Comrades
We are holding our Congress in an exceptionally complex international framework, marked by a rapid deepening of capitalism’s structural crisis and imperialism’s brutal offensive against the workers and against the peoples.
A crisis which not only reveals the system’s inability to overcome its own contradictions, but highlights, even more, the criminal face of its class nature: thousands of millions of handouts to the bankers and other sectors of big capital, who are responsible for the crisis, while unemployment and misery for those who live out of their work grows in dramatic proportions, hard-won rights gained by generations of workers are dismantled and public services essential for a dignified life are destroyed.
A crisis which can be expected to intensify further, since its main trends remain in place: economic recession, financial speculation, devaluation of labour aiming for a faster concentration and centralization of capital and with competition for raw materials and markets giving rise to strong instability and great dangers.
Indeed, great dangers arise from the current situation.
Instability and insecurity remain as hallmarks of the international situation.
Not only because this capitalist cyclical crisis of overproduction takes on a global character, but because it further heightens a widespread offensive that has as its central axis the exploitation of the workers and world-wide recolonization and the reconfiguration of States as essential instruments of big capital's domination.
An offensive that, by trying to conceal the inhumane and predatory nature inherent to the system, attempts to justify unemployment and widespread impoverishment as an “inevitability” and the social polarization and the asymmetries between countries and regions as natural facts. An offensivethat uses the intense migratory flows created by the crisis itself to stir xenophobic feelings and strengthen fascistic sectors; proclaiming democracy and human rights while attacking sovereign States and criminalizing the forces that oppose the ruling classes. An offensive which is expressed in imperialism’s increasing aggressiveness, the intensification of militarism, interference, aggression and war; that imposes puppet governments - as in Libya - that threatens Syria and Iran militarily, while Israel unleashes yet another criminal offensive in the Gaza Strip. An offensive in which imperialism instigates coups - as in Honduras, Paraguay, the Ivory Coast or Guinea-Bissau – situations that underline the importance of the struggle for national sovereignty and its links with the struggle for peace, democracy and social progress.
But this offensive faces the organised struggle of the workers and peoples, with various expressions of discontent and revolt, some of which are large-scale. Such as the strikes in several European countries, the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people, the so-called “Arab Spring”. Capitalism’s shrinking social base is a fact, confirming the thesis that great dangers coexist with real potential for progressive and revolutionary advances.
It is with this deep conviction that we act.
We must recall Bolivarian Venezuela, socialist Cuba, the processes that appear in Latin America, founded on a sovereign development of social progress. These realities strengthen the confidence in the historical limits of capitalism - today increasingly conditioned by its own difficulties - and the struggle that continues throughout the world.
And so, this places before the communists a heightened requirement to work together to broaden the anti-imperialist front, helping to identify the fundamental contents for an immediate common or converging action and, simultaneously, raises the prospect of the only alternative that is necessary and possible – socialism.
Comrades
The Party's international activity, in the period elapsed since the 18th Congress, was marked, as is stated in the draft theses, by “internationalist solidarity with the political and social forces who, in their countries, fought and fight in defence of the vital interests of the workers and their people”.
This activity is inherent to the Party's class nature and its perspective that action on a national level and stronger cooperation and internationalist solidarity are inseparable tasks.
Hence, the PCP took stands on many international events; promoted meetings and gatherings on the issue of the EU, particularly with a view to drawing up a common platform for the European Parliament elections, held information and solidarity sessions and helped to develop initiatives of the peace movement.
While continuing to prioritize relations with communist parties, we value the importance of bilateral relations as necessary to deepen mutual understanding and as a contribution to the strengthening of the international communist and revolutionary movement. Always acting to strengthen the cooperation and unity in action of the communist parties, we believe that despite the mitigation of the dispersal and weakening of the international communist movement resulting from the negative impact of the defeats of socialism, there remain weaknesses and problems arising either from the social-democratizing trends characterized by the abandonment of the fundamental aspects of the communist identity or from dogmatic and sectarian trends that point to the imposition of standardized models of social change. This does not prevent the PCP from seeking whatever may unite, and the cooperation that the current situation demands.
It is in this spirit that we actively participate in the process of the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties – which has just held its 14th Meeting in Beirut – trying to contribute to overcome still existing situations, highly valuing what has been achieved so far.
It is also in this way that we continue to intervene within the GUE/NGL in the European Parliament, in the São Paulo Forum, and in other multilateral arenas where we are called upon to intervene.
Comrades
Imperialism’s exploitative, oppressive and aggressive offensive demands quick and articulated responses from the revolutionary forces. Although not recommending any structuring, the PCP believes that it is necessary to proceed to more stable forms of cooperation, in order to foster unity in action. They should be based on respect for the history of each party and on principles of equality, sovereignty, mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs. It is with this positioning that the PCP develops broad and diversified international relations within the communist movement and the anti-imperialist front, with parties from the five continents.
Greeting all the foreign guest delegations present here, the PCP – a patriotic and internationalist party, wishes to assure you that it will do all it can to strengthen mutual solidarity among communists, progressives, the workers and the peoples from all over the world who fight for democracy, peace, social progress and socialism.
Long live proletarian internationalism!
Long live the 19th Congress of the PCP!