Unity of the Party, unity of the struggles

Dear comrades,  We did succeed in having a congress of unity, with a shared political document and – as it seems – a common proposal upon the leadership. This is a very positive result. Now we need to decide how we could use such a document.  First of all, the European Left Party must work towards

Dear comrades, 

We did succeed in having a congress of unity, with a shared political document and – as it seems – a common proposal upon the leadership. This is a very positive result. Now we need to decide how we could use such a document. 

First of all, the European Left Party must work towards the unity of all the leftist alternative forces in Europe. There are only two visible political poles in Europe today: Τhe liberal center and the nationalist and racist right-wing. We must build and vitalise the pole of the alternative left. This is the precondition for changing Europe seeing that it is clear that the right grows among the popular strata precisely because of the social and existential insecurity produced by the neoliberal policies. It’s only the defeat of the liberal policies that can set the conditions for defeating also the barbaric demagogy of the racist right. This is why we need an alternative left that can put forward an effective political proposal, not only to challenge this or that political measure at the national level. Unity of the party and unity of the left is required to make visible an alternative proposal at the European level. 

Secondly, the European Left Party must make a decisive and qualitative leap in the construction of class unity at the European level and in the enhancement of the most advanced experiences that we are able to produce. In France we have a great movement of struggles that unite wage workers and other oppressed social strata. It is a momentous movement that unites the people against the liberal policies and the elites. We must most certainly take a position -as Congress- in support of this movement but this is not enough. When we return home next week, every national party must work to raise awareness of the French movement, enhance its objectives, organize spaces of debate and solidarity around this struggle and -if possible- work to expand the conflict directly in other countries.

The capitalists hit each country separately: France today, Italy tomorrow etc. In this way they keep the workers divided and any possible failure in one country is used to justify the attack in another country. The task of our party must be to try to synchronize these struggles, strengthen them and avoid sectarianism and isolation. For this fundamental task of the EL party, we need constantly to work on the unity of the struggles and use our political unity to build a class unit at the European level. In Spain our comrades are negotiating with the socialists on the governmental program. We need to make the distinctive points of this program known and appreciated, we need to allow people know all over Europe what positive steps could be done by this government. We must be able to say in each country what the alternative left is able to do when it governs and what is our social usefulness, our effectiveness in defeating liberal policies. 

The unity of the European Left Party must serve the unity of all the leftist alternative forces in Europe, and give life to a common European project of unification of the struggles and appreciation of all the positive things that we are able to do in every single country. We cannot remain just a sum of national parties, we must become a substantial political project at the European level. 

Paolo Ferrero, Communist Refoundation Party (Italy), Vice – President of the EL