Bartosz Bieszczad | Communist Party of Poland
Dear Comrades and Friends,
First, we would like to pay a tribute to the great African leaders who fought for national and social liberation: Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara and many others. We would like also to salute the new generation of resistance fighters, from Africa to Asia, from Palestine to Latin America. The struggle against imperialism is our common struggle!
Comrades and friends,
In some sections of international communist movement, colonialism is wrongly attributed to times past. But the economic exploitation of the peoples of the world by a handful of imperialist countries did not stop with granting them formal political independence. On the contrary, in recent decades it intensified and expanded its scope to Eastern Europe and former socialist countries, where we are from.
We understand the essence of colonialism as a creation of conditions for the secure transfer of wealth from the peoples of colonial countries to the imperialist centers, which are in the West. The modern colonial system of exploitation does not only rob the working class and popular strata of their wealth, but it deliberately hinders the development of the productive forces of whole continents. It is the single biggest threat to humanity.
National independence without economic independence is worth very little and the only way to achieve economic independence is to develop one’s own productive forces. This can be achieved by the revolutionary change of the relations of production. But what specific relations of production should be adopted to facilitate the growth of productive forces?
The history of the XX century gives us the answer―it is socialism.
Our county, Poland, adopted the socialist relations of production shortly after WWII. The national resources, large and medium industries were nationalized, land was redistributed among peasants, state farms were established and the whole new branches of economy were created from the scratch. Thanks to the socialist planned economy, in a short period of time we emerged from a poor agricultural country as a major, advanced industrialized state.
Before the war our people were mostly poor farmers, with around 30% illiteracy. Thanks to introduction of socialism, illiteracy was eradicated almost instantaneously. Under four decades of socialism Poland experienced the biggest economic, social and cultural progress in its whole history. We built our own electronics, cars and airplanes, and exported trains to places as distant as India and Chile. Our education, healthcare and culture was on the highest possible level, unprecedented before and unsurpassed after. All of this was achieved despite enormous human and material loses caused by the WWII.
The indisputable achievements of socialist construction in XX century in Eastern Europe, but also in China and other countries are the monument to the huge potential of socialist relations of production and a guide for future generations.
We remember also that no socio-economic formation ever established itself in one attempt. Capitalism appeared many times, being suppressed by the previous mode of production, before finally establishing itself as superior form over feudalism.
Comrades and friends,
There are two ways of looking at Marxist theory. For some, the Marxist theory is the system of ideas providing answers to all the questions about future and the past. These people see Marxism as an abstract and socialism as an ideal concept. Forothers, including us, Marxist theory is a set of tools, which allow us to analyze, understand and change the material reality. The concrete material conditions are the starting point and the role of the Marxist theory is to advise us on how to get from where we are, to where we want to be. Marxism is a set of scientific instruments designed to help to understand and shape material conditions of a society, to allow development of its productive forces and not a set of eternal truths nor an ideals. It is subjected to all scrutiny and criticism.
This is particularly relevant if we analyze the role of capitalist relations of production. Contrary to predictions of some theoreticians 100 years ago, the capitalist mode of production had still retained a large potential to develop its productive forces, and kept expanding over the course of last century, before it finally slowed down and reached a plateau in last couple of years. During this period some socialist countries managed to benefit from that growth. The example of China tells us that it is possible to use capitalist relations of production for the development of productive forces within the framework of socialism. Some capitalist relations of production can therefore play the progressive role in socialism, if they help to facilitate the development of the productive forces. The extend of it of course, depends on the specific material conditions.
Imperialism has now reached the plateau of the economic expansion. Due to its internal contradictions it has found itself in a state of deep social, moral and cultural decline and decay. The social character of a human being, which is exemplified by social institutions such as community, a family and others, have become an obstacle for the capitalist maximization of profits. In many imperialist countries, the progressive financialization and expansion of rentier class has caused a huge rise in cost of living.
By destroying communities and relations between people, creating a sick world of atomized and unhappy individuals, imperialism has started to destroy human nature. Unable to satisfy basic people’s needs, including social and cultural, imperialism can only provide cheap and fake substitutes―food like stuff instead of real food, pornography and prostitution instead of healthy relationships, internet encounters instead of real friendships. This is evident to everyone.
The crisis of imperialism has also revealed its economic and military weakness. The handful of imperialist states which constitute a smaller and smaller part of the World economy are unable to fully contain the rise of the productive forces of the Global South or to impose their complete dominance by brutal force, as previously.
We are approaching now the key moment in World history. For the first time in last 500 years, the balance of forces has shifted in favor of colonized nations. The dominance of European and Western powers has been successfully challenged, exposing their weakness.
The peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and others are fighting back, demanding their rightful place in the arena of history. They struggle for their national and social liberation, for ability to develop their own productive forces, for control and ownership of their own land, wealth and natural resources. Their struggle is a just struggle. All peoples should benefit from development of science, technology, medicine and culture, not only the “golden billion” or the bourgeois class minority.
The decline of Western imperialism is providing a historical chance to use political independence as a tool to struggle for a real sovereignty. There are already forces which can be considered allies in the process. The possibilities of trade diversification and the formation of alliances, will weaken the major weapon of imperialism against sovereign and socialist―economic sanctions and interventions.
We are entering the era of national liberation struggles and social revolutions, which will end the centuries of oppression and establish a new, better, socialist world order, based on cooperation between free peoples.
Down with imperialism and colonialism! Socialism will win!