[Marxism] Info about the European Left Party (ELP)

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

Fifteen parties from the Communist tradition from eleven different countries
held a congress in Rome, on May 8-9, 2004, to found the European Left Party
or ELP. The Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC, also known as
Rifondazione), which had organized the event, laid on a beautiful production
which was intended to symbolize hope and harmony. An attempt to incorporate
the parties of the radical left failed. Around 20 Communist and progressive
parties from outside the ELP or the European Union (EU) were invited as
guests to give an internationalist touch and emphasize the international
links of the new European political formation. Overall, however, the profile
of the ELP remains that of the Communist world and its multiple
differentiations.
http://www.3bh.org.uk/IV/Issues/2004/IV360/IV360%2032.htm

The ELP parties are:

- Austria. Kommunistische Partei Österreichs/Communist Party of Austria
(KPÖ) www.kpoenet.at/
- Czech Republic. Komunistická strana Cech a Moravy/Communist Party of
Bohemia & Moravia (KSCM) www.kscm.cz/index.asp?jazyk=2
and
Strana demokratického socialismu/Party of Democratic Socialism (SDS)
www.sds.cz
- Estonia. Estonian Social-Democratic Party (ESDLP) www.esdtp.ee/inglise.htm
- France. Parti communiste français/French Communist Party (PCF) www.pcf.fr
- Germany. Partei des demokratischen Sozialismus/Party of Democratic
Socialism (PDS)
www.sozialisten.de/partei/international/fremdsprachige_dokumente/index.htm
- Greece. SYNASPISMOS. Coalition of the Left of Movements and Ecology (SYM)
www.syn.gr/index/en/enmainframe.htm
- Italy. Partito della Rifondazione Comunista/Communist Refoundation Party
(PRC) www.rifondazione.it/pg/internazionale/english.html
- Luxembourg. déi Lénk-la Gauche/The Left. www.dei-lenk.lu
- Slovakia. Komunistická strana Slovenska/Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS)
www.kss.sk/anglicky2.php
- Spain. Izquierda Unida/United Left (IZ) www.izquierda-unida.es/

The eight remaining observer parties are:
- Catalonia/Spain: 2 leftwing parties.
- Cyprus: Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL)
www.akel.org.cy/English/akel.html
- Czechoslovakia: Czech Communist Party
- Netherlands. Socialistische Partij/Dutch Socialist Party (SP)
www.sp.nl/en/
- Norway. Sosialistisk Venstreparti/Norwegian Socialist Left Party (SV)
www.sv.no/hvem/english/
- Finland: Vasemmistoliitto/Left Alliance (V)
www.vasemmistoliitto.fi/en.html
- Greece: ????????????? ????? ???????/Greek Communist Party (KKE)
www.kke.gr/kke_en.html
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=63127&time_posted_upper_limit=
1074834000&time_posted_lower_limit=1074747600

Offended by the strong denunciation of Stalinism, the KSCM (Communist Party
of Bohemia-Moravia) left the meeting and provisionally (?) the ELP. The ELP
also has three "observer" parties: AKEL (Cyprus), PdCI (Party of Italian
Communists) and La Gauche (Dei Lénke, Luxemburg). One of the main criteria
that the EU (the European Parliament) imposes for official recognition and
subsidies is the presence of at least one member of parliament (European,
national, regional) in at least seven member countries of the EU.
http://www.3bh.org.uk/IV/Issues/2004/IV360/IV360%2032.htm

The new party's program stresses eight points:

- No weapons of mass destruction from the Atlantic to the Urals, no NATO, no
military alliance of the European Union.
- A redistribution of wealth from rich to poor, solidarity, and social
policies promoting jobs, job training, the environment, and the taxation of
capital speculation. People, not profits, must become central.
- No attacks on human rights in the name of fighting terrorism, but an open
Europe with human rights and asylum for refugees.
- No trade war at the expense of the less developed countries.
- Opposition to the concentration of the media in fewer and fewer hands;
education and culture for all.
- Ecological goals against carbon dioxide emission, export of garbage, the
exploitation of energy resources and forests. - A rollback of growing sexist
discrimination caused by globalization; for equal rights for women.
- A fight against the domination by capital and the rule of capitalism.

Why is it necessary to create a European Left Party and what is it going to
contribute to the intervention of the Left in European developments?

Today, one can no longer organise resistance to neo-liberal capitalistic
globalisation on the level of national states alone. In view of the degree
of integration achieved within the European Union, we have to set the task
in the short term of forming a political subject (we prefer the term subject
to party) of the European Left, which is capable of organising political and
social resistance on the same political level where the interests of
multi-national corporations and financial capital are to a great extent
carried through in this day and age. The future political subject of the
European Left has to exert influence on European developments, on the one
hand, through the formulation of general European left alternatives, and on
the other hand, through the spread of these left alternatives in the elected
European institutions. www.dei-lenk.lu/IMAGES/SUJET/ELP-English.pdf


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