BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

05/11/2007

Communist world converges in Belarus to revive Marxism

Kay Benedict

Yechury and D Raja are representing India at the three-day meet of Leftists

NEW DELHI: For the first time after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, communist mandarins from across the globe, including India, huddled up in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday to craft a strategy - How to revive and bolster Marxism/socialism and contain imperialism and capitalism.

Undeterred by the collapse of the Soviet Union and other communist regimes in East Europe and elsewhere, the comrades feel that the time is ripe for a global "anti-imperialist/capitalist movement". The Belarus brainstorming session would be followed by a two-day celebration of the 90th anniversary of the October Revolution which brought the communists to power after the overthrow of the Czar in Moscow. CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury and CPI national secretary D Raja are participating in the three-day international meet.

Though Soviet Union and several communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed over a decade ago, the Marxists believe they can regroup as a "degenerating" capitalism would not sustain for long. The comrades dissected what went wrong with the Soviet Union and other communist regimes that collapsed and deliberated on "emerging trends" signalling the return of Marxism/socialism in many countries.

Both Yechury and Raja addressed the meet at Minsk. The celebrations of the October Revolution anniversary were organised by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Yechury exhorted the comrades to work for convergence of the global anti-war protests and worldwide anti-globalisation movements into a "mighty anti-imperialist people's movement".

"To those who argue that there is no alternative (TINA) to globalisation, our answer is the alternative to TINA is SITA (socialism is the alternative)," he said).Yechury dwelt at length on the faulty understanding of capitalism and socialism and why the USSR could not sustain the socialist order. He said the communist fraternity is coming together again and reformation, reorientation and regrouping is taking place. "Regrouping is happening. We are resisting the winds from the West.

"With imperialism bracing itself up for a new offensive, the contradiction between imperialism and the third world is bound to intensify rapidly and come to the forefront," Yechury said, adding, "The contradiction between imperialism and socialism occupies the central space, as the only alternative to imperialism and capitalism is socialism."

He said the world is now seeing "the strengthening of the process of regrouping of communist forces. Various regional groupings of communist, Left and progressive forces such as the Sao Paulo Forum which brings together the Left forces in the Americas are also being strengthened".

Source:

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1131733

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