Dear comrades,
First of all I would like to thank the organizers of this meeting and their fraternal resoluteness.
Mine are not customary thanks. I believe that, in this moment of intensification of imperialist aggression and very serious dangers of war, it is urgent to be able to arrive at a shared European and worldwide, political, but also organizational, platform to synchronize the international communist movement in its slogans and in the mobilizations in the streets and in the workplace.
The proposed statement says the essence and we fully support it. So, I will limit myself to additional marginal considerations in order not to waste time, reiterating the same concepts.
The enormous novelty that characterizes this last year is the total submission of the European bourgeoisie to Washington’s bellicose policies. This is not new. But previously, the European monopolies had always found it convenient to stay within this line-up, albeit in a differentiated position as regards the advantages, and the United States proved to be able to manage costs and benefits for each of the members.
For example, Italy was plunged into an aggression against Gaddafi’s Libya against its own interests, being used as an advanced stepping stone for NATO aircraft. However, after a few years, Italian smugglers are now trading illegal Libyan oil, in league with Tripoli’s cutthroats and this is allowed and tolerated by the EU and NATO.
Other illuminating examples could be given for the role of countries such as France and Germany.
Now the situation has radically changed. The costs for European economies of continuing sanctions on Russia and sending weapons to Zelensky’s Nazi regime are there for all to see: inflation, skyrocketing energy costs, recession, unemployment.
In the US since 2020 the gas price remains quite stable, while in Europe it is soaring, passing from the same US price to 10 times than before. Energy costs of American industries are one third of those in Europe. The European economy is out of business.
The advantages are just not seen even for the European high bourgeoisie, with exception of the very few corporations.
The European political classes are either wholly in collusion with Washington – like Draghi, von der Leyen and the new Truss – or they are crushed, beaten and put in line, like the German chancellor.
During the informal Summit of the European Council, held in Prague on 7/8 October, Draghi proves once again to be the most faithful servant of the interests of NATO and the USA. Europe must see through the bitter end of recession. No exceptions are allowed.
The US is out of their minds because Germany is resisting at the crucial moment. After they blew up the Nord Stream, the sorcerers of Washington thought they had finally tamed the Germans, but the German Parliament rejected the proposal to increase to send weapons to Ukraine.
Even their strongest ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, turns its back on them, voting together with Russia in OPEC to reduce oil production. “The White House calls the decision of Russia and Saudi Arabia to lower oil production by 1 million barrels per day” a “hostile act”.
In Italy, the economic ruling classes have fallen silent.
Draghi escaped just in time to prevent that further increases in bills run over his government. The Italian people, although in the polls the majority declare themselves against sanctions and against sending weapons to Ukraine, or vote for the same parties that have promoted all this (or even moving to a right wing that even calls for tightening of those measures), or does not go to vote for about half, setting the record for abstention in Italy.
The political proposal that my party put forward did not have the expected success in the elections; An electoral alliance with socialist and/or anti-system forces, which hinged on the program mainly on leaving NATO and the EU. Unfortunately, the very short timeframe of the electoral campaign, the boycott of the regime media, the almost total absence of financial means and the creation of noise lists, prevented success. But this is not the time to make excuses. The path in Italy and in the rest of Europe is long and arduous. However, one diaphragm was broken. The voice of the communists is not only a testimonial, but is echoed in a larger part of the Italian movement against the capitalist system.
In Italy, as in the rest of Europe, there is a very large space to unite all the working, employees and self-employed classes, countering the battle of the have-nots and exposing the politics of the ruling upper-bourgeois classes, which have sold off the interests of the whole nation. For this, and only for this reason, we must be careful critics of the politics of European bourgeois governments. Not to suggest adjustments within the capitalist system, but to clarify that it is now completely incapable of ensuring even the slightest survival even for itself.
The Communists won when they managed to embody the interests of the overwhelming majority of the working people, placing themselves at the head of the national demands in an anti-imperialist key. To do this, it is necessary to articulate a minimum program that brings together the broadest popular forces, to raise the flag of national independence against aggressive and warmongering imperialism, to confront the bourgeois forces with their planned suicide by US imperialism and to wrest the hegemony they had regained, even within the working class, after the defeat following the collapse of socialism in Europe and the destruction of the historic mass communist parties.
We must articulate a proposal that follows the teachings of the Popular Fronts, knowing well what are the dangers and contradictions that it entails, the Communists must be able to place themselves at the head of this movement not only by waving their own glorious flags, but above all by succeeding to speak again to the broader masses of the people, who are frighteningly backward today. But hic Rhodus, hic Salta. We do not choose the forms and modes of the class struggle and only a materialistic-dialectical examination of reality can guide the politics of the communists.
We are well aware of the risks involved when mixing with heterogeneous forces. It is up to us to know how to create hegemony within them and not to be sucked into the quagmire of indifference and anti-ideological rebellion.
The alternative is the political irrelevance of the Communists, where the bourgeoisie wants to relegate us.
