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Communist and Workers’ Parties in the world: international relations, role and position in current political and social life (Part 1)

12/2/18
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, amid difficulties and challenges in international situation, communist and workers’ parties in the world have continued their efforts to consolidate their organizations and forces, expanding international cooperation and enhancing their role and influence in socio-political life.
On international cooperation
On bilateral level, communist and workers’ parties in the world have established and maintained relatively close bilateral relations with other parties in the movement. Besides, communist and workers’ parties in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, and many other parties also have extensive relations with communist and workers’ parties in the world, such as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has had relations with 150 parties; the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia in the Czech Republic with more than 100 parties. For small parties in difficult conditions, establishing and maintaining relations with other parties are challenging; Most of these parties have maintained ties with only a few parties. 
The main forms of relations between the parties are exchange of delegations, information, and documents, sharing experiences, attending conferences, and forums. Recently, some parties are interested in exchange of theory. Mechanism for periodic exchange of theory among parties, such as the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party; the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the Communist Party of Cuba, the Communist Party of Japan, the Communist Party of France. 
On the multilateral level, along with the gradual restoration of relations among communist and workers’ parties, in the late 1990s, many multilateral mechanisms and forums of communist and workers’ parties were established in various forms, including regular mechanisms and conferences and seminars. Many annual forums have become world-wide events, bringing together a large number of communist and workers’ parties from all over the world. 
Formed in 1998 by the Communist Party of Greece, the International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) has so far attracted the participation of 118 communist and workers’ parties from 85 countries, becoming the most important multilateral forum for communist and workers’ parties to exchange information, share experiences and strengthen cooperation and collaboration for the common cause of struggle. The number of communist and workers’ parties attending the meetings has risen compared to the early period and remained relatively stable, and increasingly representative. IMCWP has established the fast information network SOLIDNET (www.solidnet.org) as a forum for information exchange between parties and published the Information Bulletin three times a year in the past and is currently carrying documents after annual meetings. Building on a forum initiated and hosted annually by the Communist Party of Greece, since 2006, the IMCWP has been rotatingly hosted by its member parties, taking into account continent element. To date, 19 IMWCP has been held in all continents. Parties’ close coordination in preparation for the meeting has increased. In 2004, the IMCWP created a Working Group, step by step completed the group with increasingly clear regulations to exchange important issues of the forum and prepare for annual meetings. The first IMCWP approved the joint documents of participating parties at the 2002 Meeting and continued to issue joint documents in the form of joint declarations or joint communiqués in subsequent periods. However, in the recent 5 successive meetings, disagreements over viewpoints, strategies and tactics among member parties have divided the IMCWP, thus a minority group with the Communist Party of Greece as the core and the majority cannot reach unanimity on joint documents. In October 2016, at the 18th IMCWP taking place in Hanoi, under the leadership and efforts of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, the IMCWP reached high consensus and approved joint documents after many years of interruption, contributing significantly to the unity and solidarity of the communist and workers’ parties of the international communist and workers’ movement in the current situation. 
As a multilateral mechanism initiated by the Party of Labor of Belgium (PTB) in 1992, by 1995 the International Communist Seminar (ICS) attracted the participation of a large number of communist parties around the world to discuss ideas, ways of struggle and coordinated actions of communist and workers’ parties and the leftist movement in the world. The ICS, however, stopped its activities as PTB saw the need to reconsider the method of organization. In addition, there are also International Seminar “Globalization and development issues” initiated by the Communist Party of Cuba, the annual international seminar of the communist and workers’ parties organized by the Democratic Constitutional Rally of Tunisia (PRD). (1) 
Regular regional forums have also flourished. Among the various initiatives of the Communist Party of Greece, the annual meeting of European communist and workers’ parties on education were organized from 2006 to 2010. Despite many difficulties, communist and workers’ parties in the Balkan region have held regular conferences to discuss regional issues, and exchanged experiences, such as the Meeting against "military presence of imperialism" in the region in September 2006, the Meeting on "Developments in the Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean region and the tasks of the communists" in December 2009 and January 2011. Some regional forums have gone beyond the original geographic scope to become events of world scale. The Sao Paolo Forum was launched in July 1990 by the Brazilian Labor Party and the International Conference "Parties and a New Society" organized by the Mexican Labor Party rallied not only the communist and workers’ parties, leftist and progressive forces in Latin America, but also observers and guests from political parties in all continent and international organizations. 
In addition to the periodic mechanisms mentioned above, communist and workers’ parties in the world have held many meetings, conferences, scientific seminars on specific topics to discuss emerging issues in the world, regions and the international communist and workers’ movement. These activaties have commonly taken place among European communist and workers’ parties and initiated by some European communist and workers’ parties. For example, the meeting of 23 European communist parties in March 2006 at the initiative of the Portuguese Communist Party (CCP) to condemn Resolution 1481 on the so-called "Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes adopted by the Europe Council. CCP organized a Meeting of Communist Parties of European Union (EU) member countries in March 2008 on the subject "EU Agreement. Developments in the EU and the struggle of the people"; Meeting of the European Communist Parties in April 2011 on " Socio-Political process in Europe and the Response of Communists"; Meetings of communist and workers’ parties in the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf in 2006, and 2008. In 2005, the Ukrainian Communist Party held a Roundtable on "The Real Perspectives on Europe and the way to organize the European Left" with the participation of mainly communist and workers’ parties in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. 
In addition, there were many international meetings, such as the Cyprus Conference in December 2000 entitled "The Need and the Organizational Method to Respond to the New World Order and Economic Globalization” which attracted 60 delegations of communist and workers’ parties; the International Conference in Berlin in June 2001 entitled "Capitalist Globalization- Alternatives - Opposition Forces - The Role of Communists" attended by 33 communist and workers’ parties and movements in 31 countries; international meetings and seminars on the Russian October Revolution were organized by Communist Party of the Russian Federation several times. 
Major annual events of parties, such as the Avante! Festival of the Portuguese Communist Party, L’Humanite Festival of the French Communist Party, have been attended by dozens of international delegations, discussing many issues, such as security, peace, cooperation, social-environment, solidarity and socialism. 
The diversity of linkage and rally among communist and workers’ parties around the world have helped create channels for promoting bilateral relations, and facilitating communication among parties. This is the premise for the development of each party, strengthening coordination and co-operation among the parties in the movement. 
These external activities of communist and workers’ parties in the world show that the linkage and coordination among them in the international arena have been increasingly strengthened. The parties agree to step up relations on the basis of five principles: 1. Independence; 2. Equality; 3. Mutual respect; 4. Non interference in each other's internal affairs; 5. Solidarity and friendship. 
However, the coordination among communist and workers’ parties has still faced many challenges. These are: Firstly, differences in strategic viewpoints and principled issues, including stance on objectives, modes of struggle, force gathering, road to socialism as well as a number of other international issues within and between parties. Secondly, in many countries, the communist movement have been deeply divided, unable to unite in thought and action. Multiparty phenomena in communist and workers’ movement has contributed to weakening the international communist movement. 
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