Pablo Gomez Acevedo | Communist Party of the Galician Republic (PCRG)
Comrades, on behalf of the Communist Party of the Galician Republic, I would like to begin by thanking you for allowing us to be here today, in the homeland of Commander Chávez, who, with his defense of Bolívar’s revolutionary legacy, represents today an example of anti-imperialist dignity and sovereignty for all the peoples of the world. Now that the vulture elites in Washington are barking to intimidate the Venezuelan people and redoubling their efforts to overthrow this revolution, now more than ever we are proud to say that we are your comrades and share your struggle. I would also like to greet the other international delegations representing the best of the proletarian, revolutionary, and anti-fascist heritage from all corners of the world.
Spanish fascism was the weapon used by the bourgeoisie to crush the attempts of the working class and peasants to achieve decent living conditions. Bankers, landowners, and businessmen joined forces with the Nazis and Italian fascists and carried out genocide and systematic persecution of all communist, anarchist, socialist, trade unionist, intellectual, and republican teachers… They installed an autocratic, corrupt regime of absolute vassalage. In other words, fascism fulfilled the historical role defined by Dimitrov as the open dictatorship of the most reactionary, chauvinistic, and imperialist elements of finance capital.
Therefore, Latin America was a center of resistance for the Galician people in the last century. Escaping the clutches of fascist barbarism, which overthrew the Second Spanish Republic, and the genocide committed in Galicia, many Galician anti-fascists found their home here.
Venezuela played a special role, welcoming a huge number of anti-fascist refugees who formed political and cultural resistance organizations here, such as El Centro Galego de Caracas. Through the vindication of our culture and our language, persecuted and hated by Spanish fascism, it acted as a breeding ground for the emergence of ideas of resistance, which matured until the first outlines of Galician communism began to take shape, closely linked to our people’s desire for independence. It is, therefore, that our communism is born as a brother to all those peoples who cry out “Patria o Muerte” (Fatherland or Death), which means the same as “socialism or barbarism.”
Today, our tasks remain unchanged: the emancipation of oppressed peoples, the establishment of an international order based on respect for sovereignty, collaboration, and equity, and the struggle against an exploitative bourgeoisie that uses fascism as a weapon of shock on both the ideological and military fronts.
These are the goals of international communism, which can only be achieved through the conquest of power by the working class. We understand, in short, that anti-fascism and anti-imperialism are one and the same, and that without socialism, neither is possible. Socialism is the most perfect form of humanity’s collective project to date, and we are committed to making Galicia a Socialist Republic that stands alongside all sister peoples in the common struggle against imperialist barbarism. For all these reasons, in this homeland that has stood with Gaddafi and Fidel, and now stands with the Palestinian people and all the oppressed, we say with conviction: long live the anti-fascist struggle!
