Russian Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov: “Through a multipolar world and the struggle of peoples - to socialism!”
Gennady Zyuganov: “Through a multipolar world and the struggle of peoples - to socialism!”
The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation addressed the participants of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre
On January 23, the World Social Forum began its work in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Many politicians view this massive international gathering of representatives of leftist and anti-globalist forces as a kind of “anti-Davos.”
The forum in Porto Alegre will last until the end of this week. Iconic places of the famous Brazilian city will turn into platforms for discussions these days. They will be conducted on topical issues of modern development - economic and social, political and cultural.
Representatives of leftist, communist and workers' parties, anti-capitalist and anti-globalist organizations and movements take part in the international event. They came to Brazil from Latin America and Europe, Asia and Africa.
On behalf of the Russian communists, the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction in the State Duma G.A. addressed the participants of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. Zyuganov.
— Dear Forum participants! Dear comrades! Friends!
Humanity has entered a period of great upheaval. The course of events changes the face of the world. They are comprehensive, affecting all countries and continents, covering economics and politics, demography and international relations, the sphere of technology and the spiritual world of man.
The cause of global instability is the crisis of capitalism. Marx and Engels also proved its inevitability. The scale of the current crisis is colossal. To understand its origins, you need to look back 30 years. The destruction of the USSR became “manna from heaven” for the imperialists. Capital has got its hands on enormous opportunities. Its markets and sources of raw materials have expanded dramatically. The brain drain from the former USSR increased the power of Western corporations. Social programs were cut.
The “historic gift” from the traitors to socialism helped soften the most acute contradictions of capitalism. But his gain turned out to be temporary . Without competition with the USSR, the parasitism of this social system increased sharply. Back at the beginning of the 20th century, V.I. Lenin wrote: “ Imperialism is a huge accumulation in a few countries of money capital ” and noted the “ extraordinary growth ” of a layer of people “ completely separated from participation in any enterprise ... whose profession is idleness .”
In 2008, fraud on a global scale resulted in the bursting of mortgage and financial bubbles. The world has plunged into the abyss of a new crisis. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a similar crisis led to the First World War. Then the situation was saved by the socialist revolution in Russia. It wrested one sixth of the earth's land from the bourgeois camp.
We have just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The world's first state of workers and peasants gave great experience of creation on the foundation of justice and internationalism. In 1941, the Soviet people, under the leadership of the communists, stood up to fight against fascist barbarism. At the cost of 27 million lives, our Soviet Motherland defended the right to free development not only for itself, but also for the peoples of the entire planet. The USSR made a decisive contribution to saving the world from the brown plague.
Workers of all countries saw that the chains of oppression could be broken. Countries and entire continents were swept by the anti-colonial movement. People's power was established in the countries of Eastern Europe, China, Vietnam, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Laos, Cuba, and other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Under these conditions, the world bourgeoisie tried three ways to maintain its dominance.
The first method was fascism. The regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Horthy, and the Japanese militarists became the product of capitalist reaction. The ruling classes of the United States and Britain financed the Nazis long before they came to power. It was they who allowed Hitler to violate the provisions of the Versailles Peace and begin to create the “Third Reich”.
The second way was the social mimicry of capital. In the conditions of the growth of the labor and communist movement, he made concessions to the working people. Keynesianism, the New Deal, the Welfare Society, Scandinavian Socialism - all these subterfuges were used by the bourgeoisie to weaken the class struggle and maintain their dominance. As soon as the “Red threat” disappeared, capital began to dismantle the “social gifts” to working people brick by brick.
The third tool was neoliberalism. The IMF and other “financial spiders” of the West entangled many countries in debt and robbed them. The dismantling of the social functions of the state aggravated the stratification in society. Just look at modern megacities and you will see in them both slums with terrible poverty and fashionable neighborhoods of the rich.
The bourgeoisie used all three methods in the 20th century “as needed.” Today capital has compressed all its previous tricks together.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the darkest sides of the bourgeois system. Health care weakened by liberal reforms has condemned hundreds of thousands of people to death, even in rich Western countries. People were poor. Governments threw workers “crumbs from the master’s table” in the form of temporary payments, and corporations fired workers and cut workers’ wages.
Neocolonialism has resulted in “vaccine nationalism.” Western governments filled warehouses with medical supplies, but abandoned billions of people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to their fate. In the first two years of the pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry created 40 new dollar billionaires. The 10 richest people on the planet already own more wealth than 40% of all humanity. The enrichment of the caste of cynical businessmen is paid for by the troubles and suffering of the working people.
The peoples do not want to be pawns in this cruel game. People are outraged by injustice, inequality, poverty. Protest is growing everywhere, including the US and Europe. Strikes are increasingly breaking out in the UK, France, Italy and other countries. The protesters have more than just economic demands. People oppose the aggressive policies of their governments, which are spending huge amounts of money to save the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.
The confessions of Merkel and other retired Western officials confirmed that they took a course towards supporting the Bandera government back in 2014. Just like 100 years ago, capital uses fascism, chauvinism, national and religious intolerance to split the working people.
Reaction forces are activated. Bolsonaro supporters are rioting in Brazil. The Turkish authorities use the services of the Gray Wolves group. Pro-fascist forces are raising their heads in Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and other countries. The Japanese authorities are dreaming of revenge. Right-wing parties in Europe, which admire the dictatorships of Mussolini and Horthy, have gained power in Italy and Hungary. The ambitions of the Vox party in Spain and the Chega party in Portugal are growing. The US political elite is behaving more and more reactionary. The common feature of all these forces is anti-communism.
The new “brown” wave is aimed at strangling the leftist alternative. Its most important target was China. Beijing is groundlessly accused of genocide of the Muslim population and violating the rights of residents of Hong Kong and Tibet. They are trying to deprive China of modern technologies using economic warfare methods. The PRC is surrounded by hostile military blocs. They provoke a conflict around Taiwan.
Global capital is increasing pressure on Russia, Iran and other countries. Wanting to preserve a unipolar world and its dominance, the West continues the “big stick policy.” The “World Gendarme” carried out interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. The export of “color revolutions” and other methods of neocolonialism were introduced. We express our deep respect and solidarity with the people of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Belarus, who did not allow the overthrow of the people's governments.
In 2014, the West organized a coup in Kyiv. Through violence and massacres in the Donbass, the Nazi regime in Ukraine forced people to abandon their native language and culture. Repressions and reprisals were carried out against all those who disagreed. The Communist Party of Ukraine is banned.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation firmly stood up for the defense of the working people of Donetsk and Lugansk. For 8 years, Russian communists sent many tons of humanitarian aid to the civilians of Donbass - food, clothing, medicine, children's toys.
Russia's special military operation aims to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. The fight against the hotbed of Nazism in Europe has become part of the struggle for a more just and secure world order. Russia's victory will help change the balance of forces on the planet in favor of democracy and progress. It will contribute to the decline of globalism and the defeat of the forces of fascism and imperialism. We are grateful to all political forces, all people of good will who express support for Russia in the anti-fascist struggle!
The trend towards multipolarity in the world is intensifying. Peoples join forces for the sake of free development. They create BRICS, SCO, ASEAN, UNASUR, SELAC, African Union and other integration structures. These associations operate on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.
A multipolar world will make the struggle for social progress easier. The weakening of US hegemony opens the way to a more equitable system of international relations. The left forces must make wide use of all these opportunities. But we understand that multipolarity itself does not lead to conflict-free development, social justice, or socialism. And billions of the disadvantaged dream of a decent life, free from oppression, where honest work and friendship of peoples triumph. Only the struggle of workers for socialism will make it possible to build a new world!
The history of the twentieth century shows that for communists, armed with the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, nothing is impossible. When the left forces are united and united, any obstacles fall before them. Our task is to create a new world, a world for working people, a world without hunger, poverty and suffering.
We know for sure that the truth of history is on our side. But this is not a reason to quietly stand aside and wait for the course of events to put everything in its place. The old world, thoroughly saturated with the thirst for profit and the madness of the militarists, will not leave the historical scene on its own. Only together can we help him leave.
Joint discussion of pressing problems forms common views, strengthens solidarity, and unites in the fight for a better world. On behalf of the Russian Communists, I cordially welcome all participants in the Forum!
Our banner is red! Our anthem is “Internationale”!
The wind of history is blowing into our sails! Victory will be ours!