From the Communist Party of Greece
The preparatory meeting of the Working Group for the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties of 2007 took place in Athens on 24 February 2007, as had been decided at the International Meeting in Lisbon in November 2006.
As it is well established, the meetings of the Working Group are open to all parties that take part in the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties. The meeting was attended by the CP of Argentina, WP of Belgium, CP of Bolivia, CP of Brazil, Party of the Bulgarian Communists, CP of Cuba, AKEL-Cyprus, CP of Bohemia-Moravia, Unified CP of Georgia, CP of Greece, Party of the Italian Communists, Lebanese CP, Party of the Communists, Mexico, Portuguese CP, New CP of Yugoslavia, South African CP, CP of Sri Lanka and the Sudanese CP.
In the preparatory meeting it was decided that the International Meeting of 2007 will be jointly hosted by the Communist Party of Russian Federation and the Communist Party of Belarus and held in Minsk, Belarus on 4-5 of November 2007.
The meeting noted the importance of the 90th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution of 1917 and called for the broadest possible participation in the International Meeting as well as in the commemoration events to follow in Moscow on 6-7 of November 2007.
The Working Group, taking into consideration a broad set of proposals made by both the participating Parties as well as by others who were unable to attend, but who had sent their opinions to the Working Group, agreed that the theme of the International Meeting of 2007 will be: “90th anniversary of the October Revolution: The relevance and validity of its ideals. The communists in the struggle against imperialism, for socialism”.
I think that there a very strong communist presence still in Belarus and at least amongst the people of Russia (Though I can’t say that Putin has much love for his fellow man in that respect). There was a cynical point made by a British writer that suggested that the last Belarusian elections were decided overwhelmingly by the pensioners; his point being that they were the only ones who vote and therefore Lukashenka’s landslide was not representative. But I am not sure if this is the case. It seems to me that if there would be employment for the young people of Belarus and Russia that they would agree to share and share alike rather than simply joining in the great shark hunt. I still see that young adults are kind and socially oriented much more than they are in America or Europe. Therefore I think that these meetings might just really mean something and won’t turn out to be the empty exercises that similar meetings in the west always are.