The Communist Party of Ireland participated in the 23rd International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, hosted by the Communist Party of Türkiye, which took place in İzmir from 19 to 22 October.
121 representatives of 68 parties from 54 countries took part, while another seven parties, which could not attend for various reasons, sent greetings.
The theme of the meeting was “The political and ideological battles to confront capitalism and imperialism. The tasks of communists to inform and mobilise the working class, youth, women, and intellectuals in the struggle against exploitation, oppression, imperialist lies and historical revisionism; for the social and democratic rights of workers and peoples; against militarism and war, for peace and socialism.”
The meeting took place against the background of Israeli aggression in Gaza and the war in Ukraine. The meeting issued a Declaration on Palestine, which demanded that Israeli aggression cease, and called on the people of the world to continue to protest. It also denounced the support of the United States, Britain, NATO and the EU for the Israeli offensive.
The meeting also condemned the decades-long Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the killings, imprisonment, persecution, and settlements. It defended the right of the Palestinian people to a free homeland, to be masters of their own land, an end to the Israeli occupation, the creation and recognition of an independent Palestinian state, the cessation and dismantling of the illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories, the release of prisoners from Israeli jails, and the return of refugees in accordance with UN resolution 194.
There was no unanimity on the causes and the nature of the proxy war in Ukraine, but there was agreement among all parties that the struggle against NATO should be intensified, and its expansion to other countries was condemned.
The CPI in its presentation to the meeting stated:
“As we meet, the world is on fire. The Earth is experiencing temperatures higher than at any time since our species evolved. The seas are getting warmer, huge wildfires have swept the globe this year and will continue to do so. Is it any wonder that the Secretary-General of the UN has stated that “humanity has opened the gates to hell”?
Metaphorically, the world is also ablaze. The war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine shows no sign of ending, and, as more and more weapons are poured into the country, the risk of it becoming a wider conflict leading to a global nuclear war increases. And of course for the past two weeks we have seen the viciousness of the Israeli occupation of Palestine writ large . . . The UN Secretary-General is wrong: it is not humanity that has opened the gates to hell, it is capitalism in its most lethal form, imperialism . . .”
The CPI is a revolutionary party. Its aim is the complete emancipation of our people through the establishment of a socialist society. More than a hundred years ago the greatest leader produced by the Irish working class, James Connolly, pointed out that the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland and the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour. He recognised that imperialism was a development of capitalism, and that if an anti-colonial struggle was to be successful it would have to be anti-capitalist; and that in a subject nation there could be no advance to socialism as long as it remained under the control of Imperialism.
The CPI is still an anti-imperialist party. We recognise that if we are to achieve socialism in Ireland we will have to break free from imperialist domination. That means opposing British imperialism, which directly controls the occupied six counties in the North, and US imperialism, whose economic presence enables it to shape the economic and foreign policy of the Irish state.
We also oppose EU imperialism, which is a threat to the sovereignty of its member-states and increasingly to the whole world. Any movement that seeks to advance towards socialism in Ireland, north and south of the British-imposed border, that doesn’t also challenge the triple lock of US, British and EU imperialism is doomed to failure.
