Contribution of Swiss Communist Party

Contribution of the Swiss Communist Party

European Communist Action teleconference on the topic of ‘The Euro-Atlantic war machine, NATO and the EU against the peoples. The communists’ proposal for a way out in conditions of intensifying imperialist competition’

Dear Comrades,
The Swiss Communist Party would like to salute the militant work of each organisation of European Communist Action for communist reconstruction in the pivotal period we are currently experiencing, amid intensifying imperialist competition.

The international worker-popular movement is facing fundamental challenges in this historic period: 1. imperialist war, militarism and the war effort; 2. the crisis of the capitalist system and the destruction of social protection; 3. the rise of reactionary forces and reformist
illusions, as well as the criminalisation of struggles.

It is undeniable that the escalating confrontation between capitalist powers, large and medium-sized, within the global imperialist system, that is, within monopoly capitalism requires us to take on a major responsibility.

The question of imperialism is a very important theme that concerns us both in the theoretical elaboration of communist reconstruction and in the daily practice of our grassroots work.

In this context, the fundamental mission of the international communist movement and its constituent organisations is not only to defend the ideological heritage of Marxism-Leninism, but also to rebuild a revolutionary movement on this basis.

This is not the first time that the banner of Marxism-Leninism has had to be raised again by genuine communists in the fight against all forms of revisionism and opportunism. We call in particular on the Communist and Workers' Parties to study the innovative character of the Leninist experience of defending, continuing and materialising revolutionary Marxism at the beginning of the 20th century, which led to the formation of Bolshevism and the October Revolution.

While assimilating the great historical lessons of Marxism-Leninism, it is essential that the latter be strengthened on the basis of a concrete analysis of the current situation of the imperialist system.

In a century, the character of capital is still international and monopolistic in its internal structure, but its scale has now radically exceeded national and continental borders in the imperialist centres. The European continent is a pioneer in this regard. As Lenin points out, ‘the United States of Europe is possible as an agreement between European capitalists’. But he adds that under capitalism, on the one hand, ‘the equal development of different economies and different states is impossible’ and, on the other hand, ‘sharing can have no other basis, no other principle than force’.

What was said yesterday about the slogan of the United States of Europe applies today to the slogan of a multipolar world.

Imperialist war and its dangerous escalation are developing in a situation where capitalism is based on large transnational monopolies, intertwined throughout the world, and large inter-state entities such as, on the one hand, NATO, the European Union, the Council of
Europe, the OSCE and, on the other hand, the BRICS, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, etc.

The European Union is an inter-state construction that expresses the interests of European capitalist monopolies in the international competition for markets, workforces and raw materials.

In the context of the capitalist redivision of the world, inter-state agreements such as the European Union are subject to change, but always within the framework of the monopolistic concentration of capital.

On the one hand, intermediate positions such as Brexit or Swiss neutrality can only be expressed at the cost of capitalist compensation and interdependence. For us, there is no possibility of national independence without a revolutionary break with capital, for the
construction of socialism-communist.

Switzerland's position in its institutional negotiations with the European Union, in its trade negotiations with the United States and in its relationship with international humanitarian law clearly demonstrates the impossibility of genuine independence within the capitalist-imperialist system.

On the other hand, cross-border economic activities can be subject to conflict, even in situations where there are no disputes over existing national borders.

That being said, a rebalancing of forces within NATO and the European Union, whether from a centralising or federalist perspective, under a capitalist regime, will remain anti-popular and reactionary in nature.

We can also see that emerging capitalist economies and their monopolies are developing international inter-state bodies in the former Soviet space, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

It is the interests of the bourgeoisie and capitalist monopolies in these regions that underlie these inter-state agreements, not the interests of the people. Significant contradictions between capitalist groups are very much present in these alliances, which have absolutely nothing to do with Soviet history, the anti-imperialist struggle or a human face.

The communists' proposal for a revolutionary solution to imperialist war must take intoaccount the development of the class struggle in every corner of the globe. The peoples are awakening, and it is necessary for communists to be established in the worker-popular
movement in every country.

In Europe, young people are at the forefront of international solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is necessary to link the struggle for the liberation of peoples with the struggle against imperialist war and for social revolution. The communists must defend an organised and internationalist position, in contrast to the spontaneous and cosmopolitan attitudes expressed in the solidarity movement.

With our positions, we must shed light on the terrain on which the real struggle is being waged, defending internationalism against all forms of nationalism, waging the class struggle against all forms of bourgeois illusions, and building the communist organisation against all forms of individualism and fragmentation.

In the communist reconstruction, we emphasise organisation in the workplace and in popular sectors, starting from specific or even isolated situations but with the aim of generalising the struggle, creating links between the detachments of workers and youth who are fighting, and finally, putting the worker-popular movement back on the track of class struggle, against capitalist governance and imperialist war.

In any case, the proposal of communists in Europe must be the revolutionary exit from capitalism, embodied by a proletarian internationalism of our time, understood as egalitarian cooperation between peoples, and by worker-popular sovereignty, organised at the grassroots level and independent of capitalist states.

Thus, we affirm that the resolution of the current challenges facing the working class and the popular sectors is intimately linked to the development of the class struggle, the strengthening of communist organisations and the reopening of a revolutionary horizon for the construction of socialism-communism.