Hopes_Guevara
6th February 2006, 10:45
CPV/VNA -
CONDEMNING PACE RESOLUTION ON "TOTALITARIAN COMMUNIST REGIMES"
A recent resolution by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on the "need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes" has been strongly denounced by Russian veteran groups, political parties and other organisations around the world.
PACE's resolution No.1481, adopted on January 25, was put forward by Swedish Parliamentary member Goran Lindblad.
However, his draft recommendation calling on European governments to adopt a similar declaration and measures against communist regimes did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority of the votes to be passed.
Before the resolution was put forth at PACE's winter meeting, it had been strongly condemned in many countries, which saw the resolution as an attempt by right-wing parties at PACE to distort humankind’s history.
A Committee of Russian Veterans on January 24 launched a statement denouncing PACE's plot to erase the fact that the Soviet Union's nationalities, under the leadership of the Communist Party, had decisively contributed to the victory over fascism.
"In all fronts during World War II, over three million Soviet Communist Party members died," said the statement.
"Besides, communist members from France, Italy and many other European countries had also struggled against fascism. We considered the provocation by a number of PACE's members as a challenge to the international community. Therefore, we call on the world not to allow its history to be distorted."
The Central Committee of the International Federation of Soviet Officials also sent a letter to PACE's President, strongly protesting against the plot of those who wished to equate communist societies that have real democracies and equality, with fascism, dictatorship and inhumanity.
"The main reason for those in PACE to raise a campaign against communism is that support for the spirit of communism is now gradually increasing in many countries in Europe as well as in other continents," the statement said.
Meanwhile, scholars who took part in the annual seminar entitled "Karl Marx's Works" at the Philosophy Institute under the Russian Science Academy launched another statement, saying that "those who had forgotten history needed to know that in many countries and in many eras, the communists had always fought fascism, and that they always stood at the front in the fight against fascism."
"Activities against the spirit of socialism and communism are meaningless as an action against natural law, and those who fight communism will not prevent objective historical trends," said the statement.
In Strasbourg on January 24, representatives from left-wing and communist parties in Europe organised marches and meetings to protest PACE’s meeting on the anti-communist resolution.
A day earlier, at the opening session of PACE, First Vice President of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation's Central Committee Ivan Melnikov said the initiators of the resolution flagrantly violated democratic principles during its drafting process. Melnikov said the drafting process hadn't allowed for the raising of objections to having the anti-communism issue put on PACE's agenda.
The German Communist Party has issued a press release saying that German communists were well aware of the consequences of anti-communism movements. During the nation's period of fascism, 150,000 communists were politically oppressed and 26,000 people were killed. The German Communist Party was forbidden to operate, from 1956 until its re-foundation in 1968, up to 10,000 communists and their supporters were either politically oppressed or jailed for years. In the 1980s alone, around 10,000 people, including communists, were banned to practise communist theory.
France’s Le Monde newspaper on January 23 quoted a Greek composer as saying that “On behalf of those communists who had died or were imprisoned in the jails of the German Secret State Police (Gestapo) for their fight for freedom and the annihilation of fascism, I have only a word to you: shame.” He said the PACE had tried to distort the truth by identifying victims of fascism with decapitators, heroes with criminals, and liberators with invaders.
Earlier, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on January 19 held a rally that attracted thousands in the capital of Athens to oppose the resolution. KKE President Aleka Papariga said the draft of the resolution was an imperialist project and a declaration of war against the working class.
France’s L’ Humanite newspaper, in its edition on January 25, quoted Senator Jean Pierre Masseret, Vice President of the French delegation to PACE, as saying that this was truly a bad resolution.
Also, the French newspaper Le Figaro on January 25 said that the leaders of members of communist parties in France, Greece and Portugal felt indignant at the issuance of the resolution, regarding it as an act that stifled freedom.
CONDEMNING PACE RESOLUTION ON "TOTALITARIAN COMMUNIST REGIMES"
A recent resolution by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on the "need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes" has been strongly denounced by Russian veteran groups, political parties and other organisations around the world.
PACE's resolution No.1481, adopted on January 25, was put forward by Swedish Parliamentary member Goran Lindblad.
However, his draft recommendation calling on European governments to adopt a similar declaration and measures against communist regimes did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority of the votes to be passed.
Before the resolution was put forth at PACE's winter meeting, it had been strongly condemned in many countries, which saw the resolution as an attempt by right-wing parties at PACE to distort humankind’s history.
A Committee of Russian Veterans on January 24 launched a statement denouncing PACE's plot to erase the fact that the Soviet Union's nationalities, under the leadership of the Communist Party, had decisively contributed to the victory over fascism.
"In all fronts during World War II, over three million Soviet Communist Party members died," said the statement.
"Besides, communist members from France, Italy and many other European countries had also struggled against fascism. We considered the provocation by a number of PACE's members as a challenge to the international community. Therefore, we call on the world not to allow its history to be distorted."
The Central Committee of the International Federation of Soviet Officials also sent a letter to PACE's President, strongly protesting against the plot of those who wished to equate communist societies that have real democracies and equality, with fascism, dictatorship and inhumanity.
"The main reason for those in PACE to raise a campaign against communism is that support for the spirit of communism is now gradually increasing in many countries in Europe as well as in other continents," the statement said.
Meanwhile, scholars who took part in the annual seminar entitled "Karl Marx's Works" at the Philosophy Institute under the Russian Science Academy launched another statement, saying that "those who had forgotten history needed to know that in many countries and in many eras, the communists had always fought fascism, and that they always stood at the front in the fight against fascism."
"Activities against the spirit of socialism and communism are meaningless as an action against natural law, and those who fight communism will not prevent objective historical trends," said the statement.
In Strasbourg on January 24, representatives from left-wing and communist parties in Europe organised marches and meetings to protest PACE’s meeting on the anti-communist resolution.
A day earlier, at the opening session of PACE, First Vice President of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation's Central Committee Ivan Melnikov said the initiators of the resolution flagrantly violated democratic principles during its drafting process. Melnikov said the drafting process hadn't allowed for the raising of objections to having the anti-communism issue put on PACE's agenda.
The German Communist Party has issued a press release saying that German communists were well aware of the consequences of anti-communism movements. During the nation's period of fascism, 150,000 communists were politically oppressed and 26,000 people were killed. The German Communist Party was forbidden to operate, from 1956 until its re-foundation in 1968, up to 10,000 communists and their supporters were either politically oppressed or jailed for years. In the 1980s alone, around 10,000 people, including communists, were banned to practise communist theory.
France’s Le Monde newspaper on January 23 quoted a Greek composer as saying that “On behalf of those communists who had died or were imprisoned in the jails of the German Secret State Police (Gestapo) for their fight for freedom and the annihilation of fascism, I have only a word to you: shame.” He said the PACE had tried to distort the truth by identifying victims of fascism with decapitators, heroes with criminals, and liberators with invaders.
Earlier, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on January 19 held a rally that attracted thousands in the capital of Athens to oppose the resolution. KKE President Aleka Papariga said the draft of the resolution was an imperialist project and a declaration of war against the working class.
France’s L’ Humanite newspaper, in its edition on January 25, quoted Senator Jean Pierre Masseret, Vice President of the French delegation to PACE, as saying that this was truly a bad resolution.
Also, the French newspaper Le Figaro on January 25 said that the leaders of members of communist parties in France, Greece and Portugal felt indignant at the issuance of the resolution, regarding it as an act that stifled freedom.