Contribution of the Swiss Communist Party

Contribution from the Swiss Communist Party

 

Dear Comrades,

The European Communist Action will very soon culminate six months of intense work. Allow me to say a few words on this subject by way of preamble. The Swiss Communist Party is very grateful to be able to take part in this process of exchange, learning and strengthening. It is indeed very important to have a form of regional cooperation of Communist and Workers' Parties in Europe, on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. Without a doubt, this cooperation enables us, the Swiss Communist Party, to make solid progress towards communist reconstruction in our country. All the meetings in which we have taken part have enabled us to tackle questions that are essential for the development of the class struggle. The contributions presented in this context serve as an example and as a basis for debate. We must continue to examine these questions in greater depth, consolidating the strategic basis of the common positions of the European Communist Action. But we also need to find a way of exchanging in greater detail, and no doubt over a longer period of time, the various concrete experiences of our grassroots work, as was said on a recent occasion. The form of regional cooperation of the European Communist Action should enable us to build up a common theoretical base, but also to account for the necessary union between theory and practice. The Swiss Communist Party is in favour of such a deepening in a form that necessarily has to be discussed within the European Communist Action and also in a bilateral form.

Let me now turn to the subject of this meeting. The question of fascism is too serious and important to be applied indiscriminately to any contemporary political phenomenon. We must therefore, first of all, place the analysis of fascism and anti-fascist tactics in their own context. It is very important to avoid anachronisms. On the one hand, it would be a mistake to automatically reproduce analyses and tactics from the past in our time. This is very often the case with calls to "block the way to the far right", with the help of social democracy and the liberal right. It so happens that in Switzerland we are facing a radical evolution of this argument, given that the bourgeoisie is now promoting the alliance of the "enlarged" right, including the far right. On the other hand, it would also be a mistake to judge the history of the anti-fascist struggle with the elements of the contemporary mentality. This is the problem, for example, of the younger generations who were taught at school the anti-communist concept of totalitarianism.

Thus, we can reaffirm with Lenin that the living heart of Marxism is the concrete analysis of a concrete situation. It is with this in mind that we must, on the one hand, take a critical view of the Popular Front political line in the Thirties and, on the other, analyse contemporary experiences of the struggle against the far right.

I will refer to the situation in Switzerland. Before the Swiss Communist Party was founded in 1921, the Swiss Socialist Party decided to join the Communist International at its Extraordinary Congress in 1919, by 318 votes to 147. But an internal referendum of all members decided otherwise. As a result, a minority left the Swiss Socialist Party to found the Swiss Communist Party with other comrades. This new party joined the Communist International.

During these early years, the Swiss Communist Party laid the material and cultural foundations of a new type of workers' party, based on workplace organisation, a united front policy at grassroots level and a consistent internationalist commitment.

In the inter-war years, the Swiss bourgeoisie sought to break the memory of the 1918 general strike in the working-class movement, which had been a great moment in the history of the Swiss working class. It was followed by 400,000 workers, but ended with the betrayal of the Social Democrat leaders. Communists were also persecuted in the trade union movement, and the successive attacks led to internal dissension and the retreat of the Swiss Communist Party. During this period, the Communist International helped the party to build its links with the working class, initially by forming class-based trade union fractions. This provided decisive support. However, the Swiss Communist Party remained a minority of the working class.

In the fight against fascism, the Communists were in the vanguard of the united front policy at grassroots level. The militants of the Swiss Communist Party showed great courage and a consistent spirit of fraternity in denouncing the dangers of war, militarism and anti-worker repression. Henri Furst, a metal worker and leader of the Swiss Communist Party, was the first to fall in the shoot-out on 9 November 1932. This Communist hero, before dying under fire, tried to fraternise with the soldiers who had been sent to shoot at an anti-fascist demonstration by the working class. His last words were: "Don't shoot your comrades".

With the same conviction, almost 800 Swiss joined the International Brigades, 60% of them from the Communist ranks. On their return from Spain, they were condemned and imprisoned. Like no other sector, throughout this period Communists were persecuted by the state and the reformist unions to stop them establishing themselves in the working class. In various French-speaking cantons, Communist Party sections were banned by the authorities, and the people approved the bans in a popular vote. Finally, the Swiss Communist Party was banned by the Swiss government in 1940.

The Swiss bourgeoisie used all possible reactionary and anti-communist means to eliminate the Swiss Communist Party, in the context of the rise of Nazi-fascism in Europe. Throughout this period, grassroots communist work was built up to organise the working class into class-based trade union fractions, but the line changed with the Popular Front policy. Trade union unity, union between communists and left-wing socialists and the creation of a single party of the working class became the new watchwords, which outlived the Swiss Communist Party. Communist reconstruction did not take place until decades later.

It was indeed the capitalist bourgeoisie at the head, with the support of nationalist fascist organisations on the one hand, and social democracy on the other, who led the reactionary policy of banning communists. It is very clear that in the context of the rise of Nazi-fascism, including when it came to power, the class enemy was always the capitalist class.

Turning to contemporary experience, we feel it is important to determine the general situation of the class struggle in each country, as well as the political regime in force, in a precise and scientific manner.

In Switzerland, all the political forces of capital, from social democracy to the conservative extreme right, are represented in government. As in other countries, these different forces do not alternate in government. But even in a system of alternation, the government and the opposition always negotiate capitalist reforms, even if on the surface this seems impossible. In Switzerland, the opposite is true. Under the appearance of a balance of power, there is fierce competition to be part of the representation of capital. The far-right nationalist conservative party has the largest relative majority in parliament. When the Liberal-Radical party came close to achieving an absolute majority, this created the possibility of harsher capitalist reforms. Without this absolute majority, concessions will have to be made with the Centre Party and the Socialist Party. For the moment, the Green Party is not represented in the government.

In this sense, the rise of far-right conservative forces, expressed at electoral level, is a clear sign of the anti-people attacks to come. The only way to prepare for the class confrontation against the reaction of the bourgeois regime is through the formation, organisation and struggle of the working class, in alliance with the popular strata.

We have tried in this contribution to present, very briefly, the elements of experience and the historical lessons of the struggle of Swiss communists in the face of reaction. This debate seems to us to be very important and we must continue it within the European Communist Action in order to have clear politico-ideological definitions on the question of fascism. Because we need theoretical instruments which, in our time, will enable us to confront reactionary and even fascist policies in all our countries, with at the centre the preparation, organisation and struggle for workers'-people's power, for socialism-communism.