On December 14 of the past year, the Political Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly approved a proposal entitled “Need for international condemnation for communist crimes” which will be presented during the first Assembly session of 2006 on January 24^th.

This proposal is a crude 10-page long document, part of an anti-communist crusade that has surfaced in Europe at this time, especially in the countries of the former socialist block.  Its deliberate aim is to exclude communist organizations from active participation in the politics of these nations.

The document,  questioning and condemning  communist ideology as its starting point, aims to identify the principles of class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat as instruments with which crimes against humanity were committed.

By means of a comparison whose explanation can only be the authors´ bitter hatred towards the existence of an ideology that offers an alternative to the supremacy of capital, communism is equated with Nazism.

The aim of this new provocation is by no means a historical analysis of the communist experience during the past century.  It is directed, however, towards destroying all forms of resistance to the neo-liberal hegemony which has been espoused by both the right wing and the social democrats in the Old World and is being exported to the countries of Eastern Europe for the last ten years or more.

The representatives of imperialism and the promoters of the great injustices generated by capitalist society are in no position to make judgements  about this experience.

Suffice it to recall that the lavish wealth displayed today by the developed capitalist nations was accumulated at the cost of centuries of colonialism and slavery and the expropriation and plundering of the wealth of the Third World which today, in its vast majority, suffers from the consequences of such pillage, crime, abuse and exploitation.  All it would take to compensate the under-developed world which has been able to achieve elemental levels of health care and education with their modest resources would be a minimum of shame and a recognition that such  serfdom had existed.

We must also remember that the very same greed which brought about wars between the empires in the first half of the twentieth century, resulted in losses of millions of lives and substantial material destruction.  How can we forget that the defeat of fascism and Nazism during World War II was the result of heroism on the part of the people of the former Soviet Union occasioning the loss of more than 20 million of their sons and daughters in the struggle to free humanity from the horrors of fascism’s grip?

After the conclusion of this armed conflict, hopes of building a peaceful world gave birth to the United Nations;  but once again, imperialism and NATO, eager to stomp out the existence of socialism, launched a political and military offensive that sees the wealthy nations spending more than a billion dollars on armament, even though the Cold War and the “powerful enemies” have supposedly disappeared.  Half of this expenditure is being made by the United States of America, threatening the safety of human lives on this planet.

The establishment of a system of international institutions which regulate trade and finance has joined forces with the political and military pressure.  The neo-liberal model has been imposed on our planet by them and the centres of hegemonic power, bringing with it an increase in inequalities, poverty and injustice, all of which characterize today’s world.

Fortunately, people do not forget.  How could they fail to remember the persecutions, imprisonment and murders carried out against those who embraced communist ideas during the McCarthy era, or the communist and revolutionary movements in Central America and Africa, or the disappearances, tortures and crimes committed by the Latin American dictatorships with the CIA-supported “Operation Condor”, denounced and condemned in May of this year in Cuba at the Anti-Terrorism Meeting?

Where was the European Council when more than two years ago the US and its European allies, ignoring the UN and the international community, ignoring in essence the opinions of their own people, carried out the illegal attack on and occupation of Iraq?  Until the present day, more than 100,000 Iraqis, including innocent women and children, and more than 2,100 young Americans have died.

Would it not be much more objective and urgent to condemn  the state terrorism which is being practiced by the US government with the full approval and complicity of its allies, first among which is the European Union?  While Europe condemns Cuba in the Human Rights Commission, it is incapable of questioning, much less condemning, the abuses and degrading treatment committed by the US against prisoners in Iraqi jails, the existence of a concentration camp at the illegal Guantanamo Naval Base, the use of military bases as torture centres all over Europe and the secret flights in Europe for the purpose of transporting prisoners of war.

We have also not heard the European Council condemning the existence of the savage genocidal policy of the blockade against Cuba, nor have we heard it proclaiming its support for the liberation of our Five Heroic Cubans who are unjustly being held in American prisons for having fought against acts of terrorism and the war  that is being waged with impunity against Cuba from within American territory.

It is obvious that the political forces which aim to condemn communist ideology and its historical experience in Europe possess no morals.  To do so would be a confirmation of the xenophobic and excluding tendency which has been gradually taking over contemporary European institutions and an eloquent demonstration of the decadence prevalent today in international imperialism.

 Should this proposal be approved by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, it can only serve to reactivate the Battle of Ideas, with new and greater resolve, so that we can build a better world where social justice and solidarity are the birthright of every human being…this is only possible with socialism.

The Communist Party of Cuba energetically condemns this murky manoeuvre which has been concocted in the well-financed chambers of the European Council and calls upon all responsible politicians in the Parliamentary Assembly to unite in this cause symbolizing justice and truth and to reject the proposal entitled “Need for international condemnation for communist crimes”, to be presented on January 24, 2006.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE

COMMUNIST PARTY OF CUBA

Havana, January 18, 2006.

“Year of the Energy Revolution in Cuba”