Dear comrades, dear friends,
On behalf of the Hungarian Workers’ Party, I would like to thank you for the invitation. I would like to thank the organisers of our meeting for their hospitality and for producing the document The Rising Tide of Global War and the Tasks of Anti-Imperialists, with which our party fully agrees.
The last time we met here was in May. Since May, the situation has got worse, not better. The war against Russia is not over, and the US is now preparing for a long war that will last for years.
The EU does not want to make a deal with Russia, and Ursula von der Leyen is calling for President Putin’s head.
Hungary is not heading out of the war quagmire, but in. The Hungarian government is making more and more commitments that are dragging us into the swamp.
The war has not yet arrived in Hungary, but we are already feeling the consequences. Prices are sky high. Prices rose by 2.7 percent last year as a whole. This year they have risen by 15.6 percent! And where is the end of the year?
Comrades,
Let’s speak clearly! The United States is responsible for the war in Ukraine.
Russia does not want to destroy America, America wants to destroy Russia.
It is not Putin who wants to depose and impeach Biden, but Biden who wants to overthrow the Russian president and replace him with an obedient puppet serving the US.
It was not Russia that took soldiers to the American borders, to Mexico or Canada, but America to Eastern Europe, to the Russian borders.
It is not Russian planes with nuclear bombs on board that are practicing on America’s borders, but American planes flying on the borders of Belarus.
It is not Russia that is organising the world against the USA, but the USA that is creating new alliances.
America is deceiving, tricking and destroying us.
Gas is 8-10 times more expensive in Europe than in the US. In Europe, heating is becoming unaffordable, we are afraid of cold winters. And the Americans are laughing their heads off. In America you don’t have to save money, you don’t have to freeze.
We are already suffering the consequences of war, inflation and high prices. The Americans are living their world. In the US, inflation is 8.2 percent. In the EU, it has risen to over 10 percent. In Hungary 15.6, Lithuania 20 percent.
The EU has imposed sanctions on Russia under pressure from America. We do not trade with Russia. America is happily trading with Russia and making billions of dollars in profits. The US has bought nearly 12 billion dollars worth of Russian goods up to July this year alone. And not just anything! Wood, aluminum, steel, titanium, nuclear fuel rods.
Russian ships and trucks are banned from Europe. Between February and July, 3600 ships with Russian goods on board docked in American ports.
America has sent us troops, planes, tanks, missiles, even nuclear bombs. In a European war, we will be the first target. And America will wait until we are destroyed.
Because in the European war, we will die. Our cities will be blown apart. Our economy will be destroyed.
NATO is preparing for a long war. An alliance of countries supporting Ukraine was formed in Ramstein in April. There are now more than fifty countries in it. Unfortunately, Hungary too!
They recently agreed that Ukraine should be ready for a long war. But at the same time, they also agreed that the defence industry of our countries must be ready for a long war. And about preparing our people not for protests, not for demonstrations, but for coming to terms with the rising costs – because the Russians must be defeated at any cost!
EU leaders also talk peace, but they want war. Ursula von der Leyen said: peace will only come if Putin is defeated and brought to justice!
The EU is hitting Russia with more and more sanctions, while sanctions are destroying Europe’s economy and the lives of European people.
The EU no longer serves us, it serves America. EU leaders have sold us out to the US for their own survival.
Let us realise that Europe will be finished if we do not change! In 1918 the US entered the First World War. Europe was in ruins, but America was redeemed.
In 1945, Europe was once again in ruins. And America became rich and broke Europe’s role as a world power for good. Now America is preparing for the final showdown. They want not an independent Europe, but an American colony. They are turning Europe into Kosovo, where America and NATO are the masters.
Comrades,
Hungary is drifting into war. The Hungarian government keeps repeating that we must stay out of the war. But what do we see in reality?
The government talks peace, but on 25 July, Lieutenant General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, Commander of the Hungarian Defence Forces, talks with General Cavoli, NATO Force Operations Commander.
In Hungary, the American and German generals hand the doorknob to each other. In June, Lieutenant General Laubenthal, Deputy Chief of Staff of the German Army. On 6 August, General McGee, commander of the US 101st Airborne Division, visits. On 11 August, General Sollfrank, Chief of NATO’s Food and Supply Service. On 25 August, General Weight, Deputy Chief of the German Army’s Food and Supply Service. On 8 September, General Zorn, Chief of Staff of the German Army.
Why do they come here? Do they want the Hungarian territory? Do they want our financial resources? Do they want troops for their wars?
We don’t know! The government is silent. It is hiding everything from us, although the Hungarian people have the right to know.
The Hungarian government continues to prepare the country for war. In July, the Defence Council was established. On 1 October, the Defence Administration Office is established. Soon the Hungarian Defence Staff is re-established as an independent organisation.
Billions continue to be spent on arming the Defence Forces. In six cities of Hungary, in Várpalota. Zalaegerszeg, Kaposvár, Kiskunfélegyháza, Nyírtelek and Gyula, new military plants are being built at a rapid pace.
The Hungarian government has a two-faced policy. It wants to be on good terms with the Russians, but it supports NATO, the USA and the EU’s war policy in everything.
Does the Albanian population of Kosovo have the right to self-determination? But not the Russian-inhabited areas of Ukraine?
Swing politics, a little bit here and a little bit there, is a straight road to war. Before the First World War, Prime Minister István Tisza opposed Hungary’s entry, but eventually gave in. Before the Second World War, Miklós Horthy opposed entry, but eventually gave in. The result was Trianon once, Trianon twice. How many more Trianons do we want?
There will only be peace in one way: if the West recognises Russia’s security interests and reaches an agreement with Russia.
Comrades,
Our party now says: We Hungarians are not all the same, but today we must act together, communists, conservatives, environmentalists, supporters of the constitution based on the sacred crown, everyone.
It is very important that since July a new cooperation forum, Békefórum, the Peace Forum, has been established in Hungary. We, the Workers’ Party, are doing our utmost to ensure that the Peace Forum helps the anti-war forces to work together.
The Peace Forum participants demand:
The government should act to lift all EU sanctions and not vote for any new sanctions.
The government should demand that the EU immediately initiates peace talks with Russia.
Hungary is a prisoner of NATO and the EU. The government naively believes that the EU can be changed. It cannot be changed!
It is naive to hope that NATO will be the defender of peace. NATO has never been a defensive alliance, NATO has always been an aggressive, expansionist force. And it is now.
It is not enough to say no to war! It is not enough to want peace! We need to know that war is caused and brought about by the very system we live in. War is born of capitalism.
Capitalism is in crisis. Capital is not making as much profit as it used to. Then it has to go east and acquire new markets. But in the East, capital has collided with Russia. If it can’t be done by blackmail, by political pressure, then let’s go to war!
Capital needs profit, lots of profit! What makes big profits? The war industry! The war industry is where the state’s money must be squeezed! But to do this, you have to convince the population that war is a necessary evil and they will live better.
Capital needs profit! Let people pay more, let’s raise prices! Let’s have war, and everything can be raised in the name of war. Is it more expensive to heat, more expensive to light, more expensive to eat? The people pay, the capitalists get richer.
We demand: tax the billionaires! Not just the companies, the billionaires personally! Let everyone share the burden of war!
The solution for Hungary is to replace the rule of money and create a society based on new principles. But this is a task for the future. Today, let’s say no to the war! Let’s say yes to the agreement with Russia!
Say no to the US and NATO! Let us say yes to Hungary’s independence and the freedom of the Hungarian people!
Comrades,
The war in Ukraine is currently still geographically limited to Europe. But it is crucial to understand that the longer it continues without resolution, the more likely it is that this war will have serious consequences for Asia.
Moreover, more and more often we hear voices that allow the use of nuclear weapons, moreover, that threaten to use them. This is no longer a threat only to Europe or Asia, but to all of humanity.
We want peace! But peace will not come by itself, it must be acted for!
Thank you for your attention.
