New Worker Banner

The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Left rallies at Moscow anti-fascist forum

by Theo Russell

Theo Russell represented the New Communist Party at the Second International Anti-Fascist Forum in Moscow last week. Some 164 delegates from 91 countries took part in the forum, organised by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), which was held from 21st to 25th April. The NCP was the only British organisation to send a delegate.

The CPRF had arranged a very busy schedule, with visits to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lenin Mausoleum next to the Kremlin, a performance of the Red Army Choir at the Army Central House of Officers of the Russian Army, the amazing and very moving Victory Museum, and the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, which has been greatly modernised.

The CPRF documentary film Fascism was screened, revealing the direct connections between the new resurrection of fascism and financial capital, with footage of today’s anti-capitalist and anti-fascist movements in the imperialist Western states.

There was also a cruise on the Moscow River with dinner, and finally a gala event for all the delegates, with singing and sword dancing from the Moscow Cossack Choir. All this was in addition to the one-day conference itself!

Dozens of members of the CPRF from Moscow, many of them volunteers, worked hard during the five days, organising and looking after delegates who were spread across three different hotels.

Welcoming delegates to the forum, CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov said: “Modern NATO, Nazis and Bandera have declared a war on the Russian world for complete annihilation. The most progressive forces of the planet are uniting again in order to defeat this universal evil…

“Today, representatives of 91 countries came to the anti-fascist international forum, the second in a row. There are 164 delegations: communist parties, labour, patriotic and people’s parties. They came to Moscow to stand shoulder to shoulder again and say decisively: ‘No to fascism! No to war! Long live peace, proletarian solidarity. Long live our victories over the blackest and most evil forces, which again threaten us, including nuclear war!’

“Thank you all for gathering together in Moscow on the birthday of VI Lenin. I would like to remind you that the Leninist-Stalinist modernisation has won three great victories. Without these victories, our Victory in May 1945 would not have been possible…

“…No matter what anyone tells you today the fact is that we made the Great October [revolution] opening a new era of humanity, when labour, not capital, determines the fate of this planet…we defeated fascism, rid the planet of Hitlerism and Nazism…we were the first to break through into space… now history has thrown a new challenge to all of us from the globalists, the Anglo-Saxons and NATO. I want to remind them that in our thousand-year history, we have not lost to anyone on the battlefields!”

Speakers at the conference itself included the leaders of the CPRF, the communist parties of Belarus and Ukraine, as well as the Chinese Ambassador and the head of the international department of the Communist Party of Cuba.

While the Communist Party of Greece and the French Communist Party were absent from the forum, several parties, such as the communist parties of Spain and Portugal, which had previously opposed the Russian intervention in Ukraine, have changed their positions and sent delegations.

During my stay I was surprised to hear from many ordinary members of the CPRF and comrades from Ukraine that they are aware of the work that the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS) is doing in Britain, and how much they appreciated our efforts. This shows how widely our campaign is known in Russia.

The focus of the forum was on the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, which is a massive event in Russia, with flags and emblems all over Moscow. There was huge press coverage of the event, including by several national TV stations. There were also greetings from President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, and the President of the Russian parliament, the State Duma.

More than 80 speakers addressed two plenary sessions and three discussion groups, and the appeal The Fight Against Fascism is a Common, Urgent Task of Progressive Forces of the Whole World was adopted.

The appeal declared that: “The NATO countries set the goal of demonising Russia, inflicting a military defeat on it, and dismembering it, following the example of the Soviet Union. To achieve this goal, an aggressive bridgehead was created in Ukraine.

“One of the forms of Nazism, Banderism, was cultivated. By February 2022, almost 50 satellite countries were involved in the anti-Russian policy of the NATO military led by the United States. The economic, political and military resources of world capitalism, including military mercenaries, were thrown into the attack against Russia.”

The appeal added that: “The question of Ukraine’s future must be decided based on the interests of the country’s workers and the goals of long-term peace in Europe. It is absolutely impossible to allow the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev to strengthen again and pump it with weapons.

“A decisive denazification of Ukraine is necessary to prevent the very possibility of further blood shed. The Bandera punitive forces and their Western patrons must be subjected to fair condemnation, and the fascist regime in Kiev must be liquidated.

“We insist on lifting the ban on the Communist Party of Ukraine, on the free use of the Russian language, on banning the glorification of Bandera supporters, and on re storing the demolished monuments to anti-fascist heroes.”