Anti-imperialist conference in Berlin

An exceptionally important Conference was held in Berlin at the weekend of 28-29 October 2000. It was jointly organised by two Marxist-Leninist magazines, the bi-monthly

Offen-siv

(published and edited by the Hanover Branch of the Communist Platform of the PDS – Party of Democratic Socialism – editor: Cde Frank Flegel) and the monthly

Rot Fuchs

(Red Fox, published and edited by the Berlin North/East Branch of the German Communist Party/DKP – editor: Cde. Dr. Klaus Steiniger). Both these magazines have a growing nationwide (and to some extent international) circulation.

Lalkar’s editor, Harpal Brar, was invited to this Conference to make a presentation on the continuing validity of Lenin’s thesis on imperialism. There was a wide range of presentations concerning the problems of the struggle against imperialism and the questions of working-class organisation, party building and Marxist-Leninist theory. Speakers from Germany, Britain, Greece, Belgium, Sweden, France, the Czech Republic, Italy, Congo, South Africa, Colombia, Iran and Palestine either made presentations or delivered messages. Space – not to speak of linguistic ability – does not allow us to report the contents of the whole of this very important conference in a meaningful way. However, to give the reader a flavour of the wide variety of important presentations made and topics discussed, we shall merely list the titles of some of the presentations, with the names of the presenters in brackets: Struggle against US imperialism and the so-called New World Order (Michael Opperskalski); Revolution and Counter-revolution – with special reference to Portugal (Klaus Steiniger); The Policy of Building an Anti-imperialist Front in Greece (Annecke Ioannatou, of the Communist Party of Greece, KKE); Party work among the working class and the youth in conditions of social-democratic hegemony (Teddy-John Frank, KPMLr, Sweden); The struggle of imperialism against the socialist camp and the development of this struggle today against countries such as Cuba, North Korea and China (Gerhard Niebling); Communist party work in the workers’ campaign on Clabecq (Jo Cottenier, PTB, Belgium); The situation of communists in Italy (Paolo Pioppi). Messages were delivered by, among others, Khwezi Kadali, formerly chief representative of the ANC (South Africa) in Bonn and currently the co-ordinator of the Marxist-Leninist Workers’ School in Soweto; a representative of FARC of Colombia; a Palestinian and an Iranian comrade.

Abo Wassis Leonie Hortense, the widow of Pierre Mulele (a close comrade-in-arms of Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese leader murdered by the US and Belgian imperialists wearing UN uniforms), and the commander of the first women’s brigade in the Congolese civil war against the butcher Mobutu regime, was to have been present but was unable to attend.

Significantly, there was a strong presence from the former GDR. Some of the delegates had been high officials in the GDR’s army and other institutions. One of these delegates had been a General in the GDR’s army, and one had been the editor of a newspaper with a very large circulation.

All in all, it was a very informative and inspiring Conference, which provided a very useful opportunity for delegates from a score of countries to come together and exchange views on important questions of building working-class organisations in the struggle for the overthrow of imperialism.

Lalkar

sends its heart-felt thanks to the organisers for arranging this Conference and for letting its editor make a presentation. Harpal Brar would specially like to thank the German comrades for arranging the translation and publication in German of his book on imperialism. His special thanks are due to the two comrades, Andrea Schön and Mathias Musch, who did the translation, as well as to Cde Rainer Gross and Cde Michael Opperskalski, without whose interest this project would not have been realised.

Anyone interested in getting further information or documents of this Conference should contact Cde Frank Flegel, editor

Offen-siv

, Berckhusenstrasse 13, 30625 Hannover, Germany. Telefax: +49 511 5294 782. Email:

offensiv@aol.com.

Internet: