The following speech was delivered by Comrade Ranjeet Brar to our party’s meeting on ‘Covid and Internationalism’ on 9 October. The meeting was part of the celebration of our ninth party congress.
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Recalling the words of Karl Marx, that “philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point, however, is to change it”, Comrade Ranjeet recounts significant moments in the liberation struggles of each of the speakers on the platform.
He outlines episodes from the story of the Chinese people’s great march for liberation and socialism, from the Cubans’ struggle to build socialism in the face of the crushing US blockade, from the Venezuelans’ struggle to maintain their independence and freedom in the face of US sabotage and aggression, from the Nicaraguans’ struggle to maintain their revolution in the face of the US backed ‘narco’ war.
The common theme of all these struggles, alongside that of the liberation of the masses from local and imperialist exploiters, was and remains internationalism.
Meanwhile, the Covid pandemic has held up a mirror to the capitalist world, revealing the true character of this inhuman system, with its endemic inequalities and its relentless drive for profit at all costs. In Britain, between 150,000 and 170,000 people have died from the virus, and this toll has disproportionately fallen on the poorest and most marginalised in our society.
By contrast, the conduct of the socialist countries, where the government and the economy serve the people, have demonstrated that a different way is both possible and achievable. In every case, their death tolls have been far, far lower, and every effort has been made to secure people’s lives and livelihoods. The whole of society has been mobilised to respond to the health crisis and resources have been directed to where they were most needed, not to restore the bank balances of monopoly corporations.
Not only that, but their efforts have been directed towards helping others as well as themselves. Not for them the hoarding of medicines and resources, but the truly human act of sharing with the most needy around the world whatever they have.
This demonstrates in practice what we know in theory: that the struggle for socialism is a struggle that unites the toiling masses of all humanity. Our shared future is nothing if it is not socialist.
While we fight in our separate territories for liberation from our national ruling classes, the workers themselves have no interest in perpetuating national divisions and everything to gain from linking their struggles against monopoly capital.
