People's Democracy

The following is the text of the message sent by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of Turkey that took place on January 31 and February1, 2009 in Istanbul. Avtar Sadiq of CPI(M) attended the Congress as a fraternal delegate.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) conveys its warm fraternal greetings to all the delegates and fraternal delegates attending the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of Turkey.

The Ninth Congress of the TKP is taking place at a crucial juncture. On one hand, the world is facing most severe financial crisis, with many stating that it would be severe than the Great Depression of the 1930s. On the other hand, we had witnessed the most inhuman and brutal bombing of Gaza by the Israeli forces. These two events, more than anything else expose the barbarity of capitalism and imperialism - the present stage of the world in which we are living. More than anything else they demonstrate the necessity and need for socialism as the only alternative for the advancement of the humankind.

The financial crisis that had its roots in the United States of America and now engulfing the entire world has proved yet again that capitalism is not the panacea for the problems of the world. All those who had predicted the end of history with the collapse of Soviet Union, are forced to beat a humble retreat. This crisis is an inevitable consequence of the path of globalisation that was unfolding in recent decades. This process of globalisation has, once again, shown itself to be simply unsustainable. Consequently, globalisation�s ideological mask � neo-liberalism � has shown its thorough bankruptcy. Defending capitalism, in this present crisis, means greater State intervention. This may be a paradox for capitalism�s ideologues, but the fact remains that the State of the ruling classes has always defended and enlarged the avenues for super private profits. These bailouts, as the future will testify, are designed precisely to first save and then to create new avenues for profit generation. All the efforts that we are witnessing today - the bailout packages, fiscal policy measures etc., are efforts by the capitalist class to 'reform the system' and retain their hegemony at any cost and ensure that people do not turn to a Socialist alternative. Though there were statements made by France and Germany accusing US and Britain as responsible for the crisis, they are together in their efforts to save capitalism and prevent the advance of Left.

The objective conditions are opening up possibilities which we can utilise in strengthening the popular movements for ending a system based on exploitation of man by man. It is imperative to utilise the objective situation and intervene to advance the movement for social emancipation. The current capitalist crisis tellingly demonstrates the vacuity of the �eternality� of capitalism. No amount of reform of capitalism can make it an exploitation free system. The only way for humanity's liberation from this exploitation is the establishment of a Socialist system.

The election of Barack Obama as the new president of the US has generated lots of hope among the people of that country and throughout the world. These hopes are based on the 'change' from the policies of his predecessor that he had promised to bring. However, it would also be naive to assume that the hegemonistic drive of the US, its aggressive militarist ploys aimed at world domination and attacks on the sovereignty of third world countries would come to an end with the change of guard in the White House. Even today, US is refusing to condemn Israel and its failure to heed to the many resolutions passed by the UN on the statehood of Palestine. Across the world, people transcending the geographical, religious, racial and ethnic boundaries rose together to condemn the Israeli-Zionist aggression on Gaza and stood in solidarity with the Palestinians. It needs no special mention to state that communist and workers parties in their respective countries took the lead in these mobilisations.

The CPI(M) is watching with interest your struggles against fundamentalism, NATO, European Union and the neo-liberal policies. We also note with appreciation the steady growth of your party and above all its commitment towards socialism.

You might be aware that general elections are due to be held in few months in our country and our Party is preparing itself to face the challenges. We have decided to work for the defeat of the right-wing reactionary and fundamentalist BJP and the pro-imperialist Congress led alliance in these elections. The Party is in the midst of various struggles taking up the issues of the working class, peasants, unemployed, women and various other sections of the society who are reeling under the attacks of the neo-liberal policies pursued by the government at the behest of the imperialist forces. The definite role that we had played during the four years when we had supported the present day government from the outside had deterred the government from pursuing full fledged neo-liberal policies and complete deregulation of the financial sector. This had protected the country from facing the full brunt of the present crisis. We withdrew our support to the government as it was going ahead on signing the Indo-US nuclear deal and entering into a strategic alliance with the US, seriously compromising the sovereignty of our country. In this background, the coming elections to the parliament of our country are thus crucial.

Once again on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), we convey our warm fraternal greetings to the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of Turkey and hope that the discussions and decisions you would arrive at in this conference would rally all the progressive and democratic forces in the society and carry forward the struggle for the establishment of a socialist society. While such a struggle would be long and arduous, on behalf of the CPI (M), we assure you our solidarity and support.