Contribution of the Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL)

Uli Brockmeyer
Member of the Executive Committee of KPL

European Communist Meeting, Brussels

When we are speaking today about the capitalist crisis, then we have in mind not only the ongoing crisis of the financial and economic instruments of monopoly capitalism, but we have to recognize that we find ourselves amidst the deepest crisis of the capitalist system itself since the Second World War.

While the leading politicians in all our countries permanently repeat the fairy tale about the »light at the end of the tunnel«, they are trying to hide the truth – and this is that this crisis is developing much faster than everybody had expected.

The truth is that the contradictions between the biggest imperialist powers are becoming sharper practically day by day. This is more and more visible in the reactions to the developments in many of the Arab and North African countries as well as in Ivory Coast.
The Resolution No. 1973 of the UN Security Council, which allows a military intervention into internal affairs of Libya is a clear violation of the Charta of the UNO and a destruction of the founding principles of this organisation. At the same time this is a clear sign of a new era of Neo-Colonialism. The same goes for the Resolution No 1975 concerning the support of a non elected putschist against the acting President of the Republic of Ivory Coast.

In this context it is remarkable that countries like Russia and China did not use their veto right in the SC to prevent the use of military force in the interest of capitalist predominance over parts of the world.

The truth is that the economically powerful countries are using all their possibilities to expand their dominance over the financial and economic means – not only at the cost of the so called »Third World« but also at the cost of less powerful countries within their own system. They have forced countries like Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain to adopt austerity programmes which are nothing else than a strategy to destruct step by step all the social achievements the working class had been struggling for over many decades. More or less the same programmes are on the way in all countries of the EU. We are witnessing that the ruling political parties and practically all bourgeois parties are supporting this policy.

The result of this strategy in Luxembourg is a growing gap between rich and poor, a growing number of unemployed and people living in a situation of precarity. »Working poor« becomes a well known status for those who are still employed. More and more elder people are living with the danger of poverty in old age. Growing prices and taxes are resulting in a loss of living standard. Education and health care are becoming more expensive for the majority of the people.

All this is a result of the policy to load the costs of the crisis on the shoulders of the working people, of the youth, the unemployed and the pensioners – while the so called »upper ten thousand« continue to enlarge their profits.

In all these developments the organisations of capital – mainly the IMF, World Bank and the EU – are playing a decisive role. The recent programmes and concepts of the leading forces in the EU – like the so called »umbrella« and the »Pact for competitiveness« – are only aiming on increasing the predomination of the more powerful over the less powerful countries. The result will be a »Europe of two velocities« that is going to fill the bank accounts of the big bourgeoisie on the cost of the working people.

Capitalism today has reached its historical limits. The sources of capitalist profit are not unlimited any more. This is the reason why the capitalist system is in a deep crisis and is breaking the still existing limits for beginning new wars for oil, natural resources, territory and markets. Inside the capitalist countries the contradiction between capital und labour is becoming more and more sharper. The times of the so called »social partnership« are over.

Unfortunately there are still many political forces who believe in the possibility of »reforming« the existing system. Most of the trade unions – with the exception of those where communists have leading positions like in Greece or in Portugal – are co-operating with the governments, mainly because social democratic parties in several countries are part of the government or are dreaming about taking over governing functions. New parties claiming to be left wing oriented are refusing to act against the mainstream and are in practice playing that role, which social democratic parties have played 20 years ago.
At the same time we have to admit that in most of our countries the policy of so called »social partnership« has led to the result wanted by the ruling class. The social and political consciousness of the biggest part of the working class has been damaged.
As a result of the analysis of the situation in Luxembourg the KPL came to the conclusion that the consciousness of the working class in our country is on the lowest level since the end of the second World War.

The total number of the working class has been reduced in an unprecedented manner. While at the end of the 60ies there were still 30,000 People working in the Luxembourg steel industry, this number was reduced to 4,000 nowadays. The working class in our country has been split. Only one third of the working class is of Luxembourg nationality. About 150,000 workers are commuters, coming from the neighbouring countries France, Belgium and Germany. Many of the workers are of Portuguese origin, most of them with low education level and without any political consciousness.

The KPL has adopted several programmes for the struggle against the ongoing social destruction. Using the possibilities of our daily newspaper, with press statements, leaflets, posters and other means we are informing the people about the reasons for ongoing social destructions. Recently we began a campaign against the privatisation of the post service, which found positive reactions among post office workers and even on the side of the respective trade union.

Together with our comrades from Belgium we hold a press conference in Luxembourg to inform about the results that have to be expected from the privatisation process. Last weekend the Workers Party of Belgium, the German Communist Party, the New Communist Party of the Netherlands and the Communist Party of Luxembourg published a booklet in German, French and Dutch languages which was distributed as a supplement of our daily newspaper and will be furthermore distributed in 5,000 copies in Belgium, in Germany, in the Netherlands and in Luxembourg.

This booklet is one of the positive results of the Four-Party-Cooperation of the communist parties of our four countries. This cooperation began in 2006, and this weekend the KPL hosted the sixths For-Party-Conference in Luxembourg. During the last two days we have discussed about the present situation in our countries, exchanged information and experiences about our political activities, and discussed further common actions.
This kind of cooperation among communists has proved to be a very effective way of improving our activities on national and multilateral level.

Basing ourselves on this positive experience, the KPL once again underlines its conviction that it is urgently necessary to develop new ways of international and regional cooperation between all parties which are struggling on the common basis of Marxism-Leninism, against the exploitation of men by men, for the abolishment of capitalism and for the construction of a new socialist society. The communists of Luxembourg are ready to contribute with all possible means for the creation of a new level of international cooperation.