Dear comrades and friends,

In the name of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Belgium, I welcome you. Allow me to salute in particular Mme Ton Nu Thi NINH, ambassadeur de la République Socialiste du Vietnam, Mr BAI Zonglin, conseiller à l’ambassade de la République Populaire de Chine, Mr Tongptachank SONNASINH, ambassadeur, et Mr Linthong PHETSAVAN, conseiller à l’ambassade de la République Démocratique Populaire du Laos, Mr Ri Sung Rok, responsable de l’Europe du Département International du Comité Central du Parti du Travail de Corée et Mr Paik Hyon Chan, membre du même Département International, Mr Carlos Guttiérez, 1er secrétaire à l’ambassade de la République de Cuba et Mr Abelardo Curbelo, responsable de l’Europe du Département International du Comité Central du Parti Communiste de Cuba, et Mme Maria Eugénia Feijó DOS SANTOS, ministre-conseiller à l’ambassade de l’Angola.

It is always a great pleasure and a great honor for me to be able to receive communist delegations from the entire world at our May First celebration. My satisfaction is even greater now that we will be having the tenth edition of the Brussels Communist International Seminar. Started as a reaction to the implosion of the socialist camp in Europe, this seminar has been built over the years as an important venue for the unity of communists the world over, who persist courageously on the road shown by Marx and Lenin.

In November 2000, I personally had the opportunity to be present at an important moment in the international relations of the Workers’ Party of Belgium. I had the privilege and the luck to lead the delegation that went to Vietnam and Laos in order to establish official relations with the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Laos Revolutionary People’s Party.

I also went as international delegate to the XVIIth Congress of the Communist Party of Portugal.

These personal experiences have strengthened my conviction that our party should exert yet more efforts to contribute to the unity of the communists the world over, and multiply the exchange of analyses and experiences in a world situation becoming ever more complex.

Our May First celebration of 2001 has as theme the struggle against imperialist globalization. Allow me to cite Fidel Castro, addressing the demonstrators against US imperialism in Quebec :

« We just saw on TV the images of the brutal way by which the Canadian authorities repress the peaceful demonstrations of those who are protesting in Quebec against the crime that they want to commit against the political and economic rights of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a scandal !

I wish to express, in the name of the Cuban people, our sympathy and admiration for the courageous and heroic attitude of those who are struggling for a just cause. We send them our greatest solidarity. Cuba supports them, embraces them and salutes them fraternally. »

Over the past ten years, we cannot but remark the important advance that the role of the socialist countries and the communist parties of the entire world has made in the anti-imperialist struggles, whether it be the anti-IMF demonstrations in Turkey, the arrest of the Philippine former president Estrada, the popular mobilizations in Ecuador, the mobilizations against NATO in Greece, the numerous strikes and rallies in Europe against the closure of factories and the anti-social measures taken by the Europe of the capitalists.

During the last year, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has known several successes : the historic meeting between Kim Jong Il and the South Korean President, the broad approval given by the population of the South to the proposal for the reunification of South and North Korea in an independent and sovereign confederation, the visit by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the DPRK and, since December 2000, the diplomatic recognition of the DPRK by the near totality (excepting France) of the 15 member-states of the European Union.

All these recent events are a source of optimism for communists, even as the world situation remains extremely complex and as numerous difficulties still await us.

As what concerns the Workers’ Party of Belgium, I always use this occasion to tell you in a few words about the results of our party work during the last year.

In May 2000, I spoke about the rectification that we had begun in order to improve our links with the masses of the workers in Belgium. You may already know that our efforts have been successful, as we have obtained five seats in the municipal elections of October 2000. In the course of this campaign, we have been able to accumulate precious experiences that we are currently generalizing in our entire party. By the way, starting from these assessments the youth of our party has also been able to score victories in the student council elections, in which their lists obtained 20 to 30% of the vote.

Our Central Committee has just started the procedure to call the Seventh Congress of the Party. This Congress will have the tasks to fix our political orientation regarding the imperialist globalization and the imperialist European construction, to sum up the rectification that started in 1995 with our Fifth Congress, to define our fighting objectives for the years 2002-2006 and to adapt our statutes, which date back to 1979, in order to make our party a truly workers’ party.

I am convinced that, like every year, your participation to our May First celebration and to the Brussels International Communist Seminar will allow you to reinforce your links with all delegations present, to get to know better the work and the standpoints of our party, and that you will return to your countries with even more revolutionary conviction than when you left your countries, just like we will continue our work here with even more enthusiasm and conviction.

I thank you for your sustained efforts to participate in our May First activities and I hope that you will have a most fruitful and pleasant stay.