The Communist and Workers’ Parties, which co-sign this Joint Statement, would like also in this way to honour a great revolutionary and theorist of scientific socialism, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, as  22 April marks the 155th anniversary of his birth.

The imperialist war that is shedding the blood of the peoples of Ukraine and Russia, has been going on for more than three years, while the trade and economic wars and the militarization of the capitalist economies are intensifying. These are signs that show the anti-social and parasitic nature of the capitalist system, in the face of the new crisis —the burdens of which are again being shifted on the shoulders of the workers—, the aggressive nature of capitalism and the escalation of imperialist competition, which pose new dangers to peace and the peoples. Especially in the present conditions, we feel even more the need to refer to the historical physiognomy of V.I. Lenin. A personality that dedicated his life to the cause of the working class and other popular strata, to the struggle for the abolition of exploitation and the construction of the socialist society.

We honour V.I. Lenin as the founder of the contemporary working-class party, the “party of a new type”, which was firmly separated from the opportunism and apostasy of the old social-democratic parties. Such was the Bolshevik Party, which was at the forefront of the class struggle of the proletariat and the other oppressed strata of Russia. Lenin’s party, depending on the circumstances, used all forms of struggle, did not succumb to bans and persecutions, did not lose its ideological–political independence, and thus led Russia’s working class to victory by overthrowing the exploiting classes and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, the workers’ and peasants’ government, in the service of the interests of the many, the exploited and the oppressed. The above is also very important today as we see a number of bourgeois regimes banning CPs, putting obstacles to their activities and even setting up fake CPs. Their anti-communist actions will fail! V.I. Lenin defined and substantiated the leading role of the Communist Party, not only in establishing workers’ power but also in constructing socialism.

We honour V.I. Lenin as the theorist who, taking into account the particular reality, further developed the constituent parts of Marxism, i.e. philosophy, political economy and scientific communism. As an opponent of any opportunistic and revisionist distortion of revolutionary theory and practice, dogmatism and parliamentary illusions, without denying the intervention through the parliament.

His works, such as “What the friends of the people are and how they fight the Social-Democrats”, “The Development of Capitalism in Russia”, “What Is to Be Done”, “Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution”, “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism”, “Marxism and Revisionism”, “The Collapse of the Second International”, “Socialism and War”, “On the Slogan for the United States of Europe”, “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”, “The State and Revolution”, “The April Theses”, “Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder”, “The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government”, and “The Great Initiative” are milestones in the propagation and development of Marxism and revolutionary struggle. Lenin's valuable theoretical work is still timely and serves as a beacon for the ideological-political education and action of every new generation of revolutionaries.

Of immense importance today is the Leninist approach and analysis of imperialism and its characteristics, as highlighted in Lenin’s work on capitalism in its highest and final stage, where monopolies dominate. The Leninist work, which is particularly useful at a time when the rivalry between the USA and China for supremacy in the international capitalist system is intensifying, contrasts with the identification of imperialism only with an aggressive foreign policy or only with a few powerful capitalist countries, a view that has been promoted over time by the forces of opportunism.

We honour V.I. Lenin as the leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution, which about a century ago shook the world. The victorious revolution illuminated the power of the class struggle, the power of the exploited and the oppressed -when they take the case of their interests into their own hands and turn the wheel of history forward- in the direction of social liberation. The October flame led and accelerated the establishment of a number of Communist and revolutionary Workers' parties.

We honour V.I. Lenin as the leader of the world's first socialist state, which for the first time established workers’ power based on new revolutionary institutions, such as the Soviets, sought the economic functioning of society on a new basis, the basis of the satisfaction of contemporary people’s needs and the multi-faceted free development of all people, not the profitability of the few. The USSR, the first socialist state in the world, which was realized with the special contribution of V.I. Lenin,brought to the fore new unprecedented economic, social, political, and cultural achievements for the working class and the wider popular strata that had a profound effect on historical progressive developments around the world by implementing the socialization of the means of production, central planning and workers’ control. It was the USSR, the Red Army and the people, the partisan movements led by the communists, that defeated fascism, which capitalism gave rise to. We will commemorate the 80^th anniversary of this Victory this year, rejecting the desire of the bourgeois powers that fought and are fighting against socialism, to usurp it. The USSR was a mainstay for the peoples in the struggle for socialism and peace, stressing that these are intertwined. No “multipolar world”, no new “world architecture” can guarantee peace and security for the peoples, despite the declarations of the bourgeois powers, which the opportunists reproduce. The solution lies in intensifying the class struggle for disengagement from the imperialist unions, such as NATO, the EU and others, against imperialist war and the “matrix” that gives birth to it, i.e. the capitalist system.

We honour V.I. Lenin as the great internationalist, the leader who raised the flag of proletarian internationalism against the treacherous attitude of the Second International during the imperialist World War I, opposed bourgeois nationalism and other bourgeois views such as the cosmopolitanism of the capital, and led the establishment of the Third Communist International, which made a major contribution to the international labor and communist movement and today is a basic source for drawing useful lessons from the experience it accumulated through its action. Lenin’s positions on colonialism led the Communists to understand the issue of colonies and inspired them to lead the anti-colonial struggles, both in colonial countries and colonies.

We honour V.I. Lenin as the tireless and consistent opponent of the imperialist war, the defender of peoples’ struggle for national and social liberation, social justice, peace, and socialism.

The counter-revolution and capitalist restoration cannot conceal the achievements of Socialism. The disasters and injustice we are experiencing, the acute problems and the suffering of the working class, the urban self-employed, the farmers and the peoples overall caused by capitalist exploitation and oppression, emphasize the necessity and timeliness of socialism all over the world.

The Communist and Workers’ Parties denounce the wave of silence as well as the reactionary and anti-communist distortion that has been unleashed around the world by the political forces that serve the interests of the capital against V.I. Lenin to the workers and the youth. In particular, we condemn the attempt of the bourgeois classes of Ukraine, Russia and other countries that emerged from the dissolution of the USSR to demonize Lenin. We struggle for the continuation of his work, we are committed to continue defending and propagating his legacy and we call on the workers and the people to learn from it.

Parties signing the Joint Stetement

1. Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS)
2. Argentinian Communist Party
3. Party of Labour of Austria
4. Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism (Finland)
5. Communist Revolutionary Party of France
6. Revolutionary Communist Party - Communists (France)
7. Communist Party of Greece
8. Workers Party of Ireland
9. Communist Front (Italy)
10. Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
11. Communist Party of Mexico
12. Communist Party of Pakistan
13. Palestinian Communist Party
14. Philippines Communist Party [PKP 1930]
15. Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
16. Communist Party of Sweden
17. Swiss Communist Party
18. Syrian Communist Party
19. Communist Party of Turkey
20. Union of Communists of Ukraine
21. Communist Workers' Platform USA
22. Communist Party of Venezuela

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