The
importance of the critical assessment of the socialist construction
in the 20th century for the strengthening of the labor movement and
for an effective counter-attack.
By Aleka Papariga*.
Source: International Communist Review, Issue 2, July 2014.
When we made public the subject of our 18th
Congress, which, besides the mandatory overview of our work, included
as a special subject our conclusions from socialist construction,
several friends of the Party wondered whether it was advisable, under
the current conditions and while the signs of the economic capitalist
crisis had already become visible in the international scene, to
focus on such an important issue which, in their opinion, might not
have been at the top of the agenda.
It is not necessary, of course, to remind the
reaction raised in the bourgeois press, the ironic and bitter
comments of well-known journalists, who were annoyed by our decision
to deal with this issue as they knew beforehand why we took such a
decision. Their reaction is quite understandable from their point of
view; they have a sharp instinct, they catch everything that can give
strength and dynamic to the revolutionary movement.
From the very first moment that we realized
that the infamous course of perestroika was nothing else but the
beginning of the counterrevolution and the temporary defeat of the
socialist system, we understood that we had to bear the brunt of
giving answers to all progressive people –and to ourselves as well-
who were reasonably wondering what happened. Even more so, since it
was proved that we were not at all prepared for such a tragic
development; we had not anticipated it and, unfortunately, we did not
have the appropriate reflexes in order to react, even just before the
lowering of the red flag from the Kremlin.