare the masses to their revolutionary tasks.
II
31. As soon as liberal capitalism transformed itself into monopoly capitalism, it entered the stage of imperialism. The bourgeois state has become more and more an appendix of the monopolies. The hideous character of the oppression of the working masses is reinforced.
32. Imperialism is the negation of democracy, it means reaction on all fronts. Fascisation and fascism are expressions of the inevitable degeneration of bourgeois democracy in the imperialist era. At the present moment, the imperialist countries still have some of the outward forms of bourgeois democracy, while at the same time precipitating the regime towards fascism, generalised surveillance of the population and terrorist violence against popular revolts. After the barbaric war against Iraq, they undertook activities of subversion, interference and aggression to dismember Yugoslavia and launched into a war of massive destruction against that country. The ex-socialist countries like Russia and Albania demonstrate perfectly the parasitic character of the present-day bourgeoisie and the decay of its whole economic and political system: production has fallen by more than 50% and the elections only mask the domination of the mafia and other criminal organisations over these countries.
33. In the field of foreign policy, imperialism leads to wars of conquest against the less developed countries and to world wars between imperialist powers. World War I initiated the historical era of imperialism and proletarian revolution.
34. By sharpening all contradictions of capitalism, imperialism demonstrates the necessity of socialist revolution. Under imperialism, the gigantic productive forces can only be maintained within the obsolete bounds of private property by means of oppression, terror and war. Today, new technological revolutions make human work phenomenally productive. However, as production is carried out with the single aim of maximalising the profits of the owners of the means of production, the vast majority of humanity becomes "superfluous" and is plunged into unbearable physical and intellectual destitution. Imperialism denies a large part of humanity the most elementary human right, the right to life. Only the socialist revolution makes it possible to put the unlimited productive capacities of human work at the service of the harmonious development of the entire human race. Only socialist revolution can allow the workers to avoid the barbarism of imperialist wars.
III
35. The great Revolution of October 1917 confirmed the truth of the Marxist-Leninist theory of socialist revolution, the only path leading to the victory of the proletariat in its struggle against capital. All reformist paths, advocating gradual reform as a means of achieving the liberation of the proletariat, lead in the end to the strengthening of bourgeois domination and social inequality and the perfecting of the means of exploitation.
36. The bourgeoisie has always used the most ferocious violence each time the toiling masses wanted to overthrow their unjust and cruel reign. Revolution implies revolutionary violence, the midwife of the new society. Without violent revolution, it is impossible for the proletarian state to replace the bourgeois state.
37. Lenin stressed the fact that revolutionaries must be ready to make the most important sacrifices, to go through the test of civil war, lest they go over to menshevik positions of reconciliation with the terrorist bourgeoisie.
IV
38. The socialist state may assume various forms, but, as for its class nature, it will be the revolutionary power of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat.
39. Under socialism, the transition to communism and class struggle do not come to a halt, but change their forms of expression. The remnants and influences of capitalism will remain during a relatively long period. Even after the construction of the foundations of socialism and the abolition of capitalist property, there will be an objective, material basis for the sharpening of former conflicts and the appearance of new ones. The underestimation of these contradictions can transform them into antagonisms, undermining the socialist structure, strengthening the counter-revolutionary elements and allowing the return to capitalism.
40. Following directly on Marx, Lenin said that the dictatorship of the proletariat had to be maintained in the Soviet Union as long as there existed bourgeois and petit-bourgeois forces, bureaucratism, bourgeois and petit-bourgeois ideological currents; as long as international capitalism could find support, and the differences between manual and intellectual work, between country and town remained.
41. The proletariat needs the State of the dictatorship of the proletariat to reduce its class enemies to silence. The revolution therefore is accomplished only when the communists have realised their final objective: the classless society, where the menace of capitalism, coming from the inside as well as the outside, has disappeared, when the State progressively withers away, when the construction of communism takes place.
V
42. Experience has convincingly demonstrated that the economic base for the dictatorship of the proletariat is the collective ownership of the means of production and the planned production of goods directly in the service of society. The production of consumer goods aims to satisfy the material and cultural needs of the workers. The experience of the counter-revolution in the ex-socialist countries has confirmed that the market economy, where production is characterised by anarchy, is the economic base for the restoration of capitalism and the re-establishment of bourgeois dictatorship.
43. The objective of capitalist production is to increase the surplus value wrested from the workers by the capitalists, maximum profit for each individual capitalist. The aim of socialist production is the realisation of the well-being of the working masses as well as the development and blooming of all members of society in the framework of the objective possibilities of the given period.
44. Thanks to the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist planned economy, the Soviet Union was able to solve many fundamental problems that no capitalist country will ever be able to solve. The Soviet Union was able to bring about the equality and fraternal cooperation of more than 100 nationalities, full employment, free schooling and medical care, access to science and culture, practically free housing, social services and public transportation. No capitalist country has ever been able to guarantee its population the security offered by the Soviet Union under socialism.
VI
45. The Soviet Union's experience demonstrates the essential role of the revolutionary party of the proletariat as the leading core of the revolution and the construction of the new socialist society.
46. The Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Stalin was a revolutionary party in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Lenin's theory concerning the Bolshevik-type party, vanguard, organised and disciplined detachment of the working class and the toiling masses, remains valid today.
47. To work out its political line, the Party analyzes class struggles at the national and international levels from the point of view of the working-class and in the light of Marxism-Leninism. It maintains its revolutionary spirit by putting into practice the principles of democratic centralism, control and verification of tasks accomplished, criticism and self-criticism and struggle against opportunism. Its strength resides in its confidence in Marxism-Leninism, its strong bonds with the labouring masses and its long-lasting struggle for their interests.
48. Proletarian internationalism is a fundamental element that distinguishes the communist parties from all others. In the national struggles of the workers, the communists set forth and promote their interests independent of nationality and shared by the proletariat of the whole world.
49. Marx stated: "The emancipation of the proletariat cannot but be an international fact; attempting to make it a purely national fact is rendering it impossible". The revolution may be national in its form, the proletariat can overthrow the bourgeoisie in one country. But in its content, the revolution is always international, forming part of the world movement for the emancipation of the working class.
50. Lenin and Stalin always considered the building and defense of socialism in the Soviet Union as an integral part of the historical struggle for the triumph of the workers' cause all over the world.
IV The current offensive of imperialism and reaction
51. On the eve of the third millenium, we are confronted with the imperialist desire to enforce its barbaric and inhuman "new world order" on all peoples.
52. Monopoly capital is sinking more and more deeply into economic crisis, increasing the exploitation of workers and the plundering of world resources to restore and increase profits. On the one hand, it penetrates everywhere thanks to communications technology, binding the most important Third World countries to the world market economically and destroying local bourgeoisies in aid of the high compradore bourgeoisie. On the other hand, it is becoming concentrated to a greater and greater extent, doing away with jobs to increase performance.
53. The monopolies impose their economic dictatorship through the instruments they have created for themselves, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. By imposing policies of liberalisation and privatisation, they carry out the economic recolonisation of almost the entire globe.
54. The different imperialist powers all defend the capitalism of multinationals.
55. They have transformed the United Nations into an agency that executes their will, carrying out their political dictatorship over other nations. If Russia and China oppose their dictates in the Security Council, the imperialist powers trample on the latter’s decisions.
56. They sweep aside national sovereignty and independence, openly interfere with the internal affairs of other countries, arrogantly invoke the pretexts of "democracy, freedom, self-determination of the peoples, peace, multi-partyism, free elections and human rights".
57. The imperialist powers that have committed and continue to commit the worst crimes against humanity, wish to create a permanent international tribunal as an instrument of terror against all leaders who defend national independence and socialism and even those who temporarily oppose their decisions.
58. To impose their international economic dictatorship, the multinationals must prevent or destroy the international solidarity of the working class and the anti-imperialist unity of the oppressed peoples. They spread and use racism, reactionary nationalism, separatism, religious fanaticism, irrationalism and mysticism, ethnicism and fascism to divide, fragment and stultify the popular forces, so as to plunge them into barbaric killings and destroy all capacity of resistance to imperialism and capitalism.
59. As soon as socialism was completely destroyed in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, all global contradictions suddenly and dramatically worsened.
60. In Russia, the new dominant bourgeoisie, with its criminal, mafia-like characteristics, has brought the country down to a state of dependence on US and European capital. Capitalism has beset the peoples of the former Soviet Union with mind-boggling catastrophes, misery, unemployment, ethnic conflicts, civil wars. The newly created republics are mostly dominated by US and German finance capital and ruled by the comprador bourgeoisie.
61. No sooner had the Soviet Union disappeared than imperialism started a neo-colonial offensive against the Third World, emasculating national states, dictating their economic policies, preying on productive forces and openly intervening in their internal affairs.
62. In the capitalist countries, the bourgeoisie is taking back, one after another, all the concessions it had been forced to make after the anti-fascist war, confronted with the rising socialist revolution. Racism, nationalism, chauvinism and fascism are propagated to destroy the anticapitalist forces. Spying on the workers through ever more sophisticated means of surveillance is generalised. The suppression of popular movements has become ever more violent.
63. The economic contradictions between the United States, Japan and Europe have become more acute, as they scramble for raw materials, investments and markets.
64. The general crisis of imperialism deepens. In the capitalist countries, exploitation of the workers dramatically worsens. In certain regions, unemployment affects up to 30% of the workers. Social gains are progressively dismantled. In the Third World countries, foreign debt, privatisations and the dismantling of the State institutions make the survival of billions of people precarious. In Russia, industrial production has plunged by 55%. Since the beginning of the Yeltsin regime, the country has suffered an annual excess mortality of between 500,000 and 700,000 people, compared with the eighties. From now on, capitalism in crisis makes life impossible for the great majority of mankind. This barbaric and criminal system is condemned to disappear. The counter-revolution is precipitating the entire human race into a period of instability and uncertitude; it has united the four corners of the earth in a common front by a thousand links; it has undermined the very foundations of the system it should be stabilising; it has created the preconditions for a deeper and more radical revolutionary change.
65. The militarisation of international relations, the arms race and the sharp contradictions among and between the imperialist powers produce and reproduce violence and war, increase instability and the risk of generalised military conflicts. The danger of a third World War can only be averted by a general offensive of the workers and the oppressed peoples against capitalism and imperialism.
66. Imperialism actively prepares for war against all the countries that try to escape its domination, amongst others China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Cuba, Iraq, Lybia, Iran, Yugoslavia and Byelorussia. But also against Russia, in case real communists should come to power again.
67. NATO is an aggressive pact created in 1949 with the aim of provoking a counter-revolutionary war against the Soviet Union and the socialist countries. The defence efforts of the Soviet Union and the socialist countries, the development of the World Peace Movement and the war of resistance waged by the Korean people supported by Chinese volunteers and by soviet help, caused this plan to fail. NATO then resorted to political and psychological warfare, which led to counter-revolutionary riots in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968, prelude to the "peaceful" counter-revolution of 1989.
As soon as capitalism had been completely restored in the Soviet Union, NATO launched into wars of aggression, demonstrating its permanently aggressive character, not only against socialist countries, but also against all countries maintaining their independence in face of imperialism. The war of aggression against Iraq, camouflaged under the UN flag, was in fact the first NATO war. As early as 1991, NATO military interventions began in Yugoslavia to dismember that country. The present criminal and barbaric bombings against the defence forces, the infrastructure, the factories and the cities of Yugoslavia, show that NATO is stepping into the shoes of the fascist coalition led by Hitler’s Germany.
The expansion of NATO on three continents could be at the origins of a Third World War.
The expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe, the acquisition of military bases in Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania are in direct preparation for a war with Russia for the control of resources round the Caspian Sea.
The alliance between Turkey and Israel paves the way for new NATO wars for the control of Middle Eastern oil.
The links between NATO and certain Asian republics bordering on China prepare for NATO aggression against that country.
The recent NATO manoeuvres in Kenya are in readiness for military interventions against the anti-imperialist countries of Africa. The United States are the true instigators of the war of aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo launched by Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundi troops. UNITA, created by the CIA and still supported by American lobbies, has made an alliance with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi and has launched a great offensive against patriotic forces in Angola.
68. The creation of a European army under German leadership is used to uphold European imperialism's plans of domination over Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasian region and Africa.
69. In Asia, the United States is also preparing for war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and China by adopting a new "security treaty" with Japan, maintaining 40,000 soldiers and 1000 nuclear weapons in South Korea and keeping their control over the Chinese province of Taiwan.
V The forces of world socialist revolution
70. Against the bourgeois catchphrase of "democracy and freedom on a world level", the communists openly declare to the world: only the struggle against imperialism, with the end in view of building socialism and communism is the way of liberation for mankind, the path towards the equality, fraternity and happiness of all the labouring masses of the earth. The October Revolution was the first to choose this road and the Chinese Revolution adapted it to the realities of countries dominated by imperialism.
71. Confronted with the international dictatorship of the dominant bourgeoisie and its multinationals, only the international working class, united against its common enemy, united by the same socialist ideal, is able to guide the workers towards national and social liberation. Only the international working class can put forward and develop a programme capable of ending the exploitation, oppression, terror and barbarism that imperialism enforces on the peoples of the world.
72. The 20th century has been marked by the struggle against imperialist wars, by the struggle of the working class against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and by the struggle of the oppressed peoples against imperialist domination. These three struggles have given birth to the socialist revolutions.
73. As, at the end of our century, the contradictions of the imperialist world are much deeper and sharper than in 1900, these three revolutionary struggles will develop in the future with unsurpassed scope and intensity.
74. Imperialism has become a far more criminal, barbaric, inhuman and destructive system than in 1914 or 1939, when it set off the two World Wars. The destructive impact of its arms has been multiplied a thousand-fold, and so has its disregard for the lives of the popular masses.
75. To rid humanity of this criminal system, we must build as widely based an international anti-imperialist front as possible, led by Communist and Workers’ Parties, based on the working class and the toiling masses and striving for peace in the clear context of achieving socialism worldwide.
76. The international anti-imperialist front is made up of different forces.
77. There are the socialist countries that, faced with particularly difficult international conditions, lead very complex struggles to maintain their independence and the essential elements of socialism.
78. There are the exploited and oppressed peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America who struggle against the economic, political, military and cultural domination of imperialism, for a national and scientific development in the interest of the popular masses. They struggle courageously for national liberation and aim for socialism. Their vanguard is composed of Marxist-Leninist parties who address the central question of revolution through protracted people’s war, thus constituting examples in the current transition period from defeat to a new period of great revolutions under the leadership of the proletariat.
79. There are the suffering toiling masses of the former Soviet Union that are struggling to reestablish the Soviet Union and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The communists of the former Soviet Union have declared that never the bourgeoisie, this last exploiting class of history, and also the most cruel one, will be able to finally vanquish the socialist revolution. In the former Soviet Union, behind the counter-revolution, the tide of the revolution is already rising! The potential of the revolution knows no limit.
80. There is the working class of the capitalist, imperialist countries, taking along with it all progressive forces and struggling against the dictates that the monopolies impose on the economic and social life, against the repressive forces of the bourgeois State that serves the monopolies, against military acts of intervention aimed at other countries and against the preparation of large-scale wars of agression. It has launched general strikes and numerous other mass movements against the prevailing capitalist regime.
VI For the unity of Marxist-Leninists
81. The struggle against imperialism and for socialism will be confronted with huge difficulties in achieving lasting victories if the communist movement is divided in the ideological and organisational fields. Only the communists, united on an international level in the great party of the proletariat, can form the locomotive that will guide the train of humanity towards people’s democracy, socialism and communism.
82. The reconstruction of the international communist movement, leaving behind its present state of crisis and retreat, reestablishing its unity on the grounds of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, is the most urgent international task of the different Communist parties. In order to carry it out, Communists must be at the head of workers’ and other popular struggles against capitalism and imperialism.
83. For forty years, due to the rise of revisionism, the international communist movement has been divided into different tendencies. It is natural that different opinions exist concerning the contributions of different leaders of the international communist movement. These differences of opinion can be debated scientifically to overcome prejudices and subjectivity and reach scientific conclusions.
84. When parties have different ideological opinions concerning various questions, they can gradually surmount them in a process of common practical struggle against the international bourgeoisie, that strengthens confidence in the noblest ideals of humanity and eliminates all forms of opportunism, liberalism and dogmatism.
85. Relations between parties must be founded on the principles of proletarian internationalism, friendship, equality, non-interference and mutually beneficial cooperation.
86. Each party applies the principles of Marxism-Leninism to present reality according to the specific conditions of its country and in the interests of the international working-class. Simultaneously, each party must maintain the unity of the communist movement, which is essentially internationalist.
87. Confronted with the offensive set off by reaction, the communist parties that are loyal to Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, that organise the working class and other toiling masses and that develop a principled struggle against revisionism and reformism, feel the necessity to act together in view of their international unity.
88. In this perspective, we can and must go forward in various fields: exchange of experiences and analyses, coordination and common action, dialogue and discussion on our ideological identity and on the strategy of anti-imperialist and revolutionary struggle. At the same time, we must build without delay the international workers’ front against capitalism and the international anti-imperialist movement.
VII The 21st century will be the century of socialism
89. To the labouring masses of the world, imperialism has nothing to offer but exploitation, oppression, obscurantism, fascism, war and the destruction of the life foundations .of the human race.
90. The communists firmly intend to remain loyal to Marxism-Leninism, to organise the popular masses in view of the bloody battles the people will have to face, to demonstrate determination and a spirit of heroism and self-sacrifice, and they will make the 21st century the century of national and social liberation, the century of the triumph of socialism.
91. May the idea and the cause of the great October Revolution live through the centuries to come! Workers and exploited and oppressed peoples, fight on!
Long live Marxism-Leninism; long live proletarian internationalism!
Workers of the world, unite!
Communism is the future of humanity! Onward towards victory!
(12 May 1999)
Freedom Road Socialist Organization is a Marxist-Leninist organization in the United States. This website contains information about our organization, our politics and some of our activities in the people's movements.
www.frso.org | email us | PO Box 87613, Chicago, IL 60680-0613, USA

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Anti-NATO conference in Istanbul suggests stronger positioning


Istanbul, 2-3 February 2013, draft statement


After attending the meeting “Struggle against NATO barbarism in the Middle East and North Africa” on February 2-3 2013 in Istanbul, the communist and workers’ parties make the following joint statement and call on all progressive forces that struggle for peace and justice to undersign and share it.

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Imperialists used to tell the impudent lie that NATO existed for defense against the so-called threat of the Soviet Union. However, following the dissolution of the Socialist Bloc, NATO’s notorious mission has not come to an end. On the contrary, this war machine of imperialism has expanded its membership and area of operation, promotes an arms race and ever greater military spending and invests in new weapons and in their worldwide network of military bases. Involved in numerous military operations over a vast geography from Afghanistan to Libya, NATO is now even a bigger threat to peace all over the world. As communist and workers’ parties struggling in NATO-member countries, we declare that under these conditions, a resolute and militant struggle against NATO and is not only essential but urgently needed everywhere more than it has ever been.

The USA is today playing the leading role as the strongest power both in the framework of NATO as well as in the framework of the global imperialist system. However the command of NATO is formed on the basis of the strength (political-military and economic) that the bourgeois class of each member state of NATO has. The only sovereignty in NATO is the sovereignty of capital overseen by the imperialist forces of USA and Europe. We declare that the struggle for social, economic, democratic and national rights and emancipation of the peoples and against NATO is inseparable from the struggle against capitalism.

Since its foundation, NATO has been carrying out covert operations against revolutionary movements, working class organizations and progressive sectors of societies. The clandestine NATO organization, informally known as Operation Gladio, was behind countless covert actions including bombings, political assassinations and subversion techniques, etc. In addition to these covert operations, NATO engages in overt propaganda for the imperialist interests through media manipulation, funding the NGOs activities and research programs at universities, etc. We condemn all attempts of NATO, either covert operations or overt public relations activities since in whatever form they are constituted, all are driven by deep antagonism toward the working class and the people and their progressive organizations and by fierce anti-communism.

The USA-NATO and EU, three “outposts of capitalism and imperialism,” work in coordination to ensure capital’s power in different ways and by different instruments. The variance in methods and instruments does not change the fact that they all ultimately serve the interests of the same system, imperialism, which is in complete contradiction with the interests of the people. The military structure of EU is articulated with NATO. We declare that a true struggle against NATO entails resolute rejection of all other imperialist organizations and alliances as well.
NATO has expanded its area of intervention starting from the early 1990s. In the Summit in Rome in 1992 and in Washington in 1999, NATO agreed on a new doctrine enabling NATO to engage in armed interventions around the whole world. Pretexts such as combating terrorism or establishing democracy have been used to legitimize the expansion of NATO aggression into new geographies. The barbaric war against Yugoslavia and the bloody invasion in Afghanistan have been early examples of the practical consequences of this new doctrine. In the same context, NATO developed new programs in such as the Partnership for Peace in order to gain new partner countries. We declare that we are determined to struggle against all forms of NATO expansionism intervention and aggression for the dissolution of NATO and for the sovereign right of each people to decide the disengagement and the withdrawal from NATO and the imperialist alliances.

In an international context marked by a deepening of the structural crisis of capitalism, an intensification of the exploitation of workers and peoples, by growing anti-democratic threats and attacks on sovereignty, life shows that war and aggression continue to be instruments of the imperialist strategy of economic and geostrategic domination.

But the escalation of the imperialism face the resistance of the peoples who, through the most diversified forms of struggle, courageously confront the aggressions, invasions and wars which imperialism imposes upon them.

Struggle of the peoples for Peace, which has been dealt so many blows by the ruling classes of the big imperialist powers, who seek to overcome, by force and violence, the profound contradictions and crisis which their system has engendered.

Expressing our solidarity with the peoples that resist imperialist occupation, aggression and interference, namely in the Middle East and Africa, We reaffirm our commitment for the strengthening and enlargement of the peace and anti-NATO movement, for the development of the anti-imperialist front, against imperialist aggressiveness and wars, against the so-called anti-missile shield, the foreign military bases, against the participation of the military forces of our countries in the imperialist aggressions against other countries and peoples.
Recently NATO has become the imperialist tool to overthrow governments in the Middle East and North Africa and replace them with those that serve the interests of imperialism best. The barbaric bloodshed in Libya, which resulted in the lynching of Muammar Gaddafi and the opening of the Libya to imperialist plunder, has now taken its place as a despicable black page in the history of humanity. France's current military intervention in Mali, with the participation and approval of several other NATO member states, is in continuity with NATO's war of aggression against Libya.

NATO has been striving to set the same bloody scenario in action in Syria. The imperialists and their client states in the region have armed, financed and supported the armed opposition from the start of the crisis. NATO is prepared to directly intervene in the conflict since the NATO mercenaries, has now been proven incapable of defeating the regime of Syria. The deployment of Patriot missiles on the Turkish-Syrian border poses a real threat to peace and sovereignty of all the people in the region. Turkey through this action has been a direct threat not to Syria but Iran, which is constantly intimidated by imperialists. In this regard, we condemn all forms of NATO actions against Syria and Iran. We declare that it is only the people of Syria who have the right to determine Syria's future. In complete solidarity with the people of Syria, we also declare that we will continue to fight against all imperialist plans in the region.

Erfolgreicher Abschluss des Istanbuler Anti - NATO-Treffens


Abschlusserklärung  der  internationalen Anti-NATO-Konferenz am 2.- 3. Februar 2013 

Nach dem Treffen der kommunistischen - und Arbeiterparteien „Gegen die NATO Barbarei im Nahen Osten und in Nordafrika“ am 2. - 3. Februar in Istanbul erklären die dort versammelten Parteien folgendes und rufen gleichzeitig alle für Frieden und Gerechtigkeit engagierten dazu auf, das Dokument zu unterzeichnen und es zu verbreiten:

Die NATO wurde als 'Verteidigungsbündnis' gegen die Gefahr aus der Sowjetunion ins Leben gerufen“. Diese unverschämte Lüge wurde von den Imperialisten in die Welt gesetzt. Nach Auflösung des sozialistischen Blocks und des Warschauer Pakts wurde allerdings das verrufene NATO-Bündnis keineswegs aufgelöst. Ganz im Gegenteil, die Mitgliederzahl dieser Kriegsmaschinerie des Imperialismus und sein Einsatzradius wurden sogar noch erweitert. Die NATO treibt weiterhin einen Rüstungswettlauf an, mittels dessen die Ausgaben für Rüstung in die Höhe schnellen. Immer mehr Geld wird für's Militär und immer mehr Mittel werden für die Entwicklung immer modernerer Waffensysteme sowie für ein weltumspannendes Netz von Militärbasen ausgegeben. Das Kriegsbündnis NATO ist in zahlreiche Militäroperationen über große geografische Entfernungen hinweg im Einsatz. Der Radius reicht von Afghanistan bis Libyen und stellt heute eine größere Gefährdung für den Frieden dar als zuvor. Unter diesen Umständen erklären wir als kommunistische- und Arbeiterparteien aus den NATO-Mitgliedsländern, dass ein entschlossener und kämpferischer Einsatz gegen die NATO nicht nur geboten ist, sondern dringender erforderlich als je zuvor.
Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika spielen heute eine zentrale Rolle als stärkste Macht innerhalb des NATO-Rahmens, sie sind die Führungsmacht innerhalb des imperialistischen Weltgefüges.  Allerdings wird das NATO-Kommando zusammen gestellt auf Grundlage der ökonomischen, politischen und militärischen Stärke, die die jeweilige Bourgeoisie in jedem der Mitgliedstaaten in ihren Händen hält. Die einzige Souveränität innerhalb der NATO ist demnach die Souveränität des Kapitals, das von den USA und Europa dirigiert wird. Wir erklären daher, dass das Ringen um soziale, ökonomische, demokratische und nationale Rechte, sowie das Ringen um Emanzipation der Völker und der Kampf gegen die NATO untrennbar verquickt sind mit dem Kampf gegen den Kapitalismus. Das ist so, weil die NATO seit ihrer Gründung verdeckte Einsätze ausgeführt hat gegen revolutionäre Bewegungen, gegen Organisationen der Arbeiterklasse und gegen fortschrittliche Kreise der jeweiligen Gesellschaften. Die geheime NATO-Organisation, informell bekannt geworden als 'Gladio', wirkte als Motor für zahlreiche verdeckte Einsätze, inklusive Bombenattentate, politischer Morde, subversiver Techniken und vieles mehr. In Ergänzung solcher verdeckter Tätigkeiten wirkt die NATO werbewirksam für imperialistische Interessen mittels offener medialer Manipulation, durch Finanzierung von sogenannten NGOS ( englisches Akronym für Nichtregierungsorganisationen), von Forschungsvorhaben und ähnlichem.
Wir verurteilen alle derartigen Versuche der NATO entweder durch verdeckte Operationen oder durch PR-Arbeit in welcher Form auch immer, einen Keil zwischen  die Organe der Arbeiterklasse zu treiben und  außerdem die Menschen und ihre fortschrittlichen Organisationen zu spalten und  sie durch aggressiven Antikommunismus gegen einander aufzubringen.
Das Trio USA/NATO/EU arbeiten Hand in Hand als Außenposten von Kapitalismus und Imperialismus, um auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise und durch verschiedenartige Instrumente die Macht des Kapitals abzusichern. Die Variationsbreite ihre Einsatzmethoden und Werkzeuge ändern nichts daran, dass sie alle dem selben Zweck dienen, nämlich der Aufrechterhaltung des Imperialismus, der den Interessen der Menschen zutiefst zuwiderläuft. Die Militärstrukturen der EU befinden sich in Übereinstimmung mit der NATO. Wir erklären daher, dass ein ehrlicher und wirksamer Kampf gegen die NATO auch eine Ablehnung aller anderen imperialistischen Organisationsformen und Allianzen erforderlich macht.
Anfang der 90er Jahre hat die NATO ihr Einsatzgebiet stetig erweitert. Auf ihrem Rom-Gipfel 1992 und in Washington 1999 haben sich die NATO-Staaten auf eine neue Doktrin geeinigt, die es dem Militärbündnis ermöglichen sollte, bewaffnete Interventionen auf der ganzen Welt durchzuführen. Als Vorwände für die Legitimierung derartiger NATO-Einsätze in neuen Hemisphären mussten der Kampf gegen den Terrorismus oder die Einführung der Demokratie herhalten. Der barbarische Krieg gegen Jugoslawien und die blutige Invasion in Afghanistan waren frühe Beispiele für die praktische Umsetzung der neuen Militärdoktrin.
Im selben Zusammenhang entwickelte die NATO neue Programme wie etwa das „Partnership for Peace ('Partner für den Frieden') Programm“, mittels dessen neue Mitgliedsländer geworben wurden.

Wir aber erklären, dass wir gegen alle Formen des NATO-Expansionismus, Interventionismus und gegen seiner Aggressionskriege eintreten. Wir treten ein, für die Auflösung des Militärbundes und für das souveräne Recht jeder Nation sich daraus und aus anderen imperialistischen Allianzen zurückzuziehen.
In einem internationalen Kontext, der geprägt ist von einer sich vertiefenden strukturellen Krise des Kapitalismus und damit von einer Verschärfung der Ausbeutung von Arbeitern und Völkern, von  einem Kontext, der geprägt ist durch zunehmende gegen die Demokratie gerichtete Bedrohungen und Angriffe auf die Souveränität von Völkern, da zeigt uns das Leben selbst, dass Krieg und Aggression nach wie vor Instrumente einer imperialistischen Strategie sind, die auf ökonomische und geostrategische Vorherrschaft abzielt.
Aber die Eskalation des Imperialismus trifft auf den Widerstand von Völkern, die durch die vielfältigsten Formen des Abwehrkampfes gegen aufgezwungene Aggression, Invasion und Krieg, dem Imperialismus die Stirn bieten.
Es ist der Kampf, den die Völker über viele Niederlagen hinweg um den Frieden führen, den die großen imperialistischen Mächte aber nicht hinnehmen wollen und den sie durch Zwangsmethoden und mittels Gewalt zu brechen versuchen. Dieser notwendige Kampf und die grundlegenden immanenten Widersprüche und Krisen, die das System selbst produziert, wird uns helfen, das System schließlich zu überwinden.
Wir drücken deswegen unsere Verbundenheit mit den Völkern aus, die der imperialistischen Besatzung, der kriegerischen Aggression und Einmischung namentlich im Nahen Osten und in Afrika die Stirn bieten. Wir versichern unser Engagement für die Stärkung und Verbreiterung der Friedens-und Anti-NATO-Bewegung. Wir setzen uns ein für den Aufbau einer anti-imperialistischen Front gegen imperialistische Aggressivität und Krieg, wir machen uns stark gegen einen so genannten Raketen-Abwehrschirm und  gegen ausländische Militärbasen. Wir protestieren gegen die Teilnahme unserer Militärstreitkräfte an imperialistischen Aggressionshandlungen gegen andere Nationen.
In jüngster Zeit wurde die NATO auch als ein Mittel genutzt, um im Nahen Osten und in Nordafrika Regierungen zu stürzen und sie durch solche zu ersetzen, die dem Interesse des Imperialismus am besten dienen. Das barbarische Blutvergießen in Libyen, das im Lynchmord an Muammar Gaddafi kulminierte und das Libyen für imperialistische Plünderer freigab, nimmt nun eine schwarze Seite in der Geschichte der Menschheit ein.
Frankreichs gegenwärtiger Militäreinsatz in Mali, der unter Teilnahme und mit Billigung mehrerer anderer NATO-Mitglieder erfolgt, stellt nur die Fortsetzung der Aggression gegen Libyen dar.
Gegenüber Syrien hat die NATO das selbe blutige Szenario vorgesehen. Die Imperialisten und ihre Klientel-Staaten in der Region haben von Anbeginn der Krise die Opposition bewaffnet und finanziert. Jetzt ist die NATO bereit, direkt in den Konflikt einzugreifen, da ihre Söldner sich als unfähig erwiesen haben, der gegenwärtigen Regierung eine Niederlage beizubringen. Die Stationierung von Patriot-Raketen an der türkisch-syrischen Grenze stellt eine reale Gefahr für den Frieden in der Region dar. Diese Raketen bedrohen die Souveränität aller Nationen hier. Die Türkei macht sich sich durch die Mitbeteiligung zum direkten Feind nicht nur Syriens, sondern auch des Iran, der ständig vom Imperialismus unter Druck gesetzt wird. Wir erklären, dass es das ausschließliche Recht des syrischen Volkes ist, über seine Zukunft zu befinden.
 In völliger Übereinstimmung mit dem syrischen Volk versprechen wir auch, allen Pläne der Imperialisten in der Region die Stirn zu bieten.





Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Paul Robeson on Stalin's death March 5th 1953

Paul Robeson was an interationally known US singer, performer,  theater and movie actor and an outstanding  footballer, educated at Columbia  Law School. He was the first black actor to have represented  Othello, the Moor of Venice.
Below is the full text of a tribute by Paul Robeson to Joseph Stalin upon Stalin's death on March 5, 1953. It was published in New World Review, April, 1953, and reprinted in Paul Robeson Speaks, edited by Philip Foner, pp. 347-349. We are exhibiting it in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Paul Robeson's birth on April 9, 1898.

To You Beloved Comrade

by Paul Robeson

There is no richer store of human experience than the folk tales, folk poems and songs of a people. In many, the heroes are always fully recognizable humans - only larger and more embracing in dimension. So it is with the Russian, Chinese. and the African folk-lore.
In 1937, a highly expectant audience of Moscow citizens - workers, artists, youth, farmers from surrounding towns - crowded the Bolshoy Theater. They awaited a performance by the Uzbek National Theater, headed by the highly gifted Tamara Khanum. The orchestra was a large one with instruments ancient and modern. How exciting would be the blending of the music of the rich culture of Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khrennikov, Gliere - with that of the beautiful music of the Uzbeks, stemming from an old and proud civilization.
Suddenly everyone stood - began to applaud - to cheer - and to smile. The children waved.
In a box to the right - smiling and applauding the audience - as well as the artists on the stage - stood the great Stalin.
I remember the tears began to quietly flow. and I too smiled and waved Here was clearly a man who seemed to embrace all. So kindly - I can never forget that warm feeling of kindliness and also a feeling of sureness. Here was one who was wise and good - the world and especially the socialist world was fortunate indeed to have his daily guidance. I lifted high my son Pauli to wave to this world leader, and his leader. For Paul, Jr. had entered school in Moscow, in the land of the Soviets.
The wonderful performance began, unfolding new delights at every turn - ensemble and individual, vocal and orchestral, classic and folk-dancing of amazing originality. Could it be possible that a few years before in 1900 - in 1915 - these people had been semi-serfs - their cultural expression forbidden, their rich heritage almost lost under tsarist oppression's heel?
So here one witnessed in the field of the arts - a culture national in form, socialist in content. Here was a people quite comparable to some of the tribal folk of Asia - quite comparable to the proud Yoruba or Basuto of West and East Africa, but now their lives flowering anew within the socialist way of life twenty years matured under the guidance of Lenin and Stalin. And in this whole area of development of national minorities - of their relation to the Great Russians - Stalin had played and was playing a most decisive role.
I was later to travel - to see with my own eyes what could happen to so-called backward peoples. In the West (in England, in Belgium, France, Portugal, Holland) - the Africans, the Indians (East and West), many of the Asian peoples were considered so backward that centuries, perhaps, would have to pass before these so-called "colonials" could become a part of modern society.
But in the Soviet Union, Yakuts, Nenetses, Kirgiz, Tadzhiks - had respect and were helped to advance with unbelievable rapidity in this socialist land. No empty promises, such as colored folk continuously hear in the United States, but deeds. For example, the transforming of the desert in Uzbekistan into blooming acres of cotton. And an old friend of mine, Mr. Golden, trained under Carver at Tuskegee, played a prominent role in cotton production. In 1949, I saw his daughter, now grown and in the university - a proud Soviet citizen.
Today in Korea - in Southeast Asia - in Latin America and the West Indies, in the Middle East - in Africa, one sees tens of millions of long oppressed colonial peoples surging toward freedom. What courage - what sacrifice - what determination never to rest until victory!
And arrayed against them, the combined powers of the so-called Free West, headed by the greedy, profit-hungry, war-minded industrialists and financial barons of our America. The illusion of an "American Century" blinds them for the immediate present to the clear fact that civilization has passed them by - that we now live in a people's century - that the star shines brightly in the East of Europe and of the world. Colonial peoples today look to the Soviet Socialist Republics. They see how under the great Stalin millions like themselves have found a new life. They see that aided and guided by the example of the Soviet Union, led by their Mao Tse-tung, a new China adds its mighty power to the true and expanding socialist way of life. They see formerly semi-colonial Eastern European nations building new People's Democracies, based upon the people's power with the people shaping their own destinies. So much of this progress stems from the magnificent leadership, theoretical and practical, given by their friend Joseph Stalin.
They have sung - sing now and will sing his praise - in song and story. Slava - slava - slava - Stalin, Glory to Stalin. Forever will his name be honored and beloved in all lands.
In all spheres of modern life the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. From his last simply written but vastly discerning and comprehensive document, back through the years, his contributions to the science of our world society remain invaluable. One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin - the shapers of humanity's richest present and future.
Yes, through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. Most importantly - he has charted the direction of our present and future struggles. He has pointed the way to peace - to friendly co-existence - to the exchange of mutual scientific and cultural contributions - to the end of war and destruction. How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom. He leaves tens of millions all over the earth bowed in heart-aching grief.
But, as he well knew, the struggle continues. So, inspired by his noble example, let us lift our heads slowly but proudly high and march forward in the fight for peace - for a rich and rewarding life for all.
In the inspired words of Lewis Allan, our progressive lyricist -
To you Beloved Comrade, we make this solemn vow
The fight will go on - the fight will still go on.
Sleep well, Beloved Comrade, our work will just begin.
The fight will go on - till we win - until we win.
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2. Plalästina Solidaritätskonferenz in Stuttgart im Mai

Diese Konferenz war ein unterwandertes,  problematisches Unterfangen. Nicht von ungefähr von Al Jazeeras (KATAR) life übertragen.Viele angekündigte Referenten waren nicht gekommen oder ausgetauscht worden ohne Erklärung.

vom 10.-12. Mai  im Kulturhaus Arena, Ulmer Straße 241 in 70327 Stuttgart -Wangen
mwechsel im historischen PalästiReferenten
Schirmherrin ist Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, eine deutsch-jüdische Autorin, Aktivistin und scharfe Kritikerin der israelischen Politik gegenüber den PalästinenserInnen. Sie veröffentlicht wöchentliche Kommentare über Zionismus, Antizionismus, Antisemitismus und den Nahostkonflikt.
Großbritannien 1. Ilan Pappe ist Historiker und sozialistischer Aktivist. Er ist Professor an der Akademie für Sozialwissen- schaften und Internationale Studien, Direktor des Europäischen Instituts für Palästinastudien und stellvertre- tender Direktor des Zentrums für ethnopolitische Studien der Universität Exeter in England.
2. Ghada Karmi ist Ärztin, Autorin und Wissenschaftlerin. Sie ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin und Dozentin am Institut für Arabische und Islamische Studien der Universität Exeter. Sie veröffentlicht seit 1990 Artikel und Bücher über die Ein-Staat-Lösung. Das ist auch das Thema ihres neuen Buches „Married to another man: Israel’s dilemma in Palestine“.
USA 3. Richard Falk ist emeritierter Professor für Völkerrecht an der Universität von Princeton. Am 26.03.2008 ernannten die Vereinten Nationen Richard Falk für einen Zeitraum von sechs Jahren zum Sonderbericht- erstatter über die Menschenrechtssituation in den 1967 besetzten palästinensischen Gebieten.
4. Asaad Abu Khalil ist Professor für Politikwissenschaft an der California State University, Stanislaus, USA. Er unterhält den Blog The Angry Arab News Service.
5. Joseph Massad ist außerordentlicher Professor für Moderne Arabische Politik und Geistesgeschichte in der Abteilung für Nahost-, Südasiatische und Afrikanische Studien der Columbia Universität, New York.
Gaza 6. Raji Sourani gilt als Gazas führender Rechtsanwalt für Menschenrechtsfragen. Im Jahr 1991 erhielt er den Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, 1985 und 1988 war er Gefangener des Gewissens von Amnesty International. Raji Sourani ist Mitglied der Internationalen Juristenkommission und Vizepräsident der International Federation of Human Rights. Er ist Gründer und Direktor des Palestinian Centers for Human Rights.
Libanon 7. Samah Idriss ist Mitbegründer der Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel (CBSI). Er promovierte über Sprachen und Kulturen des Nahen Ostens an der Columbia Universität, New York. Er ist antizionistischer Aktivist und ehemaliger Chefredakteur von al-Adab, einer libanesischen Zeitschrift für Kunst und Kultur in Beirut. Er ist Lexikograph und Kinderbuchautor.
Palästina 48 8. Haneen Naamnih ist Schriftstellerin und ehemalige Rechtsanwältin von Adalah (The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel) für Bodenrecht. Sie ist Master (LLM) in Rechtswissenschaften und hat sich an der School of Oriental and African Studies der Universität London auf Kolonialrecht spezialisiert.
9. Yoav Bar war ein Politbüromitglied von Abnaa elBalad, einer palästinensischen Bewegung innerhalb des 1948 besetzten Palästinas. Er ist einer der Initiatoren der Haifa-Konferenz für das Rückkehrrecht und den gemeinsamen säkularen, demokratischen Staat in Palästina.
Tunesien 10. Mhamed Krichen ist Fernseh-Moderator und Mitglied des Direktorengremiums des CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) in New York. Krichen ist einer der angesehensten Journalisten des Fernsesenders Al Jazeera und vertrautes Gesicht in den Nachrichtensendungen.
Deutschland 11. Hermann Dierkes, Partei Die Linke, ist in Gewerkschaftsfragen genauso engagiert wie bei Umwelt- oder antikolonialen Themen wie der Palästinafrage. Er arbeitet eng mit dem Alternativen Informationszentrum (Beit Sahour, Jerusalem) zusammen. Hermann Dierkes ist Vorsitzender der Fraktion der Partei Die Linke im Stadtrat von Duisburg.
12. Shir Hever ist Wirtschaftswissenschaftler beim Alternativen Informationszentrum, einer palästinensisch- israelischen Organisation mit Sitz in Beit Sahour und Jerusalem. Shir Hever ist Experte für die ökonomi- schen Aspekte der israelischen Besatzung der palästinensischen Gebiete. Er ist Autor des Buches „The Political Economy of Israel's Occupation” und schreibt derzeit seine Doktorarbeit an der Freien Universität Berlin. Shir Hever lebt in Göttingen.
13. Attia Rajab kommt aus dem Gazastreifen, Bauingenieur, Menschenrechtsaktivist und Mitbegründer des Palästinakomitee Stuttgart.
Der Deutsche-Arabische Hiwar-Chor Bis zu 40 Sängerinnen und Sänger (verschiedenster Herkunft) werden von Musikern auf der Oud, Querflöte, Kanun und Trommeln begleitet. Sie alle verbindet die Freude an der arabischen Musik und Kultur und die Überzeugung, dass sich Menschen unterschiedlicher Kulturkreise und Religionen durch Musik und Poesie näher kommen können. Sie möchten mit ihren Liedern den interkulturellen Austausch fördern und ein Zeichen für Toleranz und Respekt setzen.
Samir Mansour Ist in Damaskus geborener Palästinenser. Er studierte dort Musik am Konservatorium. Er spielt arabische Laute (Oud), Tuba, die orientalische Zither „Kanun“ und Trommel. In Damaskus spielte er Oud im Staatlichen Syrischen Orchester und Tuba im Syrischen Symphonieorchester. Mit Oud und Gesang trat er in zahlreichen Radio- und Fernsehsendungen auf. Er arrangierte auch die Erkennungsmelodien diverser Filme. Seine Kompositionen reichen von einer Operette bis zur preisgekrönten Vertonung mehrerer Theaterstücke. Samir Mansour lebt und arbeitet seit 1999 in Stuttgart.
Palästinakomitee Stuttgart e.V. palaestinakomitee-stuttgart.de
Palästinakomitee
Teilnahmekosten
Kosten der Konferenz und Verpflegung (mit Mittag- und Abendessen, aber ohne Übernachtung und ohne Frühstück)
Standard: 65,00 €/Person Studenten/Schüler/Hartz IV: 55,00 €/Person
Übernachtung
Wir vermitteln Zimmer (meist Zweibettzimmer) in Gästehäusern und günstigen Hotels in der Nähe des Konferenzorts (Preise von 30,00 € bis 35,00 € pro Person/Nacht inkl. Frühstück, Einzelzimmer ab 50,00 € pro Person/Nacht inkl. Frühstück).
Anmeldung
Bis 01.05.2013 Bitte frühzeitig buchen, die Plätze sind begrenzt
Anmeldung per Email: pakos@online.de Anmeldung per Fax: +49 (0711) 429838
Mit der Anmeldebestätigung erhalten Sie unsere Bankverbindung. Erst wenn der Betrag (Teilnahmekosten und evtl. Übernachtung) überwiesen ist, ist die Anmeldung gültig. Die vorherige Anmeldung ist Voraussetzung für die Teilnahme an der Konferenz.
Anfragen
Attia Rajab (Palästinakomitee Stuttgart) Tel.: 0711 76 41 26 oder Mobil: 01525 319 3104
Emailadresse: pakos@online.de
Konferenzleitung
Konferenzort
Kulturhaus Arena – früher Theaterhaus Ulmer Straße 241 70327 Stuttgart - Wangen
Schirmfrau der Konferenz Evelyn Hecht-Galinski
Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, eine deutsch-jüdische Autorin, Aktivistin und scharfe Kritikerin der israelischen Politik gegenüber den PalästinenserInnen. Sie veröffentlicht wöchentliche Kommentare über Zionismus, Antizionismus, Antisemitismus und den Nahostkonflikt.
Anfahrt
Vom Stadtzentrum Stadtbahn U4 und U9
Haltestelle Im Degen
WANGEN
Mit öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln zur Haltestelle Im Degen
Stadtbahn U4 von Charlottenplatz Richtung Untertürkheim Bf Stadtbahn U9 von Hauptbahnhof Richtung Hedelfingen - Fahrzeit jeweils ca. 15 Minuten - Fußweg von der Haltestelle zur Ulmer Str. 241, ca. 3 Minuten
Anfahrt mit dem Auto:
Von der A 8 Ausfahrt „Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen“, auf die B 10 Richtung Stuttgart-Wangen Von der A 81 Ausfahrt „Esslingen“, auf die B 10 Richtung Stuttgart-Ost, siehe auch kulturhausarena.de
Parkplätze sind in der Straße Viehwasen und entlang der Ulmer Straße vorhanden.
Kulturhaus Arena
Attia Rajab, Ian Portman (Palästinakomitee Stuttgart) Konferenzsprachen sind Deutsch und Englisch
mmit Simultanübersetzung im Plenum Palästinakomitee Stuttgart e. V. –
Ulmer Straße 241
Palästinakomitee
palaestinakomitee-stuttgart.de Visdp: Palästinakomitee Stuttgart e. V. c/o M. Kunkel, Rosengartenstr. 80, 70184 Stuttgart
Zweite Palästina- Solidaritätskonferenz in Stuttgart
10.–12.05.2013
Die Menschen fordern den politischen Systemwechsel im historischen Palästina
Für einen gemeinsamen demokratischen Staat für alle seine Bürger
Veranstalter:
Viehwasen
Fußweg 3 Min. Ulmer Straße
Kirschenweg
2. Palästina-Solidaritätskonferenz in Stuttgart Samstag 11.05.2013
Fernsehsenders Al Jazeera, hat die arab. Aufstände begleitet, Tunesien) Die arabischen Revolutionen und ihr Einfluss auf die Palästinafrage
Asaad Abu Khalil (Prof. für Politikwissenschaft, California State University, Stanislaus, USA) Widerstand und Befreiung von Diktatur und Siedlerkolonial- ismus in der Ära des politischen Islam
Moderation: Willi Langthaler (Journalist, Wien, Österreich) 18:15 Uhr Abendessen
In den vergangenen zwei Jahren haben die Menschen in der ara- 8:30 Uhr Kaffee, Tee, arabische Süßigkeiten bischen Region versucht, ihre Situation in die eigene Hand zu nehmen. Die Hauptparole der demokratischen Bewegungen 9:00 Uhr heißt „politischer Systemwechsel“ für mehr soziale Gerechtigkeit, Haneen Naamnih (Rechtsanwältin, Schriftstellerin, Palästina) Demokratie, Freiheit und Selbstbestimmung. Ausländische Kräfte, Der Jüdische Nationalfonds-KKL, der Prawer-Plan im Negev, Teile des politischen Islam und Vertreter der alten Strukturen ver- Bürgerrechte im siedlerkolonialistischen Staat und der Kampf suchen, die Bewegungen zu dominieren. Die Menschen im histo- um den Boden
rrischen Palästina sind immer Teil der Bewegung in der Region gewesen. Militarismus, Rassismus, Apartheid und die Entrechtung Yoav Bar (Ehemaliges Politbüro-Mitglied von Abnaa Al-Balad, der palästinensischen Bevölkerungsmehrheit im gesamten Land Initiator der Haifa Konferenz für ODS, Palästina) bestimmen jedoch die Politik des Staates Israel. Dies gilt für die Der demokratische gemeinsame Staat – Voraussetzung, Parteien von rechtsaußen bis linksliberal gleichermaßen. Massive Umsetzung, Initiativen in Palästina und Deutschland Verdrängung und Diskriminierung der PalästinenserInnen inner- halb der Grünen Linie, intensiver Landraub im Zuge des Moderation: Ivesa Lübben (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an Siedlungsbaus in Jerusalem und der Westbank oder die der Universität Marburg, Deutschland) Gazablockade entlocken den Politikern in USA und EU bestenfalls mahnende Worte. Konsequenzen hat Israel nicht zu befürchten. 10:45 Uhr Pause: Kaffee, Tee und andere Getränke Das Menschenrecht der palästinensischen Flüchtlinge auf Rückkehr wird nicht mehr thematisiert. Immer öfter kommt 11:15 Uhr Ratlosigkeit zum Ausdruck, wenn es um die „Palästinafrage“ geht. Ilan Pappe (Historiker, Prof. an der Universität Exeter, UK)
20:00 Uhr Der Deutsch-Arabische Hiwarchor Samir Mansour und sein Hiwarchor (Palästinensischer Musiker und Komponist, Stuttgart)
Auf unserer Konferenz wollen wir einen alternativen Weg zu Die Ein-Staat-Lösung, Utopie, bittere Realität, oder realistische einem gerechten Frieden beleuchten. Wie kann der bestehende Alternative für einen gerechten Frieden im historischen Apartheidstaat im historischen Palästina überwunden werden, Palästina damit der Weg frei wird für einen gemeinsamen demokratischen
der Menschenrechte zu überwinden?
Freitag 10.05. 2013
Lösung - Strategien für die Verwirklichung
119:30 Uhr Richard Falk (Prof. für internationales Recht, Princeton Universität, Samah Idriss (PhD Columbia University in New York, Menschenrechtsbeauftragter der UN, USA) Mitbegründer von CBSI, Libanon) BDS und die Perspektiven für einen gemeinsamen demokrati- Die arabischen Revolutionen und der Boykott des israelischen schen Staat in Palästina Apartheidstaats
Ilan Pappe (Historiker, Prof. an der Universität Exeter, UK) Moderation: Birgit Althaler (Übersetzerin, Palästinasolidarität Palästina nach der UN-Resolution - Ein Wendepunkt? Region Basel, Schweiz)
Joseph Massad (Prof. an der Columbia Universität, NY, USA) 16:00 Uhr Pause: Kaffee, Tee und andere Getränke
Zionismus, Antisemitismus und die Palästinafrage Moderation: Ian Portman (Palästinakomitee Stuttgart) Mhamed Krichen (einer der bekanntesten Journalisten des
Sonntag 12.05.2013
8:30 Uhr Kaffee, Tee, arabische Süßigkeiten
9:00 Uhr Attia Rajab (Bauingenieur, Palästinakomitee Stuttgart) Zwei Staaten – Ein Staat: Die Solidaritätsbewegung in der BRD am Wendepunkt
Hermann Dierkes (Mitglied des Rates der Stadt Duisburg und der Partei Die Linke, Deutschland) Israel als Staatsräson Deutschlands und die Solidaritäts- bewegung
Shir Hever (Ökonom des Alternative Information Center, Doktorand an der FU Berlin, Deutschland) Die militärische Zusammenarbeit zwischen Israel, der EU und Deutschland – der internationale Hintergrund des israelischen Militarismus
Moderation: Reinhold Riedel (Palästinakomitee Stuttgart) 10:45 Uhr Pause: Kaffee, Tee und andere Getränke
11:15 Uhr Podiumsdiskussion: Perspektiven für den politischen Systemwechsel im historischen Palästina Ilan Pappe, Joseph Massad, Asaad Abu Khalil, Raji Sourani, Ghada Karmi, Haneen Naamnih, Yoav Bar, Hermann Dierkes und Shir Hever
Moderator: Mhamed Krichen (Journalist, Tunesien) 13:15 Uhr Mittagessen (Ende der Konferenz)
Staat für alle seine Bürger, in dem die gleichen Rechte aller und das Raji Sourani (Direktor des Palästinensischen Zentrums für Rückkehrrecht der PalästinenserInnen verwirklicht werden? Welche Menschenrechte, Gaza, Palästina) Möglichkeiten haben wir als Solidaritätsbewegung in Europa und Israelische Kriegsverbrechen, die Menschenrechtssituation in besonders in Deutschland, die bestehenden Verhältnisse im Sinne Palästina und die Ergebnisse des Russell-Tribunals
Moderation: Norman Paech (Emeritierter Professor für Völkerrecht, Hamburg, Deutschland)
17:30 Uhr Anmeldung und Abendessen 13:00 Uhr Mittagessen
19:00 Uhr Eröffnung 14:15 Uhr Verena Rajab (Journalistin, Palästinakomitee Stuttgart) Ghada Karmi (Dr. med., Autorin, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin Evelyn Hecht-Galinski (Schirmfrau, Autorin/Journalistin, Deutschl.) Universität Exeter, UK) Das Rückkehrrecht und die Einstaat-
116:30 Uhr

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Jochen Hellenbeck "Stalingrad Protokolle"


Jochen Hellbeck, »Die Stalingrad-Protokolle. Augenzeugen berichten aus der Schlacht«, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, 608 S., ge- bunden, 26 Euro
jungeWeltinterview 
Sonnabend/Sonntag, 2./3. Februar 2013, Nr. 28 junge Welt


Saturday, February 2, 2013

Antistalinismus, ferocious Anticommunism

see  Grover Furr, US-historian


kl-cover-small.jpg (18194 bytes) 02.26 11 - Publication of the book Khrushchev Lied. (Subtitle: The Evidence that Every "Revelation" of Stalin's (and Beria's) "Crimes" in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, Is Provably False.Home Page at Erythr�s Press and Media.at Abebooks.comat Amazon.comat Abebooks.co.uk.