| Home page > Documents > Press statement by the Communist Party of Brazil |
| Baile > Cáipéisí > Preasráiteas ó Pháirtí Cumannach na Brasaíle |
10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ PartiesPress statement by the Communist Party of BrazilSão Paulo, 24 November 2008The 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties has been successfully held in São Paulo, Brazil, from 21 to 23 of November 2008, hosted by the Communist Party of Brazil. Sixty-five parties attended from fifty-five different countries. Representatives of the parties delivered speeches on the theme of the meeting: “New phenomena in the international framework: Worsening national, social, environmental and inter-imperialist contradictions and problems: The struggle for peace, democracy, sovereignty, progress and socialism, and unity of action of communist and workers’ parties.” The texts of these interventions will be published in full by the host party. The meeting allowed an important exchange of ideas to take place between the parties. The 10th meeting received a message from the President of the Federal Republic of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressing his “recognition of all your struggles in defence of the workers and the poor” and “your commitment to building a new economic international order.” The 10th Meeting was held in the midst of a severe crisis of capitalism, a theme that was addressed in all the speeches. Many participants emphasised the structural and systemic nature of the crisis, pointing out that crisis is a characteristic of capitalist development, which in this case has been intensified by the neo-liberal financial policies of recent decades. The current crisis demonstrates the complete failure and collapse of neo-liberalism, speakers argued, but it does not automatically represent the end of capitalism. On the contrary, the bourgeoisie is using its political power in the most developed countries to mount a “rescue operation” for their system. But, far from making capitalism more virtuous, these policies aim to make workers pay the cost of trying to resolve the system’s intrinsic contradictions. This severe crisis also explodes the myth that the counter-revolutions of 1989–1991 represented the final and irreversible triumph of capitalism. It highlights both the limitations of capitalism as a social system and the need to overturn it in a revolutionary way. About the issue of capitalist crisis the sixty-five parties adopted the “Proclamation of São Paulo,” which states that “Socialism is the Alternative.” Many parties stressed the positive significance of the growing challenge to US hegemony in the world, noting that humanity has entered a stage of reinvigorated anti-imperialist struggle for the independence, development and social progress of people and nations. In this regard some parties noted the importance of the emergence of new coalitions of developing countries, such as IBSA (trilateral forum among India, Brazil and South Africa) and the regular meetings of BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as expressions of a reinvigorated south-south relationship. For all the communist and workers’ parties present the crisis reinforces the need to bring forward the issue of the transition to socialism, and to intensify the battle of ideas among the people at a time when the limits of capitalism are exposed for all to see. The parties present also stressed the symbolic importance of holding their annual meeting in Latin America for the first time, underscoring the internationalisation of the process of annual meetings and taking into account that this region has become a pole of anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist resistance. The 10th Meeting adopted a declaration of “Solidarity with the Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean,” welcoming the popular struggles and the recent victories achieved throughout the continent by democratic, progressive and anti-imperialist forces, including the communists. The communist and workers’ parties have warned of the tense and explosive situation in the Middle East, represented by the continuous Israeli oppression against the Palestinian people, ignoring its legal national rights, especially the right to return and to establish a national state. The parties call attention to the US plans in the region that aim to attack and occupy countries, the provocations against Syria being an obvious example. The situation seems very clear also from reactionary and imperialist intervention in Lebanon’s internal issues and the pressure exerted on Syria as a punishment for its national policy. The parties condemned and denounced the Israeli siege on Gaza, which threatens the lives of thousands of people through the shortage of electricity, water, fuel, and food. The communist and workers’ parties gathered in São Paulo appealed to international organisations, human rights associations and the UN for the prompt rescue of the population in Gaza from danger of death, and to help in the removal of Israeli settlements, together with the racist separation wall. The participants decided to promote a series of joint actions, including initiatives about the capitalist crisis, solidarity campaigns with Cuba on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, anti-NATO initiatives on the occasion of the sixty years since its foundation, and actions of solidarity with Palestine, including visits of delegations to Gaza. Over the weekend the delegates of the sixty-five communist and workers’ parties took part in a public rally in solidarity with the struggle of the Latin American people. There they had the opportunity to attend, along with the Brazilian communist militants, the contributions of representatives by Latin America’s progressive political and social movements and to reiterate their internationalist solidarity. |
| Home page > Documents > Press statement by the Communist Party of Brazil |
| Baile > Cáipéisí > Preasráiteas ó Pháirtí Cumannach na Brasaíle |