Dear comrades,
I greet you all on behalf of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia. I would like to use this opportunity to say that our delegation is honored and flattered to be part of this conference, organized by the People’s Democracy Party.
We are living in a period marked by the war in Ukraine, which, day by day, is generalizing into a war between NATO and Russia. In February 2014, with the direct assistance of the USA and other NATO countries, a government coup took place in Ukraine. The legitimate government was overthrown. Neo-Nazis came to power. On 11 May 2014, in the national referendum, 87% of the citizens voted for independence. Thus, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics were formed on the initiative of the popular masses, and not on directions from the Kremlin.
After several unsuccessful attempts to seize DPR/LPR, the Kyiv Nazis resorted to terror. During eight years of constant bombardment by heavy artillery, almost 14,000 civilians were killed and tens of thousands were maimed. The infrastructure was severely damaged.
Throughout the long eight years, the European countries and the USA looked at the genocide of the Russian people in Donbas with extreme equanimity, thus effectively justifying the actions of the Kyiv regime.
Today, the EU and the USA are displaying unheard-of hypocrisy in describing people’s suffering in the course of battles, but ignoring the fact that the use of civilians as human shields has become the standard practice of those whom they call “freedom fighters.”
Nazi ideology is being inculcated in Ukraine. Ukrainian Fascists who organized and committed atrocities during the Second World War have been officially proclaimed national heroes. Their symbols have been adopted by the state. Marches in honor of Fascist criminals are held every year. Streets and squares are named after them. The Communist Party of Ukraine has been driven underground. Intimidation and assassinations of politicians (Kononovich brothers) and journalists have become the order of the day. Monuments to Lenin and everything reminiscent of life in the USSR is being destroyed.
While the Western politicians and the media, who arrogantly claim to represent “the world community,” openly take the side of the Neo-Nazis, major countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America which have firsthand experience of European and American neo-colonialism, quite rightly see the events in Ukraine as Russia’s struggle against the US-led unipolar world. We are conscious of capitalist contradictions in Russia, but the major enemy for peace is NATO and Western imperialism.
In Serbia, the pro-imperialist bourgeoisie is in power and leads the politics of integration toward imperialist entities such as the EU and they want to have a very close relationship with NATO. All governments from 2000 until this day have continuity of these policies. All our governments do everything that Brussels and Washington say. Going by that dictate, from marauding privatization, our industry has been destroyed, health care, in which private hospitals are favored, while public hospitals offer fewer and fewer services covered by health insurance. The right to have an apartment that existed during socialism, where the state offered social residence, is today unimaginable for young people, and expensive and unfair housing loans are responsible for apartments to be a luxury today. The public banking sector has been destroyed after the year 2000 and today is under the control of foreign banks. The government of Serbia is preparing to rob, as instructed by IMF and World Bank, by privatization – electric power, telecommunications, communal and other services remaining in the hands of the state. Almost everything has been sold out. Wages and pensions are being lowered constantly, and if they are raised, in any case, that percentage is being consumed by inflation. The Government of the Republic of Serbia that the minimum wage is 40.000 dinars (340 euro). A new decision of the Government of Serbia is an anti-popular and anti-workers decision because the minimum for the consumer price index is 43.000 dinars (366,5 euros). This decision showed that the bourgeois government of Serbia defends big capital interests and continues with an anti-popular policy.
The bourgeois government in Serbia with numerous machinations and evictions is kicking people out of their homes. Many people do not know that they have debts to some bank or a company and that their home is being sold for next to nothing. Suddenly and overnight many people lose their homes and become homeless. These students do not have a right to syndical organization, but they are obliged to work for the capitalist for a poor wage. As I said, in schools and faculties, books are being adjusted to the ideology of the ruling class. As part of the rehabilitation of collaborationists during the Second World War, noticeable forging exists in history books. Economy and law subjects are submitted to the ideological mantra and myths about the functioning of free trade and bourgeoisie law as neutral. Higher education is being destroyed every year, by adopting the Bologna system that transforms knowledge into a commodity, therefore making education a privilege for the wealthy. Private faculties and high schools are being favored, unlike public ones and the tuition fee is around 1000 euros.
Ordered by the EU, our country brought the law of rehabilitation and restitution. By that law, 3000 collaborationists during the Second World War, were rehabilitated and with the law of restitution, the property has been returned to the robbers of the people from before the Second World War.
There is huge anticommunist hysteria among the people. Many films, series, and “science programs” are made to discredit the socialist construction that existed in our country. It is being shown every day. The media is portraying communists and revolutionaries as criminals and adventurers, and on the other hand, they portray collaborationists as patriots and “saviors of the nation”. They want to show that the struggle for social justice is an absurdity, while treason is something to admire. Media and education teach young people that the problem is in them, not in the system, that everything depends on him/her and that we all have the capital, and it is the question of our “ability” if we are going to use it. The media still promotes a lifestyle that is characteristic of competent capitalist culture and spread apathy, to show that things cannot be changed and it is impossible to do anything, so, therefore, the struggle is pointless. Fighting for survival, along with constant fear, narrows down, for young people, a space for political activity.
Our country is, for 32 years, under the fire of western imperialism in the fight for new markets. The southern part of Serbia, Kosovo and Metohija, is occupied by NATO. In that part of our territory, there is the biggest US military base in Europe, Bondsteel. This part of our territory is under the reign of mafia and war criminals that, with the help of NATO, have control over this territory. Today, negotiations are in process between the puppet regime of, so-called, Kosovo and the Serbian pro-imperialist regime. Western imperialism insists on that agreement because that is the continuation of breaking Yugoslavia.
Also, Imperialists want to underpin new clashes in Balkan. On the other hand, Serbia depends on Russian energy. The Bourgeoisie government in Serbia does not want to bring sanctions on Russia. This is a reason, because the EU, US, and NATO put a lot of pressure on Serbia. They support new clashes and nationalist tensions in Kosovo and Metohija between Serbs and Albanians and they put pressure on Serbia to recognize Kosovo.
We have the most undemocratic electoral system in Europe. If you want to participate in elections, you have to confirm 10.000 signatures at the public notary and sort them in alphabetical order within 15 days. You also have to pay 50.000 euros tax, which allows only large capital parties to participate. The political caste that rules for 30 years is changing in power, but in reality, nothing changes.
In Serbia, a reactionary Serbian Progressive Party is in power, and their main coalition partner is the Socialist Party of Serbia. Although our government is formally dedicated to military neutrality, that is only formally, because, in practice, it is doing everything to enter NATO. Young people do not trust the position or opposition, and over 90 percent of people are against the NATO alliance, 54 percent against the EU, and 65 percent of young people against the EU.
Anti-people politics have special consequences on the youth. A large part of them is vulnerable to alcohol and drugs. Drugs are easy to access. Also, many young people are doing prostitution and crime. With poverty and economic stagnation, moral and ethical values do not exist anymore. More than 52 percent of youth are unemployed. Besides that, youth does not have basic opportunities to afford a home. Their only chance is across private agencies or student and youth agencies that take a large percentage of their monthly wages. The influence of that social environment leads to a staggering rise in depression among young people. The catastrophic economic situation and non-perspective that today’s system in Serbia offers is the reason that our country is the first one in Europe by brain drainage. By the last census, Serbia has 7 million residents, but only this year, 50.000 left. The average wage in Serbia is 350 euros, which makes it one of the poorest countries in Europe.
The situation for a communist movement is extremely difficult in our country. Along with heavy anti-communist propaganda and difficult economic situation, our members are often persecuted in their workplaces, so they can’t perform publicly. The problem with the functioning of our organization is that we do not have professional revolutionaries, but volunteers, which makes our work even harder. That means that our leadership and personnel, both in the Party, as well as the youth wing, cannot be involved all the time in their revolutionary task, but only in the moments of free time. All those things influence the work of our organization.
However, we do not want to whine. We are ready to change the circumstances in our country. Our orientation, as a Marxist-Leninist organization is on the position of proletarian internationalism. For us, that is not a dead letter on paper, but a principle. We expect solidarity and help, but we are also ready to stand in solidarity and help as much as we can all of our sister organizations. Lenin teaches us about dialectical moments. We need to recognize it. The Communist parties in these historical circumstances need to gather all progressive and anti-imperialist forces and fight against Imperialism. We are convinced that socialism is a lawful stage in the evolution of human society and that the 21st century will be the century of socialism. (sve progresivne snage moraju da se ujedine)
Long live proletarian internationalism!
Long live the anti-imperialist struggle!
Long live Marxism-Leninism!
