Dear comrades,
The Communist Organization is very pleased to be able to participate in a Platform conference as a guest for the first time. In our short speech, we want to reflect on the developments of the international communist movement from the perspective of our own development. We are looking forward to exchanging ideas with you on this more intensively.
Our small and young organization was founded in 2018 with the aim of initiating and organizing a communist clarification process. What do we mean by that? We had recognized that the communist movement in Germany and, in essence, worldwide is in a deep crisis, despite some large and influential parties. The manifestations of this crisis are still evident today: the communist movement is fragmented, often isolated from the working class, knowledge of the worldwide history of the labor movement and knowledge of scientific communism lie buried. Neither could we identify a comprehensive understanding of the defeat of socialism nor a revolutionary strategy for the class struggles of our time could in the communist movement in Germany and internationally. We ourselves were not in a position to do so either.
We understand the central cause of the crisis to be revisionism, in other words the influence and penetration of bourgeois ideology into scientific socialism. On this basis, theories and strategies were able to grow that led the workers’ movement as a whole away from a revolutionary line in the epochal struggle against capitalism. The influence of modern revisionism, anti-Stalinism, the dissolution and abandonment of positions of the centrally planned economy, the party of new type, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the influence of Eurocommunism and much more could be seen in the German communist movement.
At the beginning, we were particularly interested in the KKE, the Communist Party of Greece. We recognized many of the elements that we had associated with the project of a communist clarification process in their efforts to re-establish the Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties after 1990, the analyses of the defeat of real socialism, the struggle against the influences of Eurocommunism, the establishment of the European Initiative of Communist Parties and the Communist Review. Last but not least, we looked with interest at the practical successes of the KKE in building PAME and its continuing, historically grown roots in the Greek people.
From our point of view, the initiative for debate, for a sharp but open confrontation within the worldwide movement was exactly right and the only way to identify and combat the basis of the movement’s crisis. It is all the more tragic that this tendency was aborted.
Long before the start of Russia’s special military operation in February 2022, one of the KKE’s most central concerns within the international communist movement was to assert, that China was not socialist and that an emerging imperialist pole was being organized around China and Russia. The open debate has increasingly been replaced by a demarcation and rallying around a supposedly “revolutionary pole” and the defamation of the majority of Communist parties as “revisionist”.
With the beginning of the special military operation, the harmful effect of the idea of the “imperialist pyramid” and the KKE’s position that the communists would rally behind a “new, rising imperialist pole” instead of independently putting the socialist revolution on the agenda became recognizable in its dangerous implications. This line of alleged equidistance leads to disorientation and makes a consistent political struggle against NATO more difficult, even if the actions of the KKE and PAME against the arms deliveries and NATO bases must not be overlooked and remain important contributions. Their analyses of the role of China and Russia are one-sided, distorted and misleading. By de facto equating these countries with imperialism, they not only exonerate the West, but also create a dangerously false image of China and its character in particular. The understanding of imperialism as a whole has been gutted by claiming that there are no longer any qualitative differences between the countries in which monopoly capitalist conditions prevail. There would be no oppressing and no oppressed countries, but only a quantitative difference in the share of globally organized exploitation, a relapse into the capitalism of free competition. The essentials of the theory of imperialism were eliminated by them.
In our organization, these events led to sharp disputes and finally to a split, with part of the organization joining the supposedly revolutionary and radical slogans and lines of the KKE. In the context of this split, we not only recognized the falsity and harmful effect of the imperialist conception of the KKE and other parties, but in particular realized that the gathering around a supposedly revolutionary pole dissolves the good and correct impulses of the KKE into a divisive tendency for the international movement. Instead of carrying out the necessary and interesting debate between the KKE and the Russian Communist and Workers Party on the question of “exported fascism” openly and controversially in the public sphere of the movement, it was ended. Instead of using the International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties for exchange and sharp discussion in order to develop the movement as a whole, an attempt was made to polarize the parties with statements. The European Initiative of the Communist and Workers’ Parties was unilaterally and without consultation declared dissolved by the KKE. We see here a development in which the KKE, which originally played a leading role in promoting exchange and discussion within the Communist movement by setting up solidnet, is now obstructing exchange and development at a global level. We ask ourselves how this change of course in the KKE could come about. It formulates an ideological and political claim to leadership that it is not in a position to fulfill.
However, we want to emphasize that we are striving for a joint discussion with all parts of the communist movement and especially with parties like the KKE. We need open and controversial discussion for development and clarification. Sharp criticism and probing questions are necessary, but they need not and should not lead to the termination of talks and possible joint action on the basis of common positions. We must fully recognize the problems and contradictions within the worldwide communist movement and must not close our eyes to shortcomings of our own. Harmful and wrong political positions of communist parties do not at the same time mean that they can be understood as revisionist as a whole. A simplistic labeling can hinder an understanding of the contradictory and complicated situation and historical development of communist forces. We recognize this problem especially within the communist movement in Germany and in our own development.
We see that the discussions initiated by the Platform are important and can provide strong impulses for the communist movement. The main thrust of progressive forces and oppressed peoples worldwide must be directed against the US-led NATO, which is waging war against Russia and preparing for war against China. The sharply outlined camps of the class struggle are rapidly forming worldwide. The heroic resistance of the Palestinian people clearly demonstrates the increasing isolation and at the same time completely unrestrained aggressiveness of imperialism. The struggle for socialism is part of these struggles, part of the struggle against imperialist oppression and for national liberation. Only in the midst of and through these struggles will we be able to build the revolutionary workers’ movement. The need for international organization is put on the agenda quite practically and strongly by the struggles. We do not need a loose context for discussion, but increasingly binding and politically unified international links between communists. But how can this task be accomplished?
We believe that a link to the discussions and developments of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties is indispensable. Although we are entering a more dynamic phase of the international class struggle, the crisis of the worldwide communist movement will not simply be resolved or ended. The revolutionary lines and forces of the workers’ movement will only be able to assert themselves through sharp but open debates with and within the global movement. This requires not least intensive work to strengthen scientific communism in our ranks. A new International will not emerge alongside and apart from the historically grown parties of the movement. In many of them there are debates and disputes that we must not simply ignore, even in parties like the KKE. Many of them play an important role in the political struggles, many of them contain the historical experiences of our struggles. We believe that there is a danger in prematurely writing off the forces that have come together in solidnet, for example, which we would like to discuss further with you and on which we want to improve our exchange.
At the same time, we are watching with interest developments in such plural contexts as the International Peoples Assembly (IPA), in which communist forces are arguing together with trade union organizations, farmers’ associations and other social democratic organizations about the strategic lines of the international class struggle. In short, a sharp and clear position and stance on the burning political issues of our time, which is rightly demanded by representatives in the Platform in particular, must not blind us to our own weaknesses or prevent us from recognizing and productively influencing the dynamics and incompleteness of developments in the global communist movement. We need ideological debate, better and more comprehensive Marxist analysis. Only on this basis will we ultimately be able to advance the unity of the revolutionary workers’ movement worldwide.
Many debates and questions have recently become clearer regarding the understanding of anti-imperialism and the connection between national liberation and class struggle. The ambivalence, limitations and contradictions of the role of the BRICS, the limitations of bourgeois ideas on multipolarity and also the need for a comprehensive and historically concrete analysis of the balance of power, as exemplified by the complicated situation of the communists in Venezuela. In Germany, we recognize a dangerous tendency to view the dependence of German imperialism on the USA in an absolute and one-sided way.
Progressive positions on national liberation are carelessly transferred to the situation of animperialist country, with far-reaching implications for a policy of alliance with chauvinist forces. We will have to exchange and discuss all these questions further and much more precisely, within the communist movement and very gladly also concretely in the platform.
Dear comrades, in the Federal Republic of Germany we are currently confronted with one of the most violent waves of repression in the country’s recent history. With Russia’s special military operation and additionally intensified since the heroic resistance of October 7, basic rights are being massively undermined. Describing the war against Gaza as genocide is forbidden, agreement with Israel’s so-called “right to exist” is made a precondition for pro-Palestinian protest and possibly even a prerequisite for asylum applications and German citizenship. The Palestinian prisoner solidarity organization Samidoun was banned on the basis of absurd arguments. It is the domestic political facet of an imperialist state at the forefront of the war that is striking at the workers’ movement in Germany. Germany’s capacity for war is to be increased at breakneck speed, military capacities built up, the population stirred up and any opposition nipped in the bud. Under the umbrella of NATO, West German imperialism seeks to secure and expand its dominance in Europe, to carry out economic transformation processes on the backs of the working class and to take military leadership on NATO’s eastern flank. German fascism is being rehabilitated in the context of the war against Russia, fervent Nazi admirers are being celebrated, a disgusting victim-perpetrator reversal of the Second World War is being pursued and mixed with anti-Russian hatred.
The forces that adhere to a consistent anti-imperialist course are few and far between in Germany. For decades, pro-Zionist forces have worked to bring trade unions and the left onto a pro-imperialist course, not only in the question of Palestine. With the start of Russia’s special operation, established and organized forces such as the social-liberal “Left Party” have fully embraced NATO. Nevertheless, resistance is stirring among the working population. Large demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza and protests against the war against Russia have taken place despite media incitement and repression. In many cases, these political struggles are unorganized and politically diffuse. A breeding ground for fascist forces in Germany. A political force, interwoven and connected with the working class and deeply rooted in scientific communism and proletarian internationalism, has yet to be built.
We see our role as to contribute to this task, which we would also like to tackle in a joint process with you and the international communist movement.
Long live international solidarity!
