The Guardian 25 January, 2006
The spectre of communism
still haunts (some) in Europe
Following in the footsteps of the infamous anti-communist war-horses, Joseph McCarthy of the United States, Robert Menzies who attempted to ban the Communist Party of Australia and the many more who nailed their soiled banner to the anti-communist flag pole, a new band of anti-communist warriors are pushing a resolution before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe* to "condemn the crimes of communism".
In a statement backing their resolution the authors say, "The crimes have been direct results of the class struggle theory and the principle of [the] dictatorship of the proletariat". They complain that "communist regimes are still active in some countries and the crimes committed in the name of communist ideology continue to take place".
The promoters of the resolution once again use the ploy that nazism and communism are the two sides of the same penny. Nazism has been condemned but not communism they claim.
They are annoyed that "a sort of nostalgia for communism is still alive in some countries and that creates the danger of communists taking over power in one country or another".
The draft resolution calls on the Committee of Ministers to set up a committee composed of "independent experts to collect and assess information about violations of human rights under different totalitarianism regimes in particular, nazism, communism and the Franco regime".
In the former socialist states of Europe, the authors of the resolution call for a similar witch hunt at a national level, the revision of school books, the removal of monuments, street names associated with communist "crimes", and the erection of memorials as a tribute to the "victims of the communist rules" — shorthand for anti-communists.
It also calls for a European-wide public awareness campaign "on the crimes committed by communist regimes", including "the revision of school books".
This is nothing but a McCarthyist-style witch hunt on a grand scale across Europe, the rewriting of history and an all out propaganda offensive against communist and working class ideology.
The explanatory memorandum accompanying the resolution says that "whereas the criminal and condemnable character of the Nazi ideology and regime has been uncontroversial, at least for half a century, and its leaders and many perpetrators were held accountable, the communist ideology and regimes have not encountered a comparable reaction. The crimes have rarely been subject to legal prosecution, and many of the perpetrators have never been brought to justice."
This latter point is no doubt an indication of one of the steps they have in mind following the witch hunt, possibly along similar lines to the persecution by German authorities of those who held public office in the former socialist German Democratic Republic. Their crimes? Fighting fascism and taking part in the building of a socialist state in the interests of working people.
"Communist parties are still active in some countries, and they have not even distanced themselves from the past when they supported and collaborated with the criminal communist regimes", the authors say.
The following response has been sent on behalf of the Communist Party of Australia by General Secretary Peter Symon to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. It can be contacted by fax: 0011+33 3 88 41 27 76 or by email COE
To the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe concerning the resolution "to condemn the crimes of communism".
"A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of Communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies."
These words opened the historic Communist Manifesto published in 1848, one hundred and fifty-eight years ago. They could have been written today to describe the attempt of ultra-conservative if not neo-fascist forces to cajole the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to "condemn the crimes of communism". The names are different but the political forces behind this latest crusade are the same as those of the 18th century.
The "holy alliance" of the European reactionaries proved to be futile and the Communist Manifesto ushered in one hundred revolutionary years in which communism became a world force, not only emblazoned on the flags of millions of people but inscribed in the minds of working people across the world as they fought and fight for their place in the sun — for peace, education, a home, a job, medical services, for their real liberation and the independence from colonialism for their countries. No-one can stop this march of history!
Now, more than ever before, the people know who is standing in the way of human progress — the conservatives, the neo-nazis, those still aspiring for world domination, those who have no hesitation in invading the lands of others, those mercilessly imposing the barbarity of their weapons of mass destruction to terrorise civilian populations to make the world safe for the corporations.
This is what motivates those who attempt to turn communism into a new "spectre" with unrestrained allegations of "crimes", the violation of "human rights" and disregard of the "rule of law". Events are ripped out of their historical context not to mention the facts which we are told are "documented" and at the same time "are only estimations" and based on "suspicions".
Another reason for condemnation is that states that have been led by communist parties pursued the "Nationalisation of the economy which stems directly from the ideology [and] puts restrictions on private property and individual economic activity. As a consequence, citizens are more vulnerable vis-ŕ-vis [the] state which is the monopolising employer and the sole source of income".
Here’s the real rub in the eyes of the promoters of the resolution before the Council of Europe. It’s all about preserving and promoting "private property" and "individual activity" — the core of capitalist society and the source of the savage exploitation of the labour of the hundreds of millions of working people throughout the world.
The authors of this resolution and the accompanying documents attempt to justify this latest campaign suggesting that one is "free" when working for a transnational corporation. It’s a sick joke for those millions without work, who live in poverty and have no hope of escaping from the shackles that bind them to their private enterprise masters as strongly as steel chains.
They tell us that the "crimes" of the communists "are direct results of the class struggle theory…" But the class struggle is not a "theory". It is the reality prosecuted relentlessly by all the moneyed ruling classes in the capitalist countries. Such is the measure of their tortured "reasoning" to justify the resolution. These pathetic assertions are trotted out to cover the real reasons for the condemnation of the communists.
We are told about the "suffering" of people’s living in societies led by communist parties. Are the authors talking about those millions who have been lifted out of poverty in the People’s Republic of China, those who now enjoy previously unheard of educational and medical services such as those in Cuba, those from the shanty towns living in poverty in Venezuela who are now, for the first time, receiving an education and have hope in the future, those who built a first-class industrialised nation known as the Soviet Union whose people are now deprived by a criminal class of entrepreneurs who stole the formerly publicly owned property of the people of that now unhappy country?
Was it not also the military might of the Soviet Union that "tore the guts out of the Nazi armies" and saved the whole of Europe from a life under the heel of fascism?
Perhaps this is a main reason why former fascists in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia and elsewhere now think they have an opportunity to take their revenge for their humiliation and historic defeat.
The authors attempt yet again to hoodwink politically ignorant readers by the assertion that nazism and communism are but two sides of the same coin. The reality that they are direct opposites and that it was the communists in a number of countries occupied by the nazi armies who became the foremost victims of the nazi concentration camps is glossed over and buried.
Perhaps the authors would have preferred that the communist parties bent the knee to the nazi marauders, that the Soviet Union capitulated as did most of the states of Europe or whose prostitute governments actually joined in the slaughter of the 26 million Soviet men, women, children, civilians and servicemen alike who laid down their lives in WW2 so that Europe could be free.
If the communists had capitulated there would not be any complaint now because your blood-brethren the nazi, would still be in power.
Those who would now condemn the alleged "crimes of communism" make no complaint about the millions killed in the course of colonial occupation by British, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, German, Italian and now American imperialism. There is a pretence that these countries are the saviours of "civilisation", that they uphold "the rule of law" and have a right to lecture the rest of the world on how they should order their societies and, if they do not comply, to enforce it.
In fact, these governments are more noted for their hypocrisy and lying (WMD in Iraq). They take unto themselves the right of pre-strike in violation of the United Nations Charter which they are pledged to uphold. So whose "rule of law" is to be upheld? Is it not the national and vested commercial interests of the big corporations?
The communists proclaimed in the Communist Manifesto that "In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all".
Just as the first communists made the old rulers of Europe tremble so today we see in the pitiful actions of the authors the same attempt to turn back the clock of history. To quote the evergreen Communist Manifesto again: "Let [today’s] ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win"
And win it they shall!
Peter Symon
General Secretary
Communist Party of Australia
*The Council of Europe is an Organisation embracing almost the whole of Europe (46 member states), far wider geographically than the European Union (EU). It should not be confused with the Council of the European Union or the European Council, which is part of the European Union. The Council of Europe is composed of representatives elected by the national parliaments of the member states from among their membership. Unlike the European Parliament, its powers extend only to the ability to investigate, recommend and advise. Even so, its recommendations on issues such as human rights have significant weight in the European political context.