www.icsbrussels.org , ics[at]icsbrussels.org

Nadine Rosa-Rosso, Workers' Party of Belgium (WPB)

The political and tactical tasks of the communists facing the issue of war

The Workers Party Belgium has dedicated its 7th congress during the year 2002 to redefine the political, ideological and organisational strategy of the party in the new international situation.

In this goal, the debates of the congress were centred on four main questions:

1°) the position of the communists towards globalisation

2°) the position of the communists towards European construction

3°) the concept of a communist party adapted to the realities of the 21st century

4°) the revision of the party statutes, unchanged since its founding congress in 1979.

Many of the congress delegates have considered that the debated theses and the orientations adopted by the 7th congress of the party constituted somehow an act of re-foundation.

Of course, the very essence of the revolutionary orientation of the party and of its Leninist-like organisation has not been changed.

But the international as well as national conditions, in which the party must maintain these orientations, are fundamentally different of those of the 70s, the years of the foundation of the party.

Besides, it is this inability to adapt itself to the new conditions, which had made necessary a congress of rectification of the party, the 5th congress of the party, which took place in 1995 and which produced the theses that you can find in « Party of the revolution ».

You can find all the theses as well as the revised statutes in these two booklets, which are also available at our stand.

I am first going to explain you how we have translated these theses in our practice.

The new Central Committee elected by our 7th congress has elected a new Political Bureau, larger than the previous one and for which the candidates have been selected on the basis of their specific abilities to put into practice the new orientations. The 6 axes elaborated in IMPACT (Internationalise, Modernise, Professionalise, Augment, Communicate and Together in the policy of front) are all represented inside the Political Bureau.

The Political Bureau has become an organ in charge of leading personally all the aspects of the party’s life, of its youth and front organisations.

It must take care that all congress orientations and all decisions of the Central Committee are realised according to a central plan.

This can seem obvious, and however, this has needed a thorough reorganisation of the leadership. The Political Bureau as well has been made younger by the arrival of several young executives, while preserving the experience of the founding party’s executives inside the same organ.

Second, the Central Committee, which has itself been broadened in its conception to the youth and to the labour world, in particular to the trade-unionists, has met on August 10, 2002, a few weeks after its election, in order to define a central resolution, which unifies all the party’s sectors.

This resolution, simply called « Resolution of August 10 of the Central Committee», fixes a common goal to all the party’s units, from top to bottom, and also to the youth organisation and to all front organisations led by the party, that is to say:

« To build a revolutionary front, at the scale of the European continent, against war and for the defence of socialism ».

The necessity and the urgency of a revolutionary front against war at the scale of the continent can seem obvious today.

But in August 2002, they didn’t seem so for many Party’s members, including and starting with members of the Central Committee and even of the Political Bureau.

First, during summer 2002, the international situation was different. Of course, the war against Afghanistan had already occurred. But for many, it still appeared only as a reaction, surely condemnable, to the attacks of September 11, but not as the start of the generalised and systematic offensive of US imperialism.

The awareness that the war would affect all aspects of the life of the workers was not very high either.

Some people in the party wanted to give priority to a campaign against the privatisations imposed by the European Union.

And, as often, the tendency to only see the preoccupations of its own sector of work opposed the development of a common central task for the whole party, such as formulated by the August 10 resolution of the Central Committee.

The resolution specified several points for the creation and the development of the front against war:

1. The front is first directed against American imperialism, and it is in the framework of this struggle that we continue our fight against the imperialist and anti-popular character of the European Union.

There were two main reasons for that: first, the orientation towards war is initiated by the USA; they are the only imperialist power able now to put this orientation into practice. The second reason proceeds from the first one: the anti-American feeling develops in the masses and the communists have to lead this anger politically and practically. This is the reason why we have called this front: « Stop USA » (United States of aggressions)

2. This is a revolutionary front, which must be led by the communists and the working class. In this point, we had a debate about the priority to give to the part of the working class, which is from foreign origin, and especially to the part of Arab origin. This led to the alliance with the AEL (Arab European League), a radical anti-imperialist and anti-racist organisation present in Belgium and in some other European countries. We have also asked Roberto D’Orazio, working class leader of Clabecq and well-known in our country, to be one of the initiators of the front against war.

3. The third characteristic of the front stipulated by us is that it must mainly been supported by the youth, which already proved its ability to mobilise itself against the globalisation and the European summits. Since it is a long-term front, it is essential that the new generation learns to make there its first experience and to train as future leaders of this front. To put that into practice, we have taken many initiatives with our youth organisation. First, it organised a congress of unification and adopted there its new forms of organisation, under the central slogan « Chenge the World ». Our youth organisation organised a trip of 100 voluntary workers to Vietnam, with delegations of other European countries, to learn both to defend socialism and to understand the murderous long-term consequences of the aggressions of US imperialism. Our youth has also formed « Che-Leyla » brigades to create a link between the anti-imperialist struggle led by Che Guevara and the struggle of the Palestinian people. Besides, a new trip of 100 youngsters is currently in preparation for the voluntary work in Palestine next summer.

The resolution of the Central Committee has been studied and discussed in all the units of the party, with the help of a PowerPoint presentation and the presence of executives of the party.

All this allowed us to build very quickly the front Stop USA and to be recognised, even by our enemies, as the uncontested leaders in Belgium of the front against US imperialism. Our doctors, our lawyers have also applied firmly this resolution. Three of our doctors have gone to Baghdad just before and during the war; our lawyers have sued the Belgian government about the transportation of weapons on the Belgian soil and a new trial is in preparation against the American general Tommy Franks. Even before we had filed our complaint, the White House had already reacted and all the American press harasses our lawyers with questions ! The work of our doctors as well as the one of our lawyers have opened huge opportunities to broaden the front, in our country as well as in the whole world.

I would like to end this intervention with a concrete appeal. In the establishment of Stop USA, we have benefited from the remarkable experience of the work done by ANSWER in the United States. We would like now that our experience could serve other communist parties and organisations on the continent. It is thus particularly urgent not only to exchange our experiences about this topic but also to conclude practical agreements to see how to develop this front in the future.

For the Political Bureau, it is Jo Cottenier, who has the responsibility of the construction of this front. I hope that, after having listened to me, many of you will like to contact him and to fix appointments with him to go forward in the practice.