Joint Statement on the 108th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution

Joint Statement on the 108th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, November 24, 2005

The Communist and Workers’ Parties signing this Joint Statement wish, among other means, to honour the October Revolution, which illuminated the strength of the revolutionary class struggle — the power of the exploited and oppressed — when they surge to the forefront and turn the wheel of history forward, towards social emancipation. It was a Revolution inseparably linked with the great revolutionary and theorist of scientific socialism, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

We condemn the genocide of the Palestinian people and the long-standing occupation of the Palestinian territories by the state of Israel. We denounce the imperialist war in Ukraine, which has been raging for over three years, slaughtering the peoples of Ukraine and Russia.

We remain vigilant! The peoples stand against the aggressive nature of imperialism and the sharpening of imperialist competition. Trade and economic wars are intensifying, capitalist economies are being militarized, and the dangers of a generalized war are multiplying. A new capitalist economic crisis is lurking, the burdens of which will once again be placed upon the shoulders of the working people.

Under these conditions, the immense significance of the October Socialist Revolution becomes even clearer. It demonstrated that capitalism is not invincible and that it is possible to build a higher organization of the economy and society, free from the exploitation of man by man and the barbarity of imperialist wars.

The flame of October inspired and accelerated the founding of a series of Communist Parties — revolutionary workers’ Parties of a New Type — as the indispensable role of the revolutionary political vanguard, the Communist Party, was revealed in practice. Such was the Bolshevik Party, which stood at the forefront of the class struggle of the proletariat and the other oppressed popular strata of Russia, decisively breaking with opportunism and the betrayal of the old social-democratic parties.

Lenin’s Party, adapting to the conditions, utilized all forms of struggle; it did not yield to bans or persecution, nor did it forfeit its ideological and political independence. Thus, it led the working class of Russia to victory, to the overthrow of the exploiting classes and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the government of workers and peasants, serving the interests of the many: the exploited and the oppressed. The historical course that followed confirmed the leading role of the Communist Party not only in the socialist revolution but throughout the entire struggle for the formation, consolidation, and ultimate victory of the new, communist society.

The above remains of great significance today, as we witness a number of bourgeois regimes banning Communist Parties, obstructing their activities, or even creating fake “Communist” Parties. Their anti-communist actions will fail!

Today, as the war confrontation in Ukraine intensifies and the rivalry between the USA and China for supremacy in the international capitalist system deepens, we do not forget that the revolutionary situation which led to the October Revolution arose from the hardships imposed on the popular strata by the imperialist war, from the crisis that shook bourgeois power and no longer allowed “those above” to govern as before, and from the political and organizational work of the Bolsheviks among the working class and the soldiers, before and during the war, against the imperialist war and the system that gives rise to it.

The stance of the Bolsheviks stood in direct opposition to the forces of opportunism, which have always identified imperialism merely with an aggressive foreign policy or only with certain powerful capitalist states, thus choosing one or the other side in the imperialist slaughter. It was no coincidence that the first decree of Soviet power was the Decree on Peace, proclaiming the exit of Soviet Russia from the imperialist war.

The Great October Socialist Revolution led to the establishment of the world’s first socialist state, which, for the first time, placed power in the hands of the workers through new revolutionary institutions, such as the Soviets. It sought to reorganize the economic functioning of society on a new basis: to meet the contemporary needs and ensure the comprehensive, free development of all people, rather than serving the profits of the few.

The USSR, the first socialist state in the world, through the socialization of the means of production, central planning and workers’ control, brought to the forefront unprecedented economic, social, political and cultural achievements for the working class and the broader strata of working people, exerting a profound influence on progressive historical developments worldwide.

It was the USSR, the Red Army and the Soviet people, together with the partisan movements led by communists, that defeated fascism, which had been born of capitalism. This year, we commemorated the 80th anniversary of that Victory, rejecting the attempts of bourgeois forces — those that fought and continue to fight against socialism — to appropriate it for their own purposes.

The USSR was a mainstay for the peoples in their struggle for socialism and peace, demonstrating that these two are inseparable. No so-called ‘multipolar world’ or new ‘global architecture’ can guarantee peace and security for the peoples, no matter the proclamations of bourgeois forces echoed by opportunists. The solution lies in strengthening the class struggle to disengage from imperialist alliances such as NATO and the EU, to oppose imperialist war and challenge the system that gives rise to it: capitalism.

The counter-revolution and capitalist restoration cannot erase the achievements of socialism. The destruction and injustice we witness today, along with the acute problems and sufferings of the working class, the self-employed in the cities, the farmers, and the peoples underscore the necessity and timeliness of socialism today, throughout the world.

The Communist and Workers’ Parties denounce, before the working people, the youth and the peoples, the wave of silence as well as the reactionary and anti-communist distortion against the October Revolution, the USSR, and V.I. Lenin, unleashed around the world by the political forces serving the interests of capital. In particular, we condemn the attempts by the bourgeois classes of Ukraine, Russia, and other countries that emerged from the dissolution of the USSR to demonize the October Revolution and Lenin.

We struggle to continue the work begun in October 1917. We pledge to defend and disseminate its legacy, to learn from both its achievements and the shortcomings and deviations that arose over the course of history, and we call upon the working class and all the peoples to be inspired by the revolutionary impulse of October — to study and draw lessons from it.

Communist & Workers Parties of the SolidNet List signing the Joint Statement:

1. Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS)

2. Party of Labour of Austria

3. Communist Party of Denmark

4. Communist Party of Greece

5. Workers Party of Ireland

6. Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan

7. Communist Party of Mexico

8. New Communist Party of the Netherlands

9. Communist Party of Pakistan

10. Palestinian Communist Party

11. Paraguayan Communist Party

12. Communist Party of the Workers of Spain

13. Communist Party of Sweden

14. Swiss Communist Party

15. Syrian Communist Party

16. Communist Party of Turkey

17. Union of Communists of Ukraine

18. Communist Party of Venezuela

Other Parties signing the Joint Statement:

1. Argentinian Communist Party

2. Communist Workers' Party - for Peace and Socialism (Finland)

3. Communist Revolutionary Party of France

4. Revolutionary Party - Communists (France)

5. Communist Party (Germany)

6. Communist Front (Italy)

7. Organisation of Communists (Russia)

8. Communist Workers’ Platform USA