Capitalism is incurable: Statements from the European Communist Imitative

On May 10, 2020, the parties of the European Communist Imitative held a teleconference with the theme "The struggle of the communist and workers' parties in the conditions of the pandemic and the new capitalist crisis".

As the conference was held at the initiative of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) the party's General Secretary gave an important and rousing opening statement.

After the teleconference a joint statement was issued by all the parties.

"The teleconference was attended by 24 communist and workers' parties from Austria, Bulgaria, France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Latvia, Belarus, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Sweden and Turkey."

Here are excerpts from both statements.

Introductory Speech of the General Secretary of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas (excerpt):

Dear comrades,

IT IS UP TO US TO BREAK THE SILENCE that the government and the big employers want to impose in the name of the slogan "let's overcome this crisis together", which is a reflection of hypocritical bourgeois ethics.

IT IS UP TO US TO DEMAND MEASURES to support the workers and the self-employed who have been hit by the restrictive measures.

TO DEMAND the cancellation of thousands of redundancies and the much more damaging changes that preceded them.

WE WILL NOT LEGITIMIZE measures taken under the pretext of the epidemic, with a view to become permanent, such as those concerning further "flexibility" of work...

...Comrades,

THE MYTH WHICH IS UTTERLY REFUTED during the coronavirus pandemic is the one saying that the public and the private sector can coexist harmoniously and thus contribute to addressing this situation. This myth is refuted by the profiteering of private health centers conducting the coronavirus testing, which is only accessible to those who can afford it, depriving state planning of valuable resources and at the same time increasing the risk of spreading the virus. This was tragically proved in many cases and deaths in Greece that occurred in private clinics and structures that did not fully meet hygiene standards.

This myth is also refuted by the fact that the state depends on the world market "war" conducted by the big companies, which found the opportunity to run a very lucrative business, for the supply of basic materials and drugs.

The necessity for an exclusively public and free Health system with the abolition of any business activity has been dramatically demonstrated. Today, it is indisputable that the health of the people, their care, protection, and security are incompatible with capitalist profit, greedy capital and the capitalist mode of production.

Either a solution will be provided based on the real needs of the people or the people will suffer, they will live in miserable conditions, they will constantly pay out of their own pockets so that the few and chosen ones of capital will make huge profits.

And as life confirms, the monopolies seek to increase their wealth both in conditions of capitalist development and in conditions of crisis of the capitalist economy.

Especially in the recent period, the activity and competitions at a European and international level have intensified over how to more effectively support the stricken capitalist economy.

The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic acted certainly as a catalyst for the worsening of the serious problems that pre-existed in the capitalist economy...

...The coronavirus will be cured and the pandemic will end, just as others did in the past. Capitalism, however, is incurable and will continue to torture humankind, with poverty, unemployment, wars, the destruction of the environment, until the peoples decide to lead the way in the developments.

More and more people in the world are realizing and shouting out loud that “capitalism is the real virus”.

Today’s system can only be overthrown and replaced by a superior social system, socialism – communism, where social ownership of the means of production with workers’ power, scientific central planning for the satisfaction of people’s needs, workers’ control of all the administrative organs and participation in all the organs of power, from the bottom to the top, can lead to prosperity for the people, to peace and the progress of humankind.

We must be consistently and unwaveringly oriented to this task. Our daily tactics and practice must be subordinated to this task, of course always taking into account the particular conditions, the correlation of forces, but without retreating because of them or altering our strategic goal.

Internationalism, workers'- communist solidarity and action, are what should accompany us at every step, as we have done so far, but with faster steps that will lead to realistic perhaps small leaps in the present, but which will prepare the big leap in the future, for the peoples of our countries, for the whole Europe, for the whole world.

Joint Statement of the European Communist Initiative Parties (excerpt):

The ECI parties also expressed solidarity with those affected by the CoVID-19 pandemic and wished them a speedy recovery.

Moreover, they saluted Cuba's solidarity action with the most affected countries.

The parties agreed to reinforce the struggle for:

Immediate strengthening of public health systems, recruitment of permanent medical and nursing staff with full rights, the meeting of all needs in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and infrastructure required for the full operation of public health care and research services.

Immediate provision of all the necessary means of protection (masks, gloves, disinfectants, etc.) to the people by the state free of charge and fight against profiteering. Immediate provision of all protection measures to the healthcare personnel that gives this battle.

The communist and workers' parties in Europe noted that they will lead the struggle against the attack of capital, which in the face of the new crisis proceeds to widespread layoffs and tries to further crush wages, working hours, leaves, and other labor rights. They expressed their solidarity with the class-oriented trade unions that struggle in order for the workers not to pay the consequences of the capitalist crisis.

They spoke out against the imperialist plans of the USA, NATO, and the EU, as well as against sanctions and economic exclusion measures that are criminal and make people's lives difficult.

The parties that attended the teleconference noted that the current situation shows the deep impasses of the capitalist mode of production (crisis, unemployment, the impoverishment of the working class, the commercialization of social needs such as health, imperialist wars, etc.).

Under these circumstances, the slogan "Socialism or barbarity" is more timely than ever.

No time left. This social order must change! -- Statements from Turkey, Greece and Sweden

Three excerpts from recent statements by the Communist parties of Turkey, Greece and Sweden about the coronavirus, capitalism and the need for socialism.

Click on the titles for the full statements.

This social order must change, Turkey should become an example -- Communist Party of Turkey (April 17, 2020):

The epidemic has been the last straw. The existing social order entirely serves the interests of a small minority, and the basic needs, rights, and freedoms of the vast majority of society are neglected. Economic crises, wars have become part of everyday life, and problems such as unemployment and hunger have turned into a nightmare affecting hundreds of millions of people.

There is no good or bad version of this order; it cannot be cured. It is obvious that the US, defined as a superpower, and, France, Germany, England, Italy, which are blessed as European civilizations, have fallen during the last epidemic.

Turkey is also paying the price of not overthrowing this system of exploitation that produces reactionism, darkness, misogyny, and anti-scientism.

No time left. We should take the steps to get rid of this order that threatens humanity as a whole.

THE "NEW MARSHALL PLAN" The new, yet very old, "Great Idea" of the European capital and the communists' response -- Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) (April 15, 2020)

The outbreak of the pandemic, its rapid spread, its profound consequences for human life and especially in the more developed capitalist economies, have brought great problems to the surface, which of course pre-existed, but emerged today in a loud and tragic way. The big contradictions and contrasts are even more evident in all aspects of social, economic, political, cultural life and reality, in each country individually and internationally. We must definitely make a greater collective effort and contribution not only to record and codify the new issues, but also further highlight them as well as the main trends of the developments, to draw the necessary conclusions and tasks, both in theoretical and in political, practical level. After all, many issues and aspects are still in progress.

The developments we are experiencing at this time, in the last month in our country and a bit more in other countries, show and once again confirm more intensely that the real danger for all the peoples of the world is capitalism at its highest stage, i.e. imperialism. It not only goes against the needs of the people and the social development itself but it constantly causes, on a massive scale, irreparable damage in all sectors due to the sharpening of its contradictions. Today, it is indisputable that the health of the people, care, protection, and security are incompatible with the capitalist profit, the greedy capital and the capitalist mode of production. Either solution will be provided based on the real needs of the people or the people will suffer, they will live in miserable conditions, they will constantly pay out of their own pockets so that the few and chosen ones of the capital will treasure. It is time, and will become even more urgent with the end of the pandemic in the coming months, to strengthen the Social Alliance, the anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist line of struggle, our own alternative proposal, our own response, the response of the hopeful socialist tomorrow. The necessity and timeliness of socialism and the socialist revolution are rising to the surface, and as time passes they will do so in a more imperative way, with new dynamics...

...Therefore, the "Great Idea", promoted by the capital and its ubiquitous political representatives, for a "new Marshall Plan" for the reconstruction of Europe, which is supposed to be without commitments and memoranda for the people, beneficial for both the capital and workers, is completely deceptive. The parallels they make with the post-war Marshall Plan, even presenting it as a "quintessence" in favor of the peoples, are funny. In fact, this historical manipulation is not only carried out by the ideological and political descendants of the supporters of the Marshall Plan, but also by so-called "left" forces, which simply confirm their complete bourgeois social-democratic mutation. It is worth remembering that the American funds that flowed into the ruined post-war Europe, as part of the Marshall Plan, in the second half of the critical fifth decade of the last century, was not an act of solidarity with the European peoples, but only a vital energy action for the capitalist system itself. They were used, on the one hand, for the capitalist reconstruction of Europe, which was crucial for American exports, and on the other hand for halting socialism and the revolutionary labor movement, which emerged from World War II with great prestige among all peoples of the world. For this reason, after all, a large part of the Marshall Plan was directed at infrastructure, e.g. military infrastructure, as in Greece, aimed mainly at the socialist system and the struggle of the peoples. However, the necessary post-war state intervention for the reproduction of the capital and the creation of critical infrastructure, neither interrupted the vicious cycle of crises nor ensured the prosperity of the peoples. The offered benefits, also aiming at integrating workers' and people's forces, bore the stamp of the glory of the social achievements in the USSR and the other countries of socialism, but also of the very struggle of the peoples of Europe.

Today, unfortunately, this formidable adversary does not exist. The peoples, however, will come out from this crisis with greater experience. The huge impasses and historical bankruptcy of the current exploitation system are becoming even more apparent today. It is up to the people to organize the struggle, their own alliance

Corona and capitalism - Statement from the Communist Party of Sweden (March 23, 2020)

A lot is being written on the economic effects of the corona virus and how it affects different
branches of the economy. Governments in all affected countries has put billions upon billions to the
disposal of capital, while they at the same time have carried out numerous measures that push back
the conditions and wages of the working class. To the extent that the conditions are not directly
rolled back, the individual companies shift the weight of the crisis onto the back of the collective
capitalist: the state. The state pays the wages, compensates for defaulted incomes and carries out an
active policy to further concentrate capital and knock out smaller companies.

All this is portrayed as an effect of and reaction on the corona virus. The spread of the virus gives
capital both the opportunity and possibility to hide the crisis of overproduction that was visible
already before the virus. Every catastrophe also offers capital possibilities and the measures now
carried out are not primarily carried out as a response to the effects of the corona virus, but to push
back the crisis of overproduction.

The capitalist crisis of overproduction is a crisis generated by the fact that production no longer
corresponds to the ability of people to consume and the ability of markets to absorb all commodities
produced – production has outrun the purchasing power. The crisis is cyclical, returns regularly, and
is proceeded by an economic boom, only to be relieved by a downward phase. The beginning of the
downward phase was possible to see already before the spread of the corona virus. Signs that point
in this direction is the fact that flexible workers in manufacturing, the buffer of capital, was being
phased out.

When the corona virus spread, capitalism was already on its way into the next crisis of
overproduction and the measures now carried out had either been planned before, as an answer
to the expected crisis, or they have the character of opportunism – capital seizes the opportunity
to rationalize.

What we now see happening on the labor and financial markets is what always happens during a
capitalist crisis: measures are carried out that lowers the wages, make the conditions of the workers’
more insecure and secures the profits of the companies. Simultaneously, the natural tendencies
towards concentration and centralization of capital that exist under capitalism are enhanced. The
smaller and less profitable companies are bankrupted and the monopolies grow even more. The
capitalist crisis is an incredible opportunity for big capital and in short, it means a bloodletting of
capitalism...

...The crisis, regardless of whether it has been sped up by the corona virus or not, clearly shows the
world such as it is. It shatters illusion after illusion and it becomes all the more difficult to hide the
class contradictions. The propaganda that we sit in the same boat and that we can solve the crisis
together is becoming increasingly hollow. Without hesitation, companies socializes their losses and
let the whole of society compensate them, while the profits they have made remain private. Openly,
the companies sacrifice the workers to strengthen its own competitiveness and profit while the state
openly appear as the defender of monopoly capitalism, against both the working population and the
petit bourgeoisie, which have been affected by the crisis, just as the working class has. The working
class and the other exploited strata in society, such as those in the service sector and the petit
bourgeoisie, have a common interest in a fight against capitalism, because, in the end, it crushes
them all – the need for social alliances between the working class and the other exploited strata is
the only way forward.

Hand in hand with the attacks against the economic situation of the working people come the attacks
against their political situation. In country after country, measures directed towards the possibility of
political expression have either been carried out or prepared. In the trail of the corona virus, strikes
and demonstrations are forbidden; the police and the military are awarded even more far-reaching
capacities and are armed even heavier. Bolivia offer perhaps the most glaring example: to secure the
coup-regime of the country, a complete lockdown is enforced, hindering all protests. The political
tendency under monopoly capitalism is always in the direction of political reaction and the current
situation offer great possibilities to capitalism to carry out reactionary political measures that they
can hide behind the need to fight the spread of the virus.

In addition to revealing the nature of both capital and state, the capitalist crisis of overproduction
also punctures the myth that the nation-states are disappearing. The billions that in country after
country have been made available for the strengthening of the companies show this. All the
measures carried out in country after country are directed towards the working class and the petit
bourgeoisie in favor of the monopolies show the continued importance of the nation state to the
monopolies. The national state is not disintegrating and it has not lost its role. It is what it has
always been: an integrated part of the capitalist system, whose purpose is to strengthen its own
capital against capital in other countries.

"Today capitalism itself is bankrupt"

Excerpt from the statement "The end of myths and illusions" by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas, March 31, 2020.

Translated from the original Greek by the KKE.

WE BREAK THE SILENCE that the government and the big employers want to impose in the name of the slogan "let's overcome this crisis together", which is a reflection of hypocritical bourgeois ethics. Quite simply, because we cannot "all together" recruit healthcare professionals, [requisition] the private sector, take preventive and protective measures providing all the necessary tools and means to protect workers. In the framework of this system, all the above must be done by the state and the government that leads it, along with the class that has the real power and ownership. Of course until the working class and the popular strata, "all together" and united  sideline them permanently and irrevocably and construct a society where social goods will be given priority, as opposed to the capitalist profit that leads to the death of our fellow humans...

...Above all, however, the pandemic highlights, more so with every day that passes, the limits of the capitalist system.

It turns out that contemporary needs and social goods, such as health, cannot be left to the mercy of markets and profit.

This decay cannot be concealed by the adjectives that some people use to describe capitalism, such as "neoliberal capitalism", "extreme capitalism" and so on, ultimately only to conceal that they fully support the capitalist system itself.

Because, now it can no longer be said that "it may be a wrong approach", a "simple political strategy mistake" that may perhaps be "corrected by individual improvements" or by "changing some managers of the bourgeois power by alternating from liberals to social democrats" and vice versa ...

It is the same old story.

But the people in this case are permanently intubated, trapped in conditions of a coronavirus pandemic...

...These outrageous situations, with doctors being forced to choose who will live and who will die, exist both in countries with "neoliberal" governments, such as Italy, but also in countries where fake "progressive alliances" govern, such as Spain.

Today capitalism itself is bankrupt, the market economy itself in all its versions is bankrupt, which nullifies every opportunity for the working class and the people to enjoy high-quality health services in line with the evolution of science and technology, precisely because its main criterion is capitalist profit.

Even in pandemic conditions, everything is subject to the profitability of capital. This is why workers in the industries of Northern Italy have been working despite the prohibitions*, without protective measures, with the known tragic results.

This is why the competition between transnational monopolies over who will patent the new vaccine is sharpening, at a time when there should be cooperation and joint efforts by the world's best scientists and research centers.

This is why even now the big employers trample over any remaining labor rights, try new forms of exploitation, such as teleworking, and proceed to mass layoffs.

Against the decay of bankrupt capitalism, we can clearly see the superiority of socialism that ensured health and healthcare for all...

...The figures in Soviet Russia 30 years ago, which cannot even be compared to the situation prevailing in our country and EU countries, are: over 1.1 million doctors, free healthcare for the entire population, 1,387 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants.

Even today, the mission of the Cuban doctors to Italy, the health infrastructure in countries such as Germany, existing thanks to the socialist system of half of Germany back then, the German Democratic Republic, and even the management of the pandemic in capitalist China, which reveals its socialist residues, show that socialism has left its powerful social imprint even three decades after its overthrow.

So in these unprecedented conditions, we stay strong, we struggle for protection measures of workers' lives and rights, we put forward the only perspective for the working class, the majority of our people, which is the new society, i.e. socialism.

The tangible superiority of socialism, social ownership, and central scientific planning is the great  legacy for the next day.

* Editor: The same is happening with man camps in British Colombia where pipelines continue to be built with a reckless disregard for the health and safety of workers, local communities and Indigenous people.

For the full statement see: https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-end-of-myths-and-illusionspTo-face-the-present-and-prepare-tomorrow/