Contribution of the Communist Party of Sweden

Dear comrades,

We would like to thank the comrades of the Communist Party of Turkey for hosting this meeting, which takes place at a very important time. We witness the intensifying imperialist contradictions clearly manifest themselves all over the world, from the Ukraine to the Middle East, where Israel is waging a genocidal war on the people of Gaza.

The intensifying imperialist contradictions bring the world closer to a generalized war every day that the capitalist system is allowed to exist. Our party has recently launched a campaign where we highlight the risk of war that is intrinsic to the capitalist system. We
make clear that wars emanate from imperialist competition and that the only way to build lasting peace is to build socialism.

In order to understand the imperialist wars it is necessary to understand one very important mechanism in the capitalist system: the necessity of capital to grow. In order to survive and to be able to compete with each other, every capitalist enterprise must grow and expand; every capitalist company is driven by competition to develop its efficiency and productivity. If they do not do this, someone else will do this and they will be able to gain advantages and a bigger market share. This means that every company is required to expand - it is impossible to not participate in this. To settle means to lose. 

In this dynamic, monopoly groups emerge, where big corporations have joined together to strengthen each other, in the struggle against their common competitors. These monopoly groups are also represented by the various states and countries where they
exist, making the competition between these monopoly groups a global phenomenon. In this process, alliances such as the EU and NATO are created, so as to better further and strengthen the positions of their member countries and their monopoly groups.
However, we must also recognize that competition still exists within these groups and within these alliances. This makes them inherently unstable and insecure. Above all, they are temporary phenomena and we cannot treat them in any other way.

From this reality, we know that wars emerge. When competition becomes sharp enough, when the needs of the monopoly groups to expand weighs as heavy as ever, the need arises to strike against their competitors with stronger weapons. The last of these weapons is war, to strike with force against competitors and to beat them with violence.

Given this realization, that wars under capitalism-imperialism emanate from the system itself, we draw the necessary conclusion, that only another system, based on the power of the people and a planned economy, is able to root out the curse that is war. This system is socialism. 

If wars emanate from capitalism, we must highlight socialism as the solution and we must always raise the question of peace to this level. If we are not capable of this, we have already lost, as we risk giving the impression that lasting peace is achievable in this system, whose very mechanics create wars. This mistake has been made in the past and we have learned from it.

On every level, we must place the capitalist system against its counterpart, the socialist system. We must judge the EU and the NATO as imperialist alliances, temporary ones that at this point in time represent the collective objectives of their member states and their monopoly group. They seek to join forces against their competitors in Russia, China and other parts of the world.

To the people, they have nothing to offer but wars and repression. We have already seen the curtailing of civil liberties and the banning of communist symbols in several countries within the EU, in an attempt to discredit the only real alternative to capitalist barbarity, and we have witnessed a sharpening of the repression in the last couple of years in more or less every member country.

Capitalist and imperialist organisations have nothing to offer the people, but they must be fought wherever they are, and the struggle against them must raise socialism to reality.

Comrades,

We are honored to attend this meeting with you and to build a stronger communist presence in our respective countries and it is our conviction that meetings such as these strengthen the cooperation and relationship between our parties.

Thank you once again, comrades.