Intervention in the round table discussion in Moscow

Yrjö Hakanen, Chairman of the Communist Party of Finland,
Round table discussion “The image of socialism we are struggling for”,
Moscow, 25 February 2013

Dear Comrades,
Current capitalism is characterized by the expansion of financial markets which speculate with money and stock market values. Eurocrisis is an example how the financial markets plunder and oppress the rest of society. It is also an example how governments aggravate the crisis by supporting the banks, instead of supporting the people who face hardships.

The intensifying attacks of big business, right-wing and imperialist forces stress the need to strengthen resistance, to develop alternatives and alliances, to strengthen our parties. That is why such international meetings as this one are important, and I thank the organizers for this initiative.

From a European perspective it is necessary to intensify the cooperation between communist and other left-wing forces of European Union member states and the left forces other European countries. In this regard there are many opportunities at the level of parties, parliaments, trade unions, youth organizations, as well as between the European Left Party and communist parties of Eastern Europe.

Dear comrades,
Capitalism is more and more unjust, destructive and dangerous. It is incapable to solve such burning problems as poverty, unemployment and accelerating climate change. Imperialist competition for natural resources and domination spreads war and death. Life with human dignity and the future of humankind requires a fundamentally different kind of economic development, and a system that is not based on exploitation and violence.

The development of a modern economy depends more and more on workers skills and co-operation, on saving energy and other natural resources, as well as on scientific and technological developments. This presents a challenge for us: we need to develop our understanding of what are the contemporary forms of organizing social ownership of the means of production. In my view, indications in this respect can be found in the writings of Marx and Lenin, where they described socialism as co-operatives of free producers.

In the light of the experience of the workers’ movement, the transition to socialism is a long process. In this revolutionary process forms of social ownership must have a decisive role so that the development can be directed in a democratic and systematic way. At the same time it is necessary to ensure a bottom-up growth of democracy, participatory democracy and workers’ self-management as a means of preventing that collective ownership creates ground to power of a bureaucratic elite and as means of preventing the mistakes, even crimes made in the history of socialism. We also need a radical reform of the international system, so that the international division of labour and co-operation can be directed in a fair and democratic way.

In a world facing the threat of environmental disaster socialism cannot mean the continuation along a path that emphasizes only quantitative economic growth, characterized by “production for the sake of production”. We need e new model of development, based on saving energy and natural resources, on a more fair distribution of income and on the use of the benefits of productivity to reduce working hours.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the right-wing was in a state of euphoria over the victory of capitalism. Today the atmosphere is different. Fewer and fewer people believe in the freedom of capitalist markets. More and more people ask whether the economy should work for humans and not vice versa.

The general strikes and demonstrations organized in many countries as well as the progress of radical left-wing forces in many elections show that there is no need to surrender to neo-liberal politics and to the power of big business. The results achieved by left-wing forces in Latin America are encouraging examples. – Socialism is the future!

Yrjö Hakanen, chairman of the CPF