Let us prepare for the sharpening of the class struggle

Political declaration

Let us prepare for the sharpening of the class struggle

In the capitalist world still in deep crisis, the wind of popular revolts and of revolution is coming from the Maghreb and countries of the Middle East. The people of these countries have risen up, one after the other, against regimes of tyranny, often sold out to imperialism. They are struggling for democracy; they want to live in dignity, to work, study and contribute to the development of their country and to get rid of the corrupt regimes that have enriched themselves at their expense by selling the country and its wealth to the imperialist powers.

The revolution began in Tunisia. The resistance of the working class, of the youths, peasants, democrats and popular sectors was organized in spite of the ferocious repression of Ben Ali’s regime, supported until the last minute by its imperialist godfathers.

In this fight, the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia (PCOT) has played an essential leading role. Together with other forces, it is struggling today in order for this revolutionary process to continue to its end. It is the Tunisian revolution that expelled Ben Ali. It encouraged other people of the Maghreb and the Middle East to rise up. From Egypt to Yemen, from Morocco to Syria, movements have developed, provoking a large movement of sympathy among the workers, youth and peoples all over the world.

The imperialist powers that consider this region as their private hunting ground have been taken by surprise. They pretend to support these popular movements, in order to try to make use of them for their own interests. In Libya they have found forces ready to collaborate with them, and Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama launched a war that is plunging this country into chaos. For the first time in its history, NATO is intervening militarily in this region, to show the will of the imperialist powers to halt the popular movements and to establish their total control of all of Libya’s resources, especially oil, gas and water. They are also interested in Libya’s geostrategic position on the African continent and in the Mediterranean region.

As the G-8 summit has shown, the big imperialist powers are speaking of “helping” these people, but they are trying to enchain them with debts. Today the debt mechanism is an essential instrument of the neocolonial policy of imperialism. We denounce this policy of enslavement and say that on the contrary, these people do not need new debts.

It is not over yet, but with these movements, the class struggle has taken a new dimension, a new scale internationally. These people are standing up and are giving a new breath to the revolution, to the fight for national and social emancipation. They have shown that it is the people who make history and that a people united can overturn the imperialist order, can overthrow dictatorships.

The idea of the revolution is again on the agenda

The working class, the toiling people, the youth and the peoples of the world are in solidarity with this fight that inspires and stimulates them to reinforce their struggle against the capitalist imperialist system that makes them pay for its crisis. Far from being over, much less overcome, a new crisis is threatening to explode: the state debt crisis, especially in the EU. The financial oligarchy, the monopolies have put the States into debt in order to save the financial system, the banks and big monopolies. For this, billions in public money, taken from the social budgets, have been used. At the same time, wages have been lowered, and misery and precariousness have struck ever larger sectors of the masses.

The financial markets are speculating on the bankruptcy of States; they are demanding more austerity, new privatizations and new cutbacks in social rights. In order to save Euro, the leaders of big powers in the EU, the IMF and the ECB [European Central Bank] want to impose a mega-austerity plan; the so-called “stabilization plan”, which, in reality, will push even more workers of the cities and the countryside, the youths and working women into misery and insecurity, and will increase the super-exploitation in the companies. To impose such a policy of social regression, the governments of the right, social democrats and social liberals are reinforcing the reactionary laws in order to criminalize the developing social struggle. They do not hesitate to copy the racist themes of the extreme right parties which are developing a populist propaganda. We denounce the reinforcement of “fortress” Europe and say: “it is not the immigrants who should be expelled, but Sarkozy, Berlusconi and company!”

The working class, popular masses and peoples are resisting, refusing to pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.

In several countries, the youths, who are the first victim of mass unemployment and precariousness, are taking to the streets and occupying public places in cities, shouting their anger at a society that has no future to offer them. In all the countries, from Greece to the United Kingdom, from Portugal to Italy, from Ireland to Spain, the working class and popular masses are demonstrating; resisting, expressing their refusal to pay for the crisis of the system.

We are working to develop this resistance, to develop the international solidarity and to merge these fronts of struggle into a general challenge to the capitalist system, which is responsible for the crisis, wars and accidents, as the one at the Fukushima nuclear plant. It is the race for maximum profit that is sacrificing the security of the workers and peoples. We support the struggles of the workers and peoples of Europe who refuse to pay for the debts of the capitalist and we say that it is the rich, the speculators and big shareholders who must pay for them.

We support the struggles against privatization and liquidation of public services, in health, education, social protection…

We support the strikes and struggles of the workers for higher wages, the mobilizations against layoffs, against lowering of wages and worsening of social conditions.

We appeal to reinforce in each country and internationally the combat against the “pact of stabilization”.

We denounce and combat racism and struggle for equality of rights, between all the workers, which permits to struggle together against our common enemies.

We denounce imperialism’s war policy and call for solidarity with the struggles of the peoples in the Maghreb and the Middle East.

We call for a large movement of solidarity with the revolutionary process in Tunisia and for support to our fraternal party, the PCOT.

We are working to unite the forces that oppose the policy of the bourgeoisie and reaction, the policy of imperialist war, for building fronts in the struggles, among the rank-and-file, in action.

The class struggle has accelerated in a few months

We appeal to the working class, the youths, the toilers of the city and countryside, the women of the popular sectors, to intensify their struggles to defend their social and political rights and gains.

We call on the political and social organizations that want to break with this system, for social change, to prepare themselves for the new developments in the class struggle, for the battles and confrontations at a higher level.

Copenhagen, May 2011