Anasintaxi: June 2012

We Will Not Pay For the Crisis or the Debt
No to the So-Called Merkel-Sarkozy “Budget Pact”
Long Live International Solidarity!

The crisis of the capitalist system is striking harsh blows at the countries of the European Unión (EU), which are falling into a recession or are still showing a certain growth. The policy imposed by the governments is the same: an austerity policy that falls exclusively on the workers, the popular masses and the peoples.
The consequences of those policies have repercussions beyond the borders of the EU. The oppressed peoples and countries of Africa are suffering from them through a harshening of the imperialist policy of looting of their material and human resources. The monopolies and the States at their service reinforce their worldwide competition and try to pit the workers and peoples against one another in order to reinforce capitalist exploitation.
Under the pretext of the weight of the States’ debt, the right-wing, social-liberal or coalition governments are trying to make the working class, peasantry, small business people and artisans, youth, women of the popular sectors, the broad masses of the cities and the countryside pay for the crisis.
From one country to another, the austerity plans are imposing wage cuts and tax increases, particularly indirect taxes that crush the popular masses. They are continuing and increasing the privatization and liquidation of the public services, particularly health care, education and social welfare.
Everywhere reforms prevail to extend the years of contribution, to reduce pensions and delay the age of retirement. While the young people have no work and are condemned to precarious jobs, the older ones are forced to work longer, harder and at lower wages. Women workers are particularly affected by these counter-reforms; they are employed in jobs and offices where the wages are lower and with precarious contracts.
These social give-backs are manifested in a severe degradation of the state of health of the pensioners and of families with children, who live below the poverty line.
The monopolies are pursuing their plans of restructuring and mass dismissals, to obtain greater productivity and profits. Unemployment, which particularly strikes the youth, is reaching record highs each month. The austerity policy is accompanied by the elimination of fundamental rights of the working class: the right to organize, to form unions and to strike. Labor legislation is modified to facilitate dismissals.
These anti-social policies are applied by the governments and coordinated at the European level. The “Euro Plus Pact”, the “Stability and Growth Pact”, and the latest European treaty written by Merkel and Sarkozy, are declarations of war against the workers movement, the union movement and the popular movement. Like all the European treaties, they want to “write into the constitution” the anti-popular policies dictated by the financial oligarchy and make them obligatory for all the countries of the EU.
The States are reinforcing their arsenal of repression and police surveillance. The criminalization of the social protest is increasing. Large demonstrations, the occupation of plazas and various mobilizations against the symbols of the oligarchy are growing. The bosses, the bourgeoisie and reaction are responding to this by criminalizing social protest.
Among the countries most under attack by the oligarchy are Greece, Italy and Spain. The austerity plans that take those countries back decades are following one after another. For the first time in the history of the European formation, supranational institutions, in this case the IMF, the ECB (European Central Bank) and the EU, have imposed the resignation of elected governments, which have been replaced by governments of so-called technocrats, who in fact are bankers, functionaries dependent on the national and international oligarchy, supported by the reformist and opportunist parties. In Greece, the troika has imposed ministers from a party of the extreme right. This is one more proof of the profoundly undemocratic character of this European formation at the service of the oligarchy, of the great imperialist powers such as Germany and France.
The banks want the peoples to pay for the debt that they themselves have created, and they demand that the States help them at a time of financial crisis. Now they continue increasing this debt by usurious interest rates on loans that they “grant” to the States.
The working class and the popular masses of Greece are not responsible for this debt that they have repaid several times over by the super-exploitation, the looting of the natural resources of the country, the sell-off of its patrimony, left to the voracity of the banks, the speculators, the big Greek bourgeoisie and the international financial oligarchy. We stand in solidarity with the Greek people and their refusal to pay the debt, their rejection of austerity and the “memorandum”, the latest version of the mega-austerity plans that have been imposed on them. The Greek people have clearly shown their rejection of all the parties that have agreed to submit to the demands of the troika: the EU, ECB and IMF.
German imperialism has come off better than its allies (and at the same time rivals) of the EU. However, the “German miracle” is based on a very aggressive policy of reduction of wages, flexibility on a large scale and massive recourse to precarious jobs within the country.
Given the increasing discontent and the willingness of large sectors of public and private sector workers to take part in the strike movement, the bosses and the government prefer to negotiate with the leaderships of the large union federations, an agreement that eliminates wage increases. Important sectors of the working class would have wanted more and preferred to initiate larger and broader confrontations with the employer's association. This mobilization supposes the entry of the workers of Germany into the fight begun by the workers of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France, to refuse to pay for the crisis and the debts of the capitalist system.
The peoples do not support the arrogance of the representative of German imperialism, Merkel, and her intention to make them pay for the crisis while at the same time advocating austerity that brazenly interferes in the policies of other countries. The fact that her ally Sarkozy has been removed from power in France, clearly due to the mobilization of the workers’ and union movement, is contributing to her isolation.
Today it is more necessary than ever to develop the mobilization against the so-called “Merkel-Sarkozy” European treaty, to increase solidarity among the peoples and to fight against the xenophobic and nationalist campaigns that try to make the peoples fight among themselves.
The parties of the extreme right are playing an active role in propagating these reactionary ideas. They proclaim their hatred against immigrants and “foreigners”, while they take advantage of the increasing discredit of the traditional parties of the right and the social-democrats, to make populist and nationalist speeches concealed by social phrases. The fight against the extreme right involves mobilizing broad masses of the workers and peoples to refuse to pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
An Upsurge of Social and Political Protest
The rejection of the austerity policy continues to grow in all the countries. The spontaneous strike movements are linking up with the broader movement and the general strikes organized in different countries are mobilizing millions of workers, youths, men and women of the popular strata.
The youth are taking up the social and political fight, together with the working class, other working people and the political organizations. The young workers are contributing their dynamism and fighting spirit, upsetting the policy and practice of class conciliation and collaboration.
In the area of concrete struggles, the aspiration for unity is great. This translates into the creation of programs that unite the parties, the union members and those of the associations… We Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations are participating actively in the formation of the resistance, with all our available forces. We contribute our political proposals and our platforms of demands that reflect the immediate aspirations of the masses.
This united front policy is an urgent and immediate necessity, because one must build the unity of the workers and the union of all strata that are victims of the policy of the oligarchy, to oppose the austerity policy that wants to make us pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
Among the advanced sectors, consciousness is developing of the need for a global political alternative that breaks with the neoliberal and social-liberal policy, with the present policy of the oligarchy.
The aspiration for unity of the forces that are fighting against that policy, that are fighting against the capitalist system and for a revolutionary change in society is growing. Basing ourselves on these aspirations, we are working for the building of an alternative that breaks with the capitalist system.
In several countries political fronts have been formed that distance themselves from the socialist parties, from the social-democrats, from those who alternate in Power with the parties of the right. Although in many cases these political fronts are limited to electoral fronts, we are fighting for them to take root in the masses, to make them embryos of really popular fronts.
In this united front policy, we Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations do not conceal our banner. We are continuing our fight against the system of imperialism and its policy of domination, of exploitation of the peoples and of war for the control of raw materials. We are fighting for a revolutionary transformation of society and we are waging a fight for political unity, for unity of action, for the unity of the rank and file and at all levels, against the opportunist positions of class conciliation.
For the Next Period We Must Pay Attention to the Following Objectives and Areas of Common Struggle
* To denounce and fight the so-called “Merkel-Sarkozy” European treaty that seeks to inscribe in the constitutions of the European countries the neoliberal dogma of “reduction of national debt”, under the pretext of generalization of the austerity policy.
* To support and develop the refusal to pay the debt, especially in Greece, and to denounce and fight against the interference of the imperialist powers, the troika. The Greek people must be free to decide their political options.
* To support the right of each people to decide whether or not to remain in the euro zone, without interference, blackmail or pressure from other countries, specifically the imperialist powers and their supranational agencies.
* To develop solidarity with the struggle of the workers, the peoples and their political, union, social organizations, etc., of the countries of the EU and the countries of the world that are facing the same policy.
Paris, May 2012
Conference of the Parties and Organizations of Europe that are Members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (CIPOML):
Communist Party of Albania
Communist Party of the Workers of Denmark – APK
Communist Party of the Workers of France – PCOF
Organization for the Construction of the Workers Communist Party of Germany
Organization for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-1955)
Communist Platform of Italy
Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (ML)
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey – TKP