People's Democracy

STATEMENT OF EUROPEAN COMMUNIST & WORKERS PARTIES

‘Stop Anti-Communist, Anti-Democratic Attacks In Europe’

Below we publish the text of the joint statement issued by several communist and workers parties in Europe and released by the Communist Party of Greece on May 9, 2007.

THE decision made by the government of Estonia to remove the monument honouring the memory of 2,70,000 Red Army soldiers who laid down their lives in the anti-fascist war, followed by brutal police attacks in Tallin; the acts of vandalism on the grave of Janos Kadar in Budapest on May 2; the implementation of the new “lustration law” in Poland targeting 7,00,000 people; the anti-communist Romanian National Security Law, the anti-communist statement of the Romanian president Traian Basescu and the partial rehabilitation of former fascist Romanian prime minister I Antonescu are only some of the new anti-communist and anti-democratic attacks that occurred recently in Europe.

Our parties vehemently protest against these measures which are directed not only against the communists, the heroic anti-fascist fighters, against the fighters of the international brigades in the Spanish civil war and the anti-fascist victory in the World War II, but also against the elementary democratic rights and liberties.

For it, we consider accountable the European Union, having in mind several statements and decisions preparing the ground for these developments and its refusal to take any measure to stop this situation.

On occasion of the big campaign against the Anti-Communist Motion in the Council of Europe in January 2006, our parties and other progressive forces from all countries warned about the real aims and goals of the attacks against the communists and their ideology.

The aim of these measures taken by the ruling forces in European countries, in the EU, NATO and other imperialist centres is to intimidate the communists and to counter the growing resistance against the anti-people, anti-labour policies followed by the governments and their supporters.
In face of the growing influence of the ideas of October Socialist Revolution and of the achievements of socialism in the 20th century despite the mistakes and errors, in sharp contrast to the everyday reality for millions, attempts to rewrite history and to escalate the state sponsored anti-communism are going to escalate.

In spite of all this, we are confident that nobody, no matter whatever political force, a government, NATO or EU, will be able to stop the impact of communist ideas on the working class and youth, simply because they have more than ever proved true and offer a way for realisation of the popular aspirations and demands.

That is why we will multiply our efforts for joint action, in support of the popular struggles first of all by the working class, and in support of a larger movement for democratic rights and liberties.

This is the time for all progressive minded people in Europe to recollect the catastrophic impact of these very policies on the history of our continent.
This is the time to vigorously react and condemn by all means any anti-democratic attacks and any anti-communist measures.

We demand:

1. Abolition of all anti-communist laws, decisions and governmental actions against the communist ideology and communist symbols, and an end to the persecution of the communists, the anti-fascists and the fighters for socialism.

2. Severe punishment to those responsible for the vandalism at the graves of anti-fascist fighters and at the monuments in honour of their memory.

3. An end to the massive campaign to terrorise millions of people for their political opinions.

4. Abolition of the laws and other decisions banning the activity of the communist parties.

5. Stop to the campaigns to defame and distort the real history of the anti-Nazi and anti-fascist fight in the education system and mass media.

6. Stop to the anti-communist campaign of changing names of public places meant to honour the heroic struggle against fascism.

Signatories to the statement were the Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism, Communist Party of Belarus, Workers Party of Belgium, Communist Party of Bulgaria, Party of Bulgarian Communists, New Communist Party of Britain, Socialist Workers’ Party of Croatia, AKEL (Cyprus), Communist Party of Denmark, Communist Party in Denmark, Communist Party of Estonia, Communist Party of Finland, Unified Communist Party of Georgia, Communist Party of Greece, Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party, Communist Party of Ireland, Party of the Italian Communists, Socialist Party of Latvia, Socialist Party of Lithuania, Communist Party of Luxemburg (KPL), New Communist Party of Netherlands, Communist Party of Norway, Communist Party of Poland, Portuguese Communist Party, Socialist Alliance Party (Romania), Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Communist Workers Party of Russia-Party of Communists of Russia, New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbia), Communist Party of Slovakia, Communist Party of Peoples of Spain, Communist Party of Sweden, Communist Party of Turkey, Communist Party of Ukraine and Union of Communists of Ukraine.