Polish Constitutional Tribunal outlaws Communist Party

Image via Notes from Poland

By Michael Laxer

In a profoundly anti-democratic move, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has ruled that the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) violates the country’s constitution rendering it in theory illegal despite the questionable legitimacy of the TK itself..

Last month, Polish president Karol Nawrocki, filed the application with the TK. This came five years after a previous attempt to do this failed.

In a telling part of Nawrocki's application, he said that the party's communist ideology is opposed to "the traditions of European and Christian civilisation”, showing the president's theocratic bent. There was also no apparent sense of irony about the horrors that flowed from those "traditions".

As the online publication Notes from Poland says, however, "the TK itself is embroiled in a dispute over its own legality, with the current government refusing to recognise its rulings due to the presence of judges illegitimately appointed under the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration." This may, conceivably, lead to a reprieve for the party.

This campaign to outlaw the party drew protests by communist and workers' parties across Europe with rallies in several countries including Ireland and Greece.

A joint statement by a number of communist and workers' parties issued November 26 read in part:

This attempt to ban the CP of Poland is the culmination of previous efforts by the Polish bourgeoisie and governments, with the tolerance of the EU, whose official ideology is anti-communism. These efforts were met with an immediate international outcry and mobilization by Communist and Workers’ parties around the world, and were successfully prevented.

These efforts have now resurfaced, as the ideas, actions and interventions of communists stand in opposition to their aims of skyrocketing military armament and the slaughterhouses of war at the expense of the people, intensifying workplace exploitation, and enforcing brutal repression against workers and the youth.

In the face of anti-communist hysteria, the rewriting of history, and the provocative equation of the new world, communism, with fascism and its atrocities, alongside repugnant actions such as the recent so-called Anti-Communism Week under US President Trump, we, the Communist Parties of the ECA, declare that anti-communism will fail in Poland and everywhere else.

We intensify our efforts to promote communist ideas so that anti-communist propaganda does not take root, particularly among young people, who are their primary target. We are strengthening our interventions so that the people and the youth understand the real way out: socialism–communism.

Hands off the communists!

Michael Laxer is a leftist writer and activist based in Toronto. A former NDP candidate and Spokesperson for the Socialist Party of Ontario, he is the publisher and editor of The Left Chapter.

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