Second National Conference
of OKTOBER, Denmark
On the 19th – 20th September 1998 the party building communist organisation OKTOBER completed with success its 2nd National Conference.
The conference, among others, heard and approved the report of the National Leadership, delivered by national secretary Franz Krejbjerg. It adopted a number of resolutions, constituting the political program of action of the Danish working class, and analysed the situation in the Danish communist movement, the international relations of October, and elected the new National Leadership.
The report to the conference drew up the balance of the work of OKTOBER since its founding in august 1997, following a dramatic split of DKP/ML, the Communist Party of Denmark ("Marxist-Leninist").
It stated, that most of the tasks set by the Founding Conference of OKTOBER had been successfully completed. The mere existence of OKTOBER had preserved the marxist-leninist line of the Danish communist movement in the face of a co-ordinated attack by modern revisionism and former marxist-lennists, turning revisionist, as the present leadership of DKP/ML.
During its first year OKTOBER has managed to organise itself in a national scale, publish the central organ Kommunistisk Politik (’Communist Politics’) every 14 days as a quality magazine -and take part in a number of important class battles, adding militancy and class perspective. These include the great labour conflict in the spring of 98, where hundred of thousand Danish workers went on strike against labour contracts, negotiated by the LO, the treacherous socialdemocratic leadership of the Danish trade unions . And also the campaign to vote No at the referendum about the Amsterdam Treaty of the European Union.
The report pointed to the lack of a strong and genuine marxist-leninist, communist party and the existence of a number of small and fragmented revisionist parties and organisations as the main problem of the Danish communist and revolutionary movement. It also pointed to socialdemocratic control of the labour movement and trade union legalism on the part of the socialdemocratic and revisionist left wing of the trade union movement as other main problems confronting the Danish communists and revolutionaries.
Impending capitalist world crises: Make the rich pay!
Under the heading The beginning of the capitalist world crises and ’The New World order’ a resolution analysing the current world economic crises and the sharpening of all the main contradictions in the world the conference among others stated:
"The capitalist world market, during the last number of years developed under headings such as ’global market economy’ and ’globalisation’ is experiencing serious turbulence. The optimistic predictions that the world was heading towards a period of uninterrupted growth without crises, have already been denied…
The indications are that the acute capitalist world crises will also spread to other continents, regions and countries, that in so far have been relatively little affected, with destructive social consequences – including the main imperialist countries, that until now to a large extent have been able to throw the burdens of the crises on to weaker countries and their economies.
The impending capitalist economic world crises appears to become one of the most severe of this century …
Even though the present crises has its own specific features, it constitutes a classic capitalist crises of overproduction…
The counterrevolutionary processes in Europe and the rest of the world in the 80es and the beginning of the 90es led to the establishment of the so-called ’New World Order’ under the leadership of American imperialism and to the construction and relative consolidation of an all-including capitalist world market, directed by the monopolies and the multinational companies, sealed by a series of international agreements (such as GATT, WTO, IMF and the planned MAI-agreement) that have served the unhampered advance of the multinationals at the expense of the broad strata of the worlds population and indeed also at the expense of the weaker national states.
Therefore the present crises under development is also a proof, that capitalism as a world system has failed, and that the ’free market’ cannot provide economic and social progress for the broad masses, but is turning life into a living hell to the majority of the inhabitants of the world. It has also definitively shown that the complete capitalist restoration of the former Soviet Union and a number of other countries, prepared through decades, have turned into a major catastrophe.
The present crises … is going to reinforce the global tendencies of social polarisation: the rich getting richer, and the poor even poorer. …
The crisis of overproduction is entangled with the current crises of finance and currencies. The speculative character of the capitalist economy are also expressed through these crises, where billions of dollars are won or lost on the bourses, and where one currency after the other is struck by damaging speculative assaults. Great disturbances are noticeable in the world trade, among others concerning energy, food as well as raw materials. Inflationary tendencies are increasing.
The economic world crises under development is at the same time an integrated part of the general crises of capitalism: it proves that capitalism has reached its historic limits of a positive development, that state monopoly capitalism and imperialism is decaying and dying capitalism.
Its decay is mirrored in the permanent political, ideological, social, ecological and moral crises, that are experienced in all capitalist countries and in capitalism as a world system. …
As always the ruling capitalist bourgeoisie is going to make every effort to escape the burdens of the crises by loading it onto others: other nations, other peoples and to the working class and broad masses of their own countries.
Therefore the old slogans Make the rich pay the crises! and Workers of all countries, Unite! are again assuming new importance."
In the general political statement ’Oppose the offensive of capitalist Denmark against the working class and the majority of the people’ of the 2nd National Conference a programme of struggle of the Danish working class and its allies was laid down, calling for an enhancement of the fight against the offensive of the capitalists and its political lackeys such as the present soialdemocratic led government of Poul Nyrup and Co. Heavily relying on social demagogy such as ’unemployment has almost been eliminated" and ’reforming welfare society" this government is striving to eradicate the results of the struggles of the working class trough decades, implementing the antiworker, antipopular neoliberal policies of the European Union. At the same time the Nyrup-government is sacrificing the national interests to the interests of this United Europe of the monopolies, headed by reunited Germany. As a loyal junior partner of the big imperialist powers the socialdemocratic Danish government participates actively in any warmongering, adventurous action undertaken by imperialism, such as the planned NATO-intervention in Kosova.
The attacks against the unemployed and their rights constitute a main direction of this offensive, which has lead to the creation of a so-called yellow 3rd labour market of unemployed and welfare recipients, who are forced to work in both the private and public sector without any trade unions rights or labour agreements, constituting an underpaid section of the working class, forced to dump the price of labour power.
The struggle against these policies and the creation of the yellow 3rd labour market was at the focus of the resolution on the labour struggle ’Reinforce the line of class struggle in the worksites and in the trade union movement’, calling on the class conscious workers, the revolutionaries and communists to confront the treacherous socialdemocratic trade union leadership and its line of class collaboration and adaptation to the European Union, replacing it with the line of class struggle, and calling on the trade union opposition to unite, eliminating the harmful influence of trade union legalism.
Also a resolution concerning the continued struggle against the European Union as a new imperialist superpower – aiming at getting Denmark out of this union – was passed.
The Danish government has allowed our country to become a hotbed of nazism, granting the nazis full freedom of expression and action, in open violation of international agreements. From Danish territory nazi propaganda in all main languages are printed and distributed; the nazis are allowed to carry out marches in the streets, protected by the police; the "Danish" nazi party even receives money from the state to run a local radio station, quoting "Mein Kampf" and propagating the entire Nazi-doctrine. The resolution Forbid nazi! outlines the policies and tasks to successfully wipe out this growing danger, relying on the popular forces.
Towards the founding of a genuine communist party around the year 2000
At the center of attention of the 2nd National Conference was the question of the creation of a genuine marxist-leninist communist party.
The resolution The ’unity crises’ of the communist movement and the tasks of Oktober analyses the situation and different forces of the Danish communist, revolutionary and workers movement.
The party adhering to Soviet brand of modern revisionism DKP – The "Communist" Party of Denmark – was practically dissolved and split in the years following the failure of modern revisionism and the fall of the Soviet Union. Today DKP exist as a loose network, a faction, inside the parliamentary party "The Unity List – The Red and Green", that has united different forces of the old ’new left’, including left wing socialists, trotskyites of the 4th international, former maoists and others.
The "Unity List" was founded as a parliamentary alliance, but has now turned into a united party of different factions and tendencies:
"The transformation of the Unity List into a left socialist party, trying to liquidate the communist movement and trying to assume the role of the communist party in the struggle of the working class on a reformist basis, that will further halt the struggle for a socialist Denmark and the state of the working class, is another important factor in the development of the ’unity crises’ in the communist movement in Denmark. The failure to understand the true role and character of the Unity List and illusions to the extent, that this party might develop into a genuine communist party do exist among some people, considering themselves to be communists, and this is creating obstacles to the struggle to recreate a genuine communist party.
The party building communist organisation OKTOBER was founded in 1997 in a specific situation, following a split of DKP/ML, which embarked upon a revisionist line and course. As its main task OKTOBER has the creation of a genuine and strong communist party on the basis of Marxism-Leninism.
The struggle to create a genuine, strong communist party must proceed from the fact, that the self-proclaimed communist parties such as DKP, DKP/ML and KPiD (’Communist Party in Denmark’, a faction of the DKP, upholding the line of this party of the 60es and 70es) are not genuine communist parties, do not work on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, but are parties of modern revisionism. …
The struggle to build a genuine communist party on the basis of Marxism-Leninism preconditions a continual struggle against modern revisionism, that has suffered damages, but is not yet beaten, in all its forms and shapes, nationally and internationally.
It must be made clear, that at present the Unity List constitute a current, most dangerous to the communist movement: that of open liquidationism, and that the attitude towards the Unity List and this current is a major question to the entire communist movement, a question of principled importance"
The conference issued an Call to the entire communist movement, appealing to all the communists to throw themselves into the struggle to build a strong communist party for the next century, and not to be lured neither by the Unity List Party and its claims to represent the revolutionary and communist movement inside – and outside – parliament, nor by the so called communist parties, that either proclaim they constitute the communist Party needed or try to trick the communists by appealing for a unification of the revisionist parties and organisations, presenting this as the method to create a strong communist party.
Finally the conference adopted a resolution concerning the communist youth work and the struggle of the youth in the face of the capitalist crises. The conference decided to strengthen the preparations to create a communist youth league in the not-so-distant future. Members of OKTOBER continue to work also in the youth organisation Red Youth, considering it to be a progressive organisation of revolutionary minded youth.
OKTOBER and the international communist movement
The conference also passed a resolution on OKTOBER and the international communist movement, which reads in full:
"OKTOBER considers itself as a part of the international marxist-leninist communist movement, that was developed in the course of the struggle against modern revisionism, including Soviet modern revisionism and maoism.
OKTOBER continues its efforts to establish brotherly links to the marxist-leninist, communist parties and to establish friendly links with other proclaimed communist parties and organisations, that upholds a principled rejection of the revisionist general line, emanating from the 2oth Congress of the CPSU.
OKTOBER upholds its rejection of all attempts to create a ’communist international’, based on a smaller faction of parties and organisations. The international communist movement must be developed on the basis of equal relations between independent parties.
The task of today is still the creation of strong communist parties on the basis of marxism-leninism in all countries and to reestablish a strong international communist movement on this basis.
To the international communist movement modern revisionism of all shades still constitutes the main danger. Soviet revisionism in different shades, titoism, maoism and Chinese revisionism
Are still influential even though state-bearing revisionism in Europe has disappeared.
Modern revisionism is still the state bearing ideology of The Demokractic Republic of Korea, basing itself on the non-marxist Juché-philosophy, and in Cuba, that with its strategy for a ’front against neoliberalism’ has developed a new revisionist general line of the entire international communist movement, that has to be rejected with determination.
Today no genuine socialist country exists in the world.
OKTOBER supports countries such as DR-Korea and Cuba on anti-imperialist basis, because they constitute special targets of the aggression of imperialism – and also supports other regimes, that have come to power as a result of popular liberation struggles and upholds a progressive and anti-imperialist line."
The new national leadership was elected to head the work of OKTOBER on the basis of the decisions of the 2nd National Conference for the next year until the 3rd Conference. Franz Krejbjerg was re-elected National Secretary, Comrade Klaus Riis, former Chairman of DKP/ML, was elected to the daily leadership as editor of Kommunistisk Politik.
Long live proletarian internationalism!