The 16th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) was held on the 13-15 of November 2014 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with as its theme: “The role of Communist and Workers’ Parties in the struggle against imperialism and capitalist exploitation – which causes crises and wars and gives rise to fascist and reactionary forces. For workers’ and peoples’ rights and for national and social emancipation; for socialism”.

48 parties from 44 countries participated. In addition, many parties that for various reasons were not able to attend sent written interventions and messages.

The participants honoured the 92^nd anniversary of the general strike in Guayaquil, 15 November 1922, which was met by the bloody state repression of the army and police and led to the slaughter of thousands of striking workers. This event became known as “The crosses above the water”.  During the work of the meeting, the representatives of the Communist and Workers’ parties denounced that today the murders, threats and intimidation against communists, trade unionists and cadres of the people’s movement are continuing in many countries all over the world.

They also saluted the struggles of the workers all over the world. They expressed their solidarity with the communist and workers’ parties that operate in conditions of illegality, face state repression, anticommunist persecution and restrictions, as well as their solidarity with the working class and people of Ecuador, with the struggles of the working class, agricultural workers, farmers, youth and other popular strata all over Latin America for their rights, for socialism.

The participants confirmed their internationalist solidarity with Socialist Cuba and its people and made a commitment to escalate their activity for the end of the USA’s criminal embargo, the abolition of the EU’s Common Position and the vindication of the 5 Cubans with the release of all the Cuban patriots and their safe return to their country.

They expressed their condemnation of the continuing imperialist threats and interventions against Venezuela and its people.

They denounced the military presence of the USA, NATO and the EU in the region and demanded the removal of all foreign bases-above all the illegal base of the USA in Guantanamo.

During the meeting, it was assessed that the exchange of information and experience from the struggle of the communist and workers’ parties is necessary and relevant, as well as the strengthening and improvement of the cooperation and joint and convergent activity, the reinforcement of proletarian internationalism, also utilizing the IMCWP process in this direction.

There was a fruitful discussion in the meeting in relation to the development of the capitalist crisis, the realignments in the international imperialist system and the sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions and the dangers of wider imperialist wars and interventions, the course of the class struggle and the tasks that flow from this for the communists.

Representatives of parties stressed the fact that the international situation continues to be characterized by the ongoing crisis of capitalism in many regions of the globe. The conclusions of previous international meetings have been confirmed in relation to the nature and development of the crisis, that it is a crisis of over-production and capital over-accumulation which expresses the sharpening of capitalism’s contradictions, particularly its basic contradiction between the social character of production and its private appropriation. This underlines the historically obsolete character of the capitalist system.

Realignments are being witnesses in the international imperialist system, with as the basic feature the retreat of the USA, EU, Japan and the advance of emerging capitalist powers.  The competition and contradictions are sharpening especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Africa and the regions of the South Pacific. The intensifying imperialist aggressiveness and the deepening inter-imperialist contradictions multiply the war flashpoints as well as the dangers of generalized conflicts at a regional and international level, as the events in Ukraine, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East etc. demonstrate.

The difficulties in the management of capitalism, particularly in the phase of the crisis, reinforce the aggressiveness of capital and its political representatives. Authoritarianism, state repression, anti-communism, bourgeois nationalism and chauvinism are strengthening. Democratic rights are being removed. The bourgeois political systems as a whole are becoming more reactionary, the maneuvers and attempts are strengthening in order to buttress the power of the monopolies. In this framework , to the extent that the revolutionary labour movement has not started its counterattack, fascist forces and tendencies are reemerging or strengthening and are being fully utilized by the imperialist powers.

Many parties warned that the torments of the workers are not going to come to an end during the phase – anaemic as it appears- of capitalist growth which will follow the recession. The discussion and the confrontations regarding the “recovery” in the two major imperialist centres (USA and EU) have nothing to do with the situation of the working class and the popular masses but are related to increasing the profitability of capital. Regardless of the form of bourgeois management, the goal remains to increase the rate of profit through the intensification of the level of exploitation and the greater concentration and centralization of capital.

The necessity of strengthening the communist and workers’ parties above all and chiefly in the workplaces, their independent intervention and the strengthening of the class-oriented labour movement was noted. The need for an even more decisive intervention in the working class and popular struggles for labour, social, democratic and sovereign rights, as well as for the increased organization of the working class, the promotion of its alliance with other popular strata, the special focus on the youth, women and immigrants.

The need to intensify the ideological struggle against the bourgeois ideology was also noted, as well as to decisively deal with fascism which is created by the exploitative capitalist system and for the organized labour-people’s movement to isolate the fascist and reactionary parties.

The discussion continued at the 16^th International Meeting about the different strategic approaches that exist among the communist and workers parties concerning the struggle for socialism, the criteria and the direction of the alliance policy, their stance towards the regional inter-state capitalist unions, the direction of the communists’ political proposal and the character and role of working class power.

Certain parties limit imperialism to the USA alone, and, as several CPs stressed, do not take into account the international imperialist system and its unions as a whole, as well as the multifaceted inter-imperialist contradictions and competition that provoke new interventions and wars in many regions of the world, bringing the danger of a more generalized imperialist war to the fore.

The same is true concerning the position about a “multipolar world” that is extolled by certain parties, and which, as was noted, does not take the class essence of the capitalist states into account and especially of the powerful capitalist states that intervene in the international scene with the criterion of advancing the interests of their own monopolies and can not of course express the people’s interests.

Certain parties also continue to maintain mistaken views regarding the real causes and the essence of the capitalist crisis, while the KKE and other parties spoke about the crisis of capital over-accumulation and over-production that expresses the sharpening of the basic contradiction of capitalism.

In addition, the KKE and a significant number of other parties demonstrated in their contributions that the talk about “neo-liberalism”, which is utilized in a mistaken way, limits its criticism to one of the two basic forms of management. The result of this is the exoneration of the social-democratic form of management, the anti-people class character of capitalism and the economic laws that permeate it.

There was a particular discussion about the developments in Latin America, the “progressive governments”, the inter-state unions that are being established. There were different positions on these issues regarding the class essence of the economic base, the role of the monopolies, the class character of the state and bourgeois power, the position that the capitalist states and their unions have in the international imperialist system etc. The notion of “progressivism” and the analysis that prettifies the character of the inter-state unions are vehicles for the promotion of the opportunist position that talks about the “humanization” of capitalism,  which ends up promoting the utopian approach of allegedly democratizing the bourgeois state. This is also holds true of the so-called “21^st Century Socialism”.

The KKE and other parties assessed that the view held by some parties regarding an “intermediate stage” between capitalism and socialism is mistaken, because in this way the solution for the problems of the working class and the other popular strata, the satisfaction of the people’s needs is sought in vain on the terrain of capitalism. As was underlined, this has a negative impact on the struggle for socialism, on the struggle for working class power in order to resolve the basic contradiction between capital and labour. The consistent struggle for socialism, without stages, not only is not an obstacle to the daily battles for certain gains and the relief of the workers, but on the contrary reinforces it and protects it from dangerous illusions and strategies that aim to assimilate the movement inside the boundaries of capitalist barbarity.

The KKE and other parties highlighted the need to confront social-democracy and strengthen the ideological-political front against opportunism. They stressed that only socialism, which is governed by laws and can not be confused with bourgeois electoral processes, is the real alternative response in favour of the workers who experience the painful consequences of capitalism and the crises and wars that are caused by it. Only socialism can provide a way out from the crisis and meet the expanding social needs of the people.

As was stressed, the positive experiences and achievements of socialist construction must be stressed as well as their significance for the peoples, while at the same time the CPs must draw lessons from the mistakes, deviations and distortions that were in contradiction with the basic principles and laws of socialist construction.

Of course, the different approaches on serious issues require further and thorough discussion. This did not impede the International Meeting this year, as it does every year, from finalizing axes for common and convergent actions and initiatives of the communist and workers parties for the following year for the support of the working class struggles for the labour, social, democratic rights of the workers, against anti-communism, against imperialist wars, in order to mark the 70^th anniversary of the anti-fascist victory, etc which are specifically described in the Text of the Common Actions.