Declaration adopted by the European Left Executive Board, Berlin, 15 January, 2006Declaration on a resolution on communism at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
A draft resolution is about to be tabled at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe aiming to establish signs that would put communism and Nazism on an equal footing. Fifty years after the death of McCarthy, the rapporteur (EPP) of this text is attempting to relaunch a European-style neo-McCarthyism, legitimising in advance threats of bans, like those which are currently hanging over the "Czech communist youth".
We stress, in first place, that the whole procedure is beyond the legal competence of the Council of Europe, and tries to turn it into an ideological court and to misuse it in the political struggle.
We would like to draw attention to the extremely serious nature of this initiative which in effect is leading to rendering banal the Nazi genocide and to offending the memory of many communist resistance fighters and victims of fascism.
We should remember that the Washington Holocaust Museum and the Shoah Memorial in Paris recently signed cooperation agreements with European communists, thereby rendering a legitimate homage to their contribution to the struggle for human liberty and dignity.
One thing is to condemn crimes of stalinism which contradict the basic ideas of socialism – that goes without saying; another thing would be to let oneself be caught up in a dangerous and unworthy rewriting of History. We invite all democrats to reject any attempt of this nature.
Czech translation can be found HERE.
EL Declaration on a resolution on communism
