Joint Appeal: Stop the judicial and political witch-hunt against Hungarian communists!

We, the undersigned parties note with deep concern that a state court is threatening to imprison the entire leadership of the Hungarian Communist Workers' Party (HCWP) for having committed "libel in a public place".

Our conviction is that putting political leaders on trial and banning their parties is the work of dictatorships, not democracies. The action of the Hungarian authorities violates all democratic norms.

We strongly condemn the political persecution directed by the judicial authorities against the HCWP, as a part of the anticommunist witch-hunt against communists in Europe and against all those who fight against mass privatisation of hospitals, schools, cutting down of social expenditures and other forms of neoliberal policy.

We consider this clear manoeuvre of the Hungarian authorities as a vengeful assault against the Hungarian Communists, and call on for international solidarity in defence of the legal and political rights of the HWCP.

We demand immediate stop of the judicial process against the leaders of the Hungarian communists.

We call upon Prime Minister Gyurcsany and the government of Hungary to step back from the abyss and keep its promises of political freedom, by cancelling all charges against the leadership of the HCWP.

The Parties

The Parties

Communist Party of Albania

Communist Party of Argentina

Progressive Tribune Bahrein

Communist Party of Bangladesh

Communist Party of Belarus

Communist Party of Brazil [PCdoB]

Workers’ Party of Belgium

Communist Party of Bolivia

Workers Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Communist Party of Britain

New Communist Party of Britain

Communist Party of Canada

Socialist Workers´ Party of Croatia

Communist Party of Cuba

Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Czech Republic

AKEL, Cyprus

Communist Party in Denmark, KPiD

Communist Party of Finland

French Communist Party

German Communist Party

Communist Party of Greece

Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party

Communist Party of India

Communist Party of India [Marxist]

Tudeh Party, Iran

Iraqi Communist Party

Communist Party of Ireland

Communist Party of Israel

Party of the Italian Communists, PdCI

Jordanian Communist Party

Socialist Party of Latvia

Socialist Party of Lithuania

Lebanese Communist Party

Communist Party of Luxembourg

Party of the Congress for the Independence of Madagascar (AKFM)

Party of the Communists, Mexico

New Communist Party of the Netherlands

Communist Party of Norway

Party of the People, Panama

Peruan Communist Party

Communist Party of Poland

Portuguese Communist Party

PKP-1930, the Philippine Communist Party

Socialist Alliance Party, Romania

Communist Party of the Russian Federation

New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Serbia

Communist Party of Slovakia

Party of the Communists of Cataluna, Spain

Communist Party of Peoples of Spain

Communist Party of Sri Lanka

Sudanese Communist Party

South African Communist Party

Communist Party of Sweden

Syrian Communist Party

Syrian Communist Party

Communist Party of Turkey

Party of Labour, Turkey [EMEP]