AT EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF
RKERS*‘ PARTIE

Fratemal unity evident

By FILS DELISLE
Tribune Berlin Correspondent
BERLIN — Twenty-nine

Workers’ and Communist Parties
have met in their long-awaited
continental conference and issued
a call for peace, security, cooper-
ation and social progress in
Europe.

On behalf of their almost 30 mil-
lion members in East and West,
the Parties participating in the
conference unanimously adopted
a 50-page declaration on a number
of specific questions. Announcing
that the parties involved would
continue to concert their actions
on matters of common interest to
their peoples, the declaration
noted that peaceful co-existence
had made substantial headway in
Europe and the world, but
warned “‘that imperialism has not
changed its nature’’, though it
“‘has been weakened as a con-
sequence of the changes in the ba-
lance of forces”’ in the world.

It continued: ‘‘This finds its
expression in the fact that it is
neither capable-of reversing the
historic achievements’ of
socialism nor of halting the ad-
vance of the progressive forces
and of the movement for the lib-

_ eration and independence of the

peoples.”

The declaration pledged that
the parties, on the basis of ‘‘the
socio-economic and _ political
conditions and the specific na-
tional features prevailing in the
country concerned, are firmly re-
solved to continue waging a con-

sistent struggle in order to achieve
_ the objectives of peace, democ-

Tacy and social progress, which is
in line with the general interests of
the working class, the democratic
forces and the mass of the people
in all countries.”

Expressing approval of the
joint document at the conference,
Honecker said: ‘“‘There may be
different opinions about certain
issues of our day — what counts is
what we have in common. The
necessity of mutual international
solidarity is growing all the time
because of the continuing inter-
nationalization of the class strug-
gle. At the same time we are ex-
panding our numberous contacts
‘and our cooperation with socialist

and social democratic parties and —

with other democratic forces on
matters of joint interest.”’

Soviet Obligations

Speaking on abroad range of
questions, Leonid Brezhnev,
general secretary of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union,
said that his party would accept
and fulfill all obligations arising
from the conference declaration.
The Communist Parties emerge
from the working class of their
Own countries, Brezhnev said,
but “‘the working people in all
countries have the same interests
and aspirations.’’ Some people,
however, ask: ‘‘Is proletarian in-
ternationalism still valid as be-
fore? Is it not outdated? And still
others express the fear: Do not
the appeals for strengthening of
the international relations be-

tween Communists mean that -

some kind of organizational
center should be re-established?
These are strange fears. As is well
known, nobody is calling for the
creation of such a center. But as
far as proletarian internationalism
is concemed, that is to say, the
solidarity of the working class, of
Communists in all countries in the
fight for jointly-sought goals, their
solidarity with the struggle of the
peoples for national liberation and
social progress, the voluntary col-
laboration of brother. parties un-
der the strict observance of equal-
ity and independence, our opin-
is: This comradely solidarity
most definitely retains its signi-
ficance for us now too. It always
has been — and remains today —
a powerful and tested weapon of
the Communist Parties and the
workers’ movement.”

Internationalism in Action

The convening of the confer-
ence in itself exposed the some-
‘times petulant, - sometimes
poisonous, at all times hostile
propaganda of CIA agents mas-
querading as foreign correspon-
dents. It put the dunce’s cap on
those Western commentators
who had tried to present the
European and world communist
movement as_ supposedly
paralyzed by internal dissension
and it unmasked the ignorant
Kremlinologists who had been
prophesizing nothing but failure
for the attempt to organize sucha
European conference.

Even virulently anti-
communist Federal Republic of
Germany correspondents, who
had been loudest in their claims
no European communist confer-
ence was possible, found them-
selves forced to eat crow. The
moment the delegates took their
seats in the ballroom of the Hotel
Stadt Berlin here, West German
television admitted, they had al-
ready. achieved a tremendous
success.

This success was apparent to
friends and enemies alike. For the
conference not only showed
Europe’s Workers’ and Com-
munist Parties could put their in-
ternationalism into practice. It
showed that such consultations
brought a sharper definition to the
major issues confronting all the
parties. And it was obviously the
forerunner for a world-wide con-
ference of Communist Parties,
since it revealed in theoretical and
practical terms how the Com-
munist Parties can develop and
advance their international unity
in the new and more complicated
conditions: of the contemporary
world.

Fraternal Unity —

In a number of ways the con-
ference was seen as the estab-
lishment of fraternal unity in the
communist movement in Europe
on a new level. Thus the Yugos-
lav Communists were officially
present under the leadership of
President Josef Broz -Tito. That
represents a rapprochement be-
tween the Yugoslav and other
‘Communist. Parties which has
been long in the making. The
ideas represented by the confer-
ence also induced the. Dutch
Communist Party to participate
after a number of years of seclu-
sion from the international com-
munist movement.

Erich Honecker, general sec-
retary of the Socialist Unity Par-
ty, which was host to the confer-
ence, told the 29 delegations: “‘I
should like to affirm, in the spirit
of the great ideas of Marx, Engels
and Lenin, that the Socialist Un-

ity Party of Germany will con- .

tinue to make its internationalist
contribution to the attainment of
our noble aims.”’

: Communist Parties a growing |
a influential cei

Commenting on the meeting of
European,Communist and Work-
ers’ Parties held in Berlin, capital
of the German Democratic Re-
public, June 29-30, Soviet corres-
pondents Victor Glumakov and
Vadim Nekrasov stated:

The Berlin meeting has shown
most clearly that there do not
exist those ‘‘domestic partitions”’
by which some people would like
to disunite the Communist and
Workers’ Parties. The Berlin

speeches by Communist leaders
in ES have confirmed that
each party has been produced by
the working-class movement of
the country in which it opérates,
and it is responsible for its actions
in the first place to the working

people of its own country whose
interests it expresses and up-
holds. This is what creates the
basis for the international solidar-
ity of the Communists.

According to . Leonid
Brezhnev, the more influential a
Communist Party is in its own
country, the weightier may be its
contribution to the struggle for the
common aims of the Communists
in the international arena.

Nine years ago the European
Communists drew up their prog-
ram of struggle for peace and :sec-
urity on the continent. In Berlin
they stated with satisfaction that
this program has in the main been
carried out. This is now said not
only by Communists: The his-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 16, 1976—Page 4

toric changes in Europe’s bliicat
life, the turn from the cold war to

the relaxation of tension, the Fi-

nal Act signed by heads of states"
in Helsinki — all this is the best

evidence that the goals of the in-

ternational Communist move-

ment meet the basic interests of
the nations.

On the eve of the conference in
Berlin, there were parliamentary
elections in Italy and presidential
elections in Portugal. Both de--
monstrated that in today’s
Europe it is impossible to define
the political direction of de-
velopments. without taking into

-account the Coramonists? posi-

tions.
Today, more than ever before

CPSU general secretary Leonid Brezhnev (right) and Bofl
Ponomarov, secretary of the CPSU central Committee at the open
session of the European conference.

PLO opens Moscow
mission, lauds aid

MOSCOW — The Palestine

Liberation Organization has

opened a mission here, headed by
Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shayer,
who arrived on June 22. |

On behalf of the Palestine Lib-
eration Organization and its lead-

ership Mohammed al-Shayer ex-.

pressed gratitude to the Soviet
people for their assistance to the
Palestine resistance movement
and all the national-patriotic and
progressive Arab forces in their
anti-imperialist struggle.

* The mission begins its work ata
time when the Palestine resis-

tance movement is waging stub- :
born struggle against the macht|
nations of imperialism and reac}
tion in the Middle East, and fot)
the satisfaction of the natio
rights of the Arab people of Pales
tine.
Opening of the missio
Mohammed al-Shayer said, is re}
garded by the Arab people
Palestine and all thé progressive
Arab public as a manifestation 0!
principled support given by the
Communist Party of the Sovie
Union and the Soviet State to the|
national liberation struggle of the q
Palestinian people. 7

[— At -- a — re on)

One-party rule or left |

cooperation

LISBON — For the first time in
the past half-century Portugal has
elected its president by a free and
democratic vote. General

‘Ramalho Eanes, the candidate to
win the election, did so with 61%

of the vote.

The main question for Portugal
now is whether the government
will be a one-party, Socialist rule,
or a government with the partici-
pation of other parties with seats

_in the national assembly.

Mario Soares, leader of the

Socialist Party, and likely to Soon

be appointed Premier by Presi-
dent Eanes, has made it well
Known that he wants the one-
party road. But this would mean a

in Europe

the Communist Parties have be-
come an influential factor in the
life of every European country.
They express the interests of the
working majority, and each time
they give priority to the main de-

mands of the masses of the
people.

The Berlin meeting has re-
flected a Europe where the strug-
gle for peace and social progress
is inseparable from the struggle
for peace and social progress in
other parts of the planet. And this

. is natural, because socialism has

become, to quote Leonid
Brezhnev, an objective condition
and an urgent necessity of man-
kind’s further progress.

-ernment of Portugal will be 4)

_ Democratic Party, which has

power take-over attempt in thé
complicated Portuguese politic

-munist Party presidential candi

aw

for Portugal? |

minority government with only}
35% of the popular support. |

Soviet correspondent Yuliat |.
Semyonoy, in Lisbon during thé}
presidential campaign, ° spoke}
with Socialist Party leader)
Rodolfo Crespo. ‘‘The new gov}

one-party, Socialist government |
The Socialist Party has enoug!|
strength and prestige to assume}
responsibility to the people,” E
‘Crespo said. > ;

He said the idea of having 4
united left government was im
possible at the present time, H@) —
rejected the idea of participatiot
by the right-wing Centre
Democratic Party and the Populal

a

over 70 seats in the Assembly

“You see, support for a go
ernment means support for its
program. Naturally the progra™
of a political party with which w'
took part in the elections to thé
assembly has undergone certa’
changes in the course of the Jate:
events. In some aspects of the a
tivity of our government we eX" |
pect to have the support of the}
Communist Party, while
others, of the Popular Democrati¢
‘Party’’, Crespo said.

But some form of left unity will
be needed to prevent a right-wing

situation.
As Octavio Pato, the Co

date reiterated after the election: |
‘‘We believe it is high time for thé |
Communists, Socialists, the}
military and the Armed Forces
Movement to sit down at oné
table and jointly work out the pe
gram for the future.’’ 3