DANGERS AND POTENTIALITES OF THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION.
I must start by thanking the “Communist Party of Portugal” for hosting this annual meeting of communist and workers Parties.
I auger that this meeting will be as successful as the ones held previously in Athens by the “Communist Party of Greece”.
The Bush administration in the US, and the Blair in Britain are still maintaining their aggressive positions with regards to Iraq and Afghanistan. The popularity of both these leaders is on the wane more and more people are coming out against these flagrant imperialistic aggressions, and opposition is also being aired within the ruling classes of both nations. Still this does not make the situation less dangerous.
Since our last meeting in Athens in 2005 the US and NATO have suffered great setbacks in there aggressive policies towards Iraq and Afghanistan the military loses are mounting up and control is slipping out of their hands. A recent measure was that the US withdraws from Afghanistan leaving the control there in NATO hands as to concentrate fully in Iraq.
The fact that the general public on both sides of the Atlantic are opposing more these futile wars has brought out the worst in both these two governments. In Britain in an effort to alienate the public Minister Jack Straw has opened a campaign against Islamic women. Condoleeza Rice has just made a world tour to ensure sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are but another attempt this time by the US to divert public opinion.
Meanwhile innocent people are being slaughtered in both Afghanistan and Iraq, regardless to public opinion the war continues.
We must not forget about the Israeli aggression in Lebanon and against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli Government who pursues a continuos policies of raids, kidnappings, and terror, overreacts when this time its two Israeli soldiers that get kidnapped during a raid. This resulted in the devastation of Lebanon while the world community silently watched on. Had this situation been reversed NATO would have came into play.
The Bush administration had declared both DRPK and Iran as the axis of evil. Today both these countries have a nuclear potential, and this results from both countries feeling threatened and insecure. While the CC of the Communist Party of Malta supports a policy against nuclear proliferation, we also understand, that this has to apply equally to all. If there is a country whom we do not trust with nuclear armaments is the United States itself, as it did not hesitate to use these weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So the policy towards stopping the DRPK and Iran from becoming countries with nuclear capabilities, should not be by confronting them, but by nuclear disarmament by all. Confronting these two countries will only escalate. The imposition of an embargo on the DRPK is senseless, as this escalation is the direct result of imperialistic aims by the US, when it did not stand by an a agreement reached between the DRPK and the previous US administration on the same matter. Under these conditions our solidarity lies with the leadership of the DRPK and its people.
Energy, which has been and will be the main problem of this era, is the real cause and effect, of the threat to world peace. Under the imperialistic Neo Liberal policies, set by the Neo Cons, led by the most aggressive US administration in recent years, the War in Iraq is just but a mere example. Unless these policies are defeated by the people, this will lead us into greater naught These policies of Neo liberalism are bringing new hardships on the working people everywhere, jobs are lost in the chase for greater profits. The working class carries all the burden of state taxation, under the false impression, that this will lead to more investments, but all this leads too, is just more and more profits.
In Malta the prospects of finding a new job, will be that of a part time employment, and under a definitive contract, whereby the person employed has non-of the benefits of a full employment, and stands loose his job after the contract time is fulfilled. Under these conditions the workers are not unionised, thus the system also hitting at trade Unions, which are being subjected to attacks from all angles, including the hidden hand of the present centre right administration.
The working class which is held in control by mass consumption that the capitalist controlled media subjects them too, have payments to make and cannot afford to loose a day work, under these difficult conditions, the struggle to save the hard fought for, gains of the past, must continue.
The Cuban revolution of 1959 has survived the onslaught and threats made by US imperialism. Its heroic people have withstood great hardships and kept the revolutionary flame alive. They have overcome the setbacks after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s. Today their efforts bear fruit.The new situation whereby countries like Venezuela and Bolivia are following the examples of the Cuban People and its Leader Fidel Castro to whom we wish a speedy recovery to continue at his country’s helm.This experience of the Latin American countries, should guide us in our struggles, we must continue to guide the working people, in our respective countries, on the right path, towards their full emancipation, towards their political consciousness, and also towards Socialism.