Speech delivered at Lakemba 9th Feb 2015
Dear
Comrades
I am
delighted to bring greetings and congratulations from the Communist Party of
Australia to this celebration of the anniversary
of the re-establishment in 1982 of the Palestinian Communist Party, later
renamed the Palestinian Peoples Party
I do not
wish to speak of the history of the PPP
or the struggle for the liberation of Palestine tonight. Other speakers are
doing that.
I want
to ask an important question: Why are we all here? Why should we bother to
celebrate this anniversary?
I answer because communist parties
are essential, because communists have the historically unprecedented “great
mission” of changing the world.
In the
constant struggle for peace and social justice in our world, many organisations
and many social forces are involved. They all have something to contribute and
their unity creates a force which in the end is irresistible.
But there
is a greater vision: not just a better society but a society transformed, a
socialist world in which working people take power and build a truly civilised and
sustainable society.
English poet Alice Maynall wrote this about our vision of
socialism:
Socialism, comrade
Is like the red, red
rose
Day by day it opens
And day by day it grows
Its roots are ever
spreading
And its sweetness never
goes,
And soon I think its
petals
Will the whole wide
world enclose.
It is
only through the leadership of an active, organized, cohesive and disciplined
party that we are going to be able to implement the magnificent aim of a world
free of exploitation, injustice, oppression and war.
To win
peace, justice, democracy, bread and land there must be a party of the working
class, a Marxist-Leninist party, a communist party.
British poet CD
Lewis wrote this about the influence of communists:
Why do
we all, seeing a Marxist, feel small?
That
small catspaw ruffles our calm.
That
touch of storm brewing, shivers
The
torches even in this vault.
And
the shame unsettles a high esteem.
It is
the future walking to meet us all.
Mark
him. He is only what we are, mortal.
Yet
from the night of history, where
We lie
dreaming still, he is wide awake.
Weak, liable to
ill-luck — yet rock
Where
we are slight eddies.
Mark
him, workers and all who wish
The
world aright — he is what
Your
sons will be, the road these
Times
must take.
Communist
parties have proved in a number of countries that they are capable of
conducting the struggle to win political power from the capitalist ruling class
and end the rule of the exploiters.
But
this victory is only possible if communists are closely connected with the
people and always concern themselves with the daily as well as the long-term
needs of the workers and other exploited social groups in society.
Communist
parties seek to establish their political leadership by winning support for their
policies and by earning respect for their members by their commitment,
organisation and activities in the struggles of the working people.
This
in turn depends on our ability to work democratically side by side with others,
arguing our position while respecting the views of others and, at each stage, helping
to unify the politically progressive and socialist forces.
Vic Williams, an Australian worker, communist
and poet, wrote:
Hold to your course, my Party, weapon of
workers,
Give us your sight and your arms as we go to
battle.
Their towers upon towers are falling, we
build from
the rubble.
Can those who killed our millions be ever
repentant?
Take guns from the hands of the killers, the
spoils
from the robbers,
For the sacked, the evicted, the prisoned to
make
world of the future.
Hold to your course, my Party, our world
will prevail!
Communist parties are parties of
struggle and activism and they are the driving force for change, in alliance
with other social forces.
The great Bulgarian communist Georgi
Dimitrov said:
“We Communists are people of action. Ours is the
problem of practical struggle against the offensive of capital, against fascism
and the threat of imperialist war, the struggle for the overthrow of
capitalism. It is precisely this practical task that obliges Communist cadres
to equip themselves with revolutionary theory, for theory gives those engaged
in practical work the power of orientation, clarity of vision, assurance in
work, belief in the triumph of our cause.”
For all these reasons and more it is
right and important that we are here tonight to celebrate the existence and the
achievements of the Palestinian Peoples Party — for without a communist party
it will not be possible to liberate the Palestinian people.
And the
Palestinian people will be liberated.
The
world Communist movement continues to grow and gain in influence. Today 40% of
the world’s people live in countries where a Communist Party is in power or participates
in the government
We
salute the courageous past and express our confidence in the future work of the
Palestinian Peoples Party.
Let me
finish with the poem by the great Pablo Neruda about his party, about my Communist
Party of Australia, about the Palestinian Peoples Party:
You have joined the strength of all the
living.
You have given me the country again as in a
birth
You have given
me the freedom that the loner cannot
have.
You taught me to kindle kindness, like
fire.
You have given me the rectitude that the
tree
requires.
You taught me to see the unity and the
difference
among mankind.
You showed me how one being's pain has
perished in
the victory
of all.
You taught me to sleep in beds hard as my
brothers.
You made me build on reality as on a rock.
You made me adversary of the evil doer and
wall of
the frantic.
You have made me see the world's clarity
and the
possibility of
happiness.
You have made me indestructible because
with you
I do not end in
myself
