December 23, 2008 - No. 189

São Paulo, Brazil, November 21-23, 2008

10th International Meeting of
Communist and Workers Parties

• 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties
• Sao Paulo Declaration: Socialism is the Alternative!
• Resolution in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean Peoples

São Paulo, Brazil, November 21-23, 2008

10th International Meeting of
Communist and Workers Parties

A press release issued by the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) on November 23, 2008 informs that the 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties was successfully held in São Paulo, Brazil, from 21-23 of November, 2008, hosted by the Communist Party of Brazil. Sixty-five parties attended from 55 different countries.

Representatives of the parties delivered speeches on the theme of the meeting: "New phenomena in the international framework. Worsening national, social, environmental and interimperialist contradictions and problems. The struggle for peace, democracy, sovereignty, progress and socialism and unity of action of Communist and Workers' Parties." The press release says that the interventions allowed for "an important exchange of ideas to take place between the parties."

The 10th meeting received a message from the President of the Federal Republic of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, expressing his "recognition of all your struggles in defence of the workers and the poor" and "your commitment to build a new economic international order." The press release points out: "The 10th Meeting was held in the midst of a severe crisis of capitalism, a theme that was addressed in all the speeches. Many participants emphasised the structural and systemic nature of the crisis, pointing out that crisis is a characteristic of capitalist development, which in this case has been intensified by the neo-liberal financial policies of recent decades.

"The current crisis demonstrates the complete failure and collapse of neo-liberalism, speakers argued, but it does not automatically represent the end of capitalism. On the contrary, the bourgeoisie is using its political power in the most developed countries to mount a 'rescue operation' for their system. But far from making capitalism more virtuous, these policies aim to make workers pay the cost of trying to resolve the system's intrinsic contradictions.

"This severe crisis also explodes the myth that the counter-revolutions of 1989-1991 represented the final and irreversible triumph of capitalism. It highlights both the limitations of capitalism as a social system and the need to overturn it in a revolutionary way.

"About the issue of capitalist crisis the 65 parties adopted the 'São Paulo Declaration,' which states that 'Socialism is the Alternative.'

"Many parties stressed the positive significance of the growing challenge to United States hegemony in the world, noting that humanity has entered a stage of reinvigorated anti-imperialist struggle for the independence, development and social progress of people and nations. In this regard some parties noted the importance of the emergence of new coalitions of developing countries, like IBSA (trilateral forum among India, Brazil and South Africa) and the regular meetings of BRIC's (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as expressions of a reinvigorated south-south relationship.

"For all the Communist and Workers Parties present, the crisis reinforces the need to bring forward the issue of the transition to socialism, and to intensify the battle of ideas among the people at a time when the limits of capitalism are exposed for all to see.

Latin America solidarity rally, November 22, 2008 (courtesy Solidarity Network)

"The parties present also stressed the symbolic importance of holding their annual meeting in Latin America for the first time, underscoring the internationalization of the process of annual meetings, and taking into account that this region has become a pole of anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist resistance.

"The 10th Meeting adopted a declaration of 'Solidarity with the Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean,' welcoming the popular struggles and the recent victories achieved across the continent by democratic, progressive and anti-imperialist forces, including the Communists.

The participants of the meeting expressed their strong preoccupation about the explosive situation in the Middle East caused by the plans of imperialism to reshape the region, the occupation of Iraq and the continuous oppression of Israel against the Palestinian people. The parties called attention especially to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that the Israeli siege causes and demanded the end of the siege, as well as the elimination of the racist wall and the Israeli settlements.

"The participants decided to promote a series of joint actions, such as: initiatives about the capitalist crisis; Solidarity Campaigns with Cuba on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution; anti-NATO initiatives on the occasion of the 60 years since its foundation; actions of solidarity with Palestine, including visits of delegations to Gaza.

"Over the weekend, the delegates of the 65 Communist and Workers Parties took part in a public rally in solidarity with the struggle of the Latin American people. There, they had the opportunity to attend, along with the Brazilian communist militants, the contributions of representatives by Latin America's progressive political and social movements and reiterate their internationalist solidarity."

São Paulo Declaration

Socialism is the Alternative!

- November 23, 2008 -

The world is facing a grave economic and financial crisis of large proportions. A capitalist crisis, which cannot be dissociated from its own nature and from its unsolvable contradictions, that is probably the gravest crisis since the Great Depression commenced by the 1929 crash. As always the workers and the people are the main victim.

The current crisis is an expression of a deeper crisis intrinsic to the capitalist system which demonstrates capitalism's historical limits and the need for its revolutionary overthrow. The current crisis also poses an enormous threat of social and democratic regression and provides, as history has shown, a basis for authoritarian and militarist movements that demand more vigilance from the communist parties and all democratic and anti-imperialist forces.

While billions of public resources are mobilized to save those responsible for this crisis -- big capital, high finance and speculators -- workers, small farmers, middle strata and all those who work for a living are suffocating under the weight of monopolies and will experience still more exploitation, unemployment, lower wages and pensions, insecurity, hunger and poverty.

Powerful ideological diversionary campaigns are seeking to conceal the true origins of the crisis and to block the way to solutions that would be in the interests of the popular masses, which favor a new balance of power, a new international order in favor of popular forces, international solidarity and friendship among peoples. The main capitalist powers, starting with the USA, the European Union and Japan, by means of the international organizations under their rule -- the IMF, World Bank, European Central Bank, NATO and others -- and also manipulating the UN to suit their needs, are frantically working on "solutions," which are themselves the seeds for new crises, and are attempting to rescue the system in the short term and reinforce the mechanisms of imperialist exploitation and oppression.

Resorting to scapegoats and insisting on false and failed options for "regulation," "humanization" and the "reform" of capitalism, they seek to change appearances while keeping things to the same. The parties supporting capital hastily accepted the dogmas of the "Washington Consensus" that has fed the brutal speculative financing of economy. Social-democracy, disguising its compliance with neo-liberalism and its transformation into a pillar of imperialism, attempts a belated return to Keynesian-type "regulation" that leaves intact the class nature of power and the relations of property, seeking precisely to avoid affirming the revolutionary alternatives for the workers and the peoples.

But that perspective is not inevitable.

As other moments in history have shown, the workers and the peoples, if united, can determine the course of economic, social and political events, squeeze important concessions out of big capital in the interests of the masses, curb advances towards fascism and war and open the path to deep transformations of a progressive and even revolutionary character.

The international outlook is one of increasingly sharp class struggle. Humankind is passing through one of the most difficult and complex moments in history; an economic global crisis that simultaneously coincides with an energy and food crisis and a serious environmental crisis; a world of deep injustices and inequalities, wars and conflicts. The scene is of an historic crossroads, in which two contradictory tendencies are being manifested -- on one side lie great dangers to peace, to sovereignty, democracy, to peoples and workers' rights and on the other side lie immense potential for struggles and the advance of the cause of emancipation of workers and peoples, the cause of social progress and peace, the cause of socialism and communism.

The Communist and Workers' Parties that gathered at their 10th Meeting held in São Paulo salute the popular struggles emerging across the world against imperialist exploitation and oppression, against the increasing attacks on the historical achievements of the labor movement, against the militarist and anti-democratic offensive of imperialism.

Emphasizing that neo-liberalism's bankruptcy represents not only the failure of a policy of management of capitalism but the failure of capitalism itself, and confident of the superiority of the communist ideals and project, we affirm that the answer to the emancipatory aspirations of workers and peoples can only be found in the rupture with the power of big capital, with the imperialist blocs and alliances, and through deep transformations of a liberating and anti-monopolist character.

With the conviction that socialism is the alternative, the road to a real and total independence of peoples, the way to affirm workers' rights and the only way to put an end to the destructive crises of capitalism, we call upon the working class, the workers and the peoples across the world to join the cause of communists and revolutionaries and, united around their class interests and fair aspirations, to take in their own hands the building of a future of prosperity, justice and peace for Humankind. In this sense, conditions emerge for the convergence of the peoples' struggles and resistances in a broad movement against the capitalist policies applied in the crisis and the imperialist aggressions that threaten peace.

Certain of the possibility of another world, a world that is free from class exploitation and the oppression of capital, we declare our commitment to continue the historical path to building a new society free from class exploitation and oppression that is Socialism.

São Paulo, November 23rd, 2008
The 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties

(Photo courtesy Solidarity Network)

Resolution in Solidarity with Latin America
and the Caribbean Peoples

- November 23, 2008 -

The 10th Communist and Workers' Parties Meeting, being held for the first time in Latin America, welcomes and congratulates all Communist and Workers' Parties and all democratic, progressive, popular and anti-imperialist regional forces united and strengthened in popular struggle and in the gains made during the last decade. These advances have made this part of the world one of the outstanding centers of anti-imperialist resistance, setting the scene for the development of alternatives to imperialist hegemony and for further victories in the fight for democracy, national sovereignty and social progress.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 9, 2007.

In a situation where finance capital continues to wage a big neo-liberal, imperialist offensive around the world, where capitalism's economic and financial crisis intensifies, U.S. hegemony faces a mounting challenge from wider sections of the people, with Latin America and the Caribbean occupying a political conjuncture of rising levels of popular struggle.

In this region, outstanding political victories have been achieved through popular and social resistance, which takes place in different ways and uses a range of different means to fight imperialist domination and the neo-liberal offensive. Many of these experiences have resulted in an upsurge of democratic, progressive, popular and anti-imperialist forces and national governments, among which are Communist and Workers Parties that claim the transition to socialism as their goal.

Third Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle Against the FTAA, Havana, Cuba, January 26-29, 2004

The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean are protesting against an unequal and exclusive system. Indeed, this region is one of the most unequal on Earth. More than 200 million poor people do not have the basic resources with which to survive, while new centers of conspicuous and luxurious consumption develop alongside them. In this region, as in the whole world, unequal development takes place, which is polluting the planet and destroying its non-renewable energy resources.

The harsh consequences of the anti-people policies pursued by imperialist governments to meet the interests of monopoly capital, together with the deep crisis engulfing many nations, are the strongest factors, which compel a decisive response from the peoples.

The very existence of socialist Cuba and its successful repudiation of imperialist provocations and aggression have been of fundamental importance to the development of other peoples' resistance. Its example kept hope alive and highlighted the real fighting alternative -- Socialism -- to capitalist barbarity. The forces that constitute these processes have different strategic goals, different strengths and different particularities arising from their social, national and historical backgrounds. But they also plan for the achievement of shared goals such as the strengthening of national sovereignty, social and economic development, democratization of the state, the creation of new democratic constitutions, the encouragement of popular participation and the adoption of politics which promote the well-being of the majority, especially of the workers.

Left: Havana, Cuba, May Day 2007. Right: "No to War, the blockade and terrorism."

Social movements, especially of workers and peasants, are also playing an important role in promoting the struggle for progressive transformations. The organization and mobilization of workers, young people, students, peasants, Indians and women, among others, is being broadened and strengthened, as they take the lead opposing and resisting the plunder of resources, privatization, corruption, environmental degradation and other serious problems of our time.

Under these circumstances, there is a higher-level search for a new regional integration which is independent and unique, developing complementary mechanisms from Mercosur and Unasur (the Union of South American Nations) -- alliances that try to bolster an independent geopolitical and economic pole in Latin America -- to ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean) -- which

"Bush Out," Guatemala City, March 10, 2007.

is characterized by its clear anti-imperialist content. Also noteworthy are other initiatives which help promote Latin American and Caribbean integration, such as the Mercosur Parliament, the Bank of the South, the South American Defense Council -- in direct opposition to the reactivation of the U.S. Fourth Fleet -- the Energy Council of South America and Petrocaribe, the Telesur network, among other instruments. As a whole, those are movements and organizations, which, to a greater or lesser extent, objectively offer resistance to the neo-liberal model and hegemony. As such they may contribute to the resistance to U.S. imperialism and its plans such as resuscitation of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), the defeat of which represented a great achievement in the current stage of progressive and anti-imperialist evolution in Latin America.

These processes are objectively contradictory and are not free from impediments and even temporary setbacks. The rise of national governments within the context of liberal democracy does not mean the automatic achievement of political power, which is a task of revolutionary proportions, especially considering the strong reaction of U.S. imperialism allied to an endogenous right-wing which seeks to promote neo-liberal policies, coups, secessions, unbalanced free trade agreements and the militarization of the region.

As regards the affirmation of individual, national and regional courses of action, we state that the greater the breadth and depth of the action -- in a democratic and popular sense -- the closer it will approximate to the goal of leading to a new society.

The Communist Parties study the important experiences of the anti-imperialist struggles of the Latin American people, taking into account the actual concrete political and historical conditions. The communists don't resort to imitation, but they learn from the positive and negative experiences of revolutionary struggles and creatively apply those lessons to the specific conditions of each country.

Valparaiso, Chile, May Day 2007

The Communist and Workers parties are essential to the struggle for socialism. We totally support our fraternal parties of Latin America in their commitment to the democratic, popular and anti-imperialist revolution and in their efforts to rally all revolutionary forces, respecting the sovereignty and independence of each process. The socialism that will take shape in the new century will gather the most positive lessons from past experiences, and in particular those which can be generalized, bearing in mind their limits and shortcomings. It will be bolstered by the advanced thinking which accompanies the trajectory of each people in the class struggle, and which assumes material force in the unity of a political and social majority convinced of the superiority of socialism over capitalism, where the proletariat and its allies plays the leading role.

The 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' parties expresses its resolute support for and solidarity with the fair and noble causes for which the peoples in the region fight, and extends its

San Juan, Puerto Rico, International Day of Action Against War and Occupation, March 18, 2006: "Imperialism and its wars sends our youth to their deaths."

internationalist solidarity to all the anti-imperialist forces, particularly to the communist parties and other revolutionary forces, for a Latin America and a Caribbean free from every form of external domination, for a region that will be politically unified and economically and socially integrated to fully benefit its peoples, for true national and social emancipation. With that objective, the Parties gathered in our meeting emphatically condemn destabilizing actions orchestrated and executed by North American imperialism and its allies with the support of national oligarchies in each country in order to curb the advance of progressive and revolutionary movements in the region and prevent the fulfillment of the will of the peoples.

At this moment when humanity finds itself in one of the most difficult periods of its history, characterized by deep inequalities and injustices, wars and conflicts, in a situation aggravated by the present financial and economic crisis of capitalism which is systemic and global, and by the energy, environmental and food crises, we declare our revolutionary optimism and our hope that the new developing Latin American and Caribbean outlook affirms socialism as the most advanced solution for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean and for all humanity.

São Paulo, November 23rd, 2008
The 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties

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