The following speech was delivered by our party chair Ella Rule at a symposium organised by the Communist Party of China at the Chinese embassy in London on 22 August 2023.
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I bring greetings to all present here today from the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist). It has been suggested that I focus my remarks on two issues: party building and Comrade Xi Jinping’s proposed Global Development Initiative.
With regard to party building, all we communists know how important this is. The party is the general staff of the working class. It is advanced in Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory; in putting this theory into practice; in mobilising the proletarian masses to recognise their true interests and fight for them. It organises the proletarian forces in such a way as to give them the best possible chance of a successful outcome first in overthrowing the rule of reactionary classes, in establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, and then in building socialism successfully in the face of virulent opposition of powerful class enemies at home and abroad.
It is instructive to note that Comrade Xi Jinping is calling for “strengthening the party for the new era and the party’s organisational line for the new era, and pushing forward the great new project of strengthening the party in the new era”, emphasising the need to uphold and strengthen the centralised, unified leadership of the CPC central committee. What is this new era that has arrived that makes it necessary to firm up the party to the maximum in order to ensure that the party is in every way fit to serve the masses?
In the words of the Financial Times, Xi Jinping at the National People’s Congress in March this year, “summed up his robust foreign policy to delegates with one vivid refrain: ‘dare to fight’.
“The declaration captured a new ethos for Beijing, spurred by the Chinese leader’s conclusion that the US-led world order is now in decline and ready to be replaced with a system that better suits China’s interests.”
We would add that such replacement will serve not only China’s interests but those of every non-imperialist country in the world, as well as the proletariat of every country, because the US-led world order is a predatory, aggressive, imperialist world order that exploits and cruelly oppresses the majority of the world and unleashes unending wars as it seeks to expand or defend its domination.
Needless to say, the ‘US-led world order’ will use all its very considerable economic, military and propaganda means to oppose China’s rise.
Such an enemy cannot be defeated by good intentions alone. It requires the highly informed, experienced and disciplined leadership that only a strong Communist party can provide. Its cadres must be of the highest standard, hard-working and honest, worthy of the trust of the masses of the people as they stand up to fight for what is right.
The party has to be purged of any corruption and cronyism that are unfortunately the inevitable concomitants of market relations, as otherwise how can the people trust it throughout the difficult struggles that lie ahead? Truly, Comrade Xi Jinping’s call for the strengthening of the party has come at just the right moment.
With regard to the Global Development Initiative, this involves both supporting developing countries to modernise, and at the same time making sure that the harm at present being done to the planet in the course of profit-seeking by global corporations is curtailed and sustainable methods of production that protect the environment and the future of humanity become universal and exclusive.
All these aims fly in the face of imperialist profit-seeking interests that promote the reactionary view that there is no link between capitalist industrialisation and global warming, and try to convince the masses of the world that it is all a conspiracy by the rich to rob people of the little they have.
It seems to me that only by lining up with China’s promotion of the Global Development Initiative can the planet be saved for human habitation.
