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Syrian Communist Party
Program
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INTRODUCTION
The World Today and the Feature of the Age
The
Arab National Liberation Movement
Current Stage Syria
Reality
and Development Prospects
The
Socio-Economic Development
The
Syrian Communist Party
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INTRODUCTION
The Syrian Communist
Party, which was established on
October 28th, 1924 on the
eve of the Greater Syrian Revolution
against the French
occupation, is the vanguard of the Syrian
working class and its
organized self-conscious contingent that
expresses its vital
interests, defends its rights as well as the rights of
the peasant masses and of all arm and brain labors, that
struggles
to liquidate the
exploitation of man by man, a people by another,
and to build the socialist
society. In its struggle to achieve these
great tasks, in its
internal life and in its actual practice, the SCP
adopts and is guided by
Marxism-Leninism.
The Party declared its
first program in July 1931 in which it
asserted its independence
as being a party of a tireless struggle
against the French
occupation for realizing national independence,
and as being the party of
the toiling popular masses, the party of
Scientific Socialism and
Proletarian Internationalism.
Since then, the Party has
been continuously working for
improving and revising its
Program, specifying its tasks according
to the different stages of
the evolution of Syria's working class and
people in general, taking
into consideration the social, economic
and political developments
that take place in the country, the
region and in the world,
following up those changes in a way that
reflects the interests of
the working class and of the blue- and
white-collar labors.
In June 1939, the Party
issued a programmatic document
entitled "What do the
Syrian Communists Want? "
The Party's National
Covenant, approved by the Second
National Congress which
met in early 1944, summed up the direct
and urgent tasks the
Syrian communists should struggle to achieve;
a full national
independence was the topmost priority.
During the 1949 electoral
campaign of the Constituent
Assembly, the Party stated
its opinion regarding the Syrian
Constitution and presented
on behalf of the candidates of the
National Democratic Front
in Damascus an integral proposal
entitled "How Should the
Syrian Constitution Be?".
In May 1956, the Party's
Central Committee issued a
document in which it
declared its stand concerning a number of
different basic questions
such as the Arab unity, the Palestinian
cause, the national
front...etc.
In late 1958, the Party
issued, after a wide discussion all over
its cells and bodies, an
important document that illustrated its
stance regarding the
Syrian-Egyptian union and which was known
as the "Thirteen
Provisions. "
After the separation
between Syria and Egypt and in July 1962.
the Party put for
discussion its Draft New Political Program and
its Draft Agricultural
Program.
The 1969 Third Party
Congress approved the Agricultural
Program. The Party in the
1974 Fourth Congress approved its
Program and revised it in
the Fifth Congress of May 1980. In May
1991, the Seventh Congress
adopted the "Programmatic Tasks."
The activity of the SCP is
currently oriented towards the further
promotion and deepening of
the struggle against imperialism.
Zionism and reaction;
towards the liberation of the occupied Arab
territories; towards
protecting, firming up and deepening the
progressive social and
economic achievements; consolidating the
patriotic regime; and
pushing our country towards the road of
social progress to prepare
the necessary backgrounds for transiting
into Socialism.
The SCP, depending upon
its long heritage of struggle, presents
this Program after it has
been redrafted and amended, bearing in
mind the changes and
developments that took place in the world
after the dismantlement of
the Soviet Union and the changes of
Eastern Europe.
Taking this Program as a
weapon along with a tireless
struggle for its
fulfillment would constitute an important basis to
solidify the Party's unity
of will and action and to strengthen its
role in the country.
The
World Today and the Feature of the Age
Ever since the dawn of
civilization, humanity has been
striving for realizing
social justice, an aspiration that has not had its
substantial conditions that would help it turn true.
From Spartacus's Revolt,
to the Revolt of the Negroes, to the
Qarmatian State, and the
Paris Commune, that human aspiration
has always been
confronting with more historically superior social
powers.
The Great Socialist
October Revolution inaugurated a new era.
For the first time in the
human history, it turned into actual reality
the idea of social
justice, based upon the liquidation of man-to-man
exploitation and
people-upon-people oppression.
The victory of the Great
Socialist October Revolution was a
sign of a considerable
change in the human history: the
correspondence of that
human aspiration to the maturity of certain
concrete circumstances,
announcing an end to the forces of
injustice and
exploitation.
The October Revolution
managed to create a new situation all
over the world, the most
important feature of which is the
emergence of the state of
the workers, peasants and all arm and
brain labors - a state
which gradually became an effective and
influential power in the
world's historical development as a whole.
The October Revolution was
an objective necessity, dictated by
the unequal development of
Capitalism in the imperialist stage.
Further, it was a clear
evidence of the rising role of the subjective
factor in the modem age;
i.e., the role of the revolutionary vanguard
of the popular masses in
affecting the events and social phenomena
as a form of a conscious
intervention aimed at controlling those
events and phenomena for
the benefit of mankind.
The October Revolution
would never have triumphed had its
leading vanguard not
depended upon a scientific theory- Marxism-
as a guide for action.
That vanguard, thanks to the prominent role
played by Lenin, could
develop the theory under the new
circumstances -
imperialism - and inferred the new developments
Capitalism had
undergone, in such a way that enacted the
formulation of the
theories on imperialism, the revolutionary party,
and the socialist
revolution, which were indispensable
achievements for paving
the theoretical ground for the triumphant
October Revolution.
Since then,
Marxism-Leninism has been a guide for action for
millions of the
revolutionaries fighting against Capitalism and
imperialism all over the
world, who could manage to score
unprecedented victories in
the world history over the powers of
injustice and
exploitation.
Marxism-Leninism is
considered one of the most significant
achievements of the human
intellect throughout the evolution of
mankind. Through the
method of Dialectical Materialism, the
Marxist-Leninist theory
found out the internal laws governing the
evolution of Capitalism,
concluding its inevitable collapse to be
replaced by its
antithesis- the Communist Society. Marxism, and
later Leninism- the
Marxism of the imperialist age and the age of
the Socialist Revolution-
has developed through the struggle
against two major threats,
namely revisionism and opportunism
that took different shapes
in the different stages of the historical
evolution. Dogmatism and
nihilism are of the most important
manifestations of these
two dangers.
Dogmatism is the cause
behind the hindrance of the
development of the Marxist
ideology, and in turn, of the creative
promotion of Marxism.
Dogmatism dealt with Marxism as
ultimate texts and ideas,
as if it was invalid to develop or go
deeper; an issue that
caused a great damage not only to the theory
but also to its various
applications. Under the ideological influence
of the bourgeois and petit
bourgeois ideas, the nihilistic trends
flourished and tried to
minimize Marxism merely into its method;
i.e., depriving it of all
its achievements over more than 150 years
of its development.
The creative development
of Marxism-Leninism under our
present circumstances
needs the collective efforts of the world
communist and labor
movement, particularly under the conditions
lived at the end of the
twentieth century, at the threshold of the
twenty-first century and
the beginning of the third millennium of
the modem human history.
These efforts should focus
on having a deep understanding of
contemporary Capitalism,
its contradictions and historical limits,
and the change of its
forms and means of exploitation, and also on
having a deep
understanding of the issues related to building
Socialism in order to
extract its driving laws.
Throughout its triumphant
march in the twentieth century.
Socialism has realized
major achievements and victories all over
the globe, drawing major
outlines in the human history. Besides the
worldwide popular
struggles against colonialism, the rise of the
Soviet Union and the
Socialist Bloc later on was one of the main
causes behind the collapse
of the old colonial system, an issue that
caused a considerable
change in the world balance of forces and
created a real material,
moral, and military support for the struggle
of the oppressed peoples,
creating new prospects for their struggles
to realize their
sovereignty, independence and recognized existing
entity.
The Soviet people, led by
the Communist Party, made great
victories of international
significance. Within two decades and
between two world wars,
they were able to change their country
from a poor and backward
country where illiteracy spread among
the majority of the
peasantry into one of the world's most powerful
countries, that was able
to stop and destroy the fascist conquest.
Twice within 25 years, the
Soviet people could rescue their
economy out of the ruins
and moved forward to occupy a forefront
place in the world in
every field.
The victory of the Soviet
Union over the Nazi Germany in
World War II reaffirmed
the preferability and superiority of the
Socialist System.
It was the Soviet Union
that made the first step towards
ushering humanity into
space, and was the first to use the atomic
energy for peaceful
purposes. The tremendous efforts exerted after
the Great National War
enabled the Soviet Union to achieve the
strategic balance of
powers with the United States of America,
preventing thereby an
outbreak of a third world war. The Warsaw
Pact, with its backbone
consisted mainly of the Soviet military
force, could turn into a
balancing power against the NATO and
prevented it in many cases
from provoking local or regional wars.
As a social system.
Socialism proved its superiority over
Capitalism. Within a
relatively short period of time, it was able to
solve complicated social
problems. The rights to work, to live in
a house, to learn and to
receive medical treatment were all secured,
turning for the first time
in the history of mankind into acquired
rights of the popular
masses. The power of the socialist example in
these fields could impose
itself upon Capitalism which had no
choice but to yield and
offer certain concessions to its working
class in order to soften
the pace of tension and social struggle,
aggravated by Socialism's
superiority and privileges.
Today's experience of the
former socialist countries and the
tragic problems brought to
them by Capitalism prove once again the superiority of
the socialist regimes which, after all, had some
human, civilized and
progressive characteristics that can never
be found in any capitalist
regime. The first socialist regimes made
great achievements and
fulfilled a great part of the human aspirations. These
experiences give us lessons and a good basis for the
existing socialist regimes and the new ones which will
inevitably rise more developed than the previous ones.
When examining the factors
of the collapse that took place in
some of the socialist
regimes, the following should be taken into
consideration:
1. What happened was a
resulting outcome to an international
conflict and to a certain
world balance of forces, in which the world
imperialism could invest
to the utmost its reserve, the Third World,
in the race that took
place for securing the military equipoise. The
Soviet Union, however, had
not had but its own internal resources
to provide such a balance.
2. The prevalence of
right-wing opportunism within the ranks
of the world communist
movement has since mid 1950s been hindering the
international revolutionary process, an issue that laid
its burdens and troubles on the Soviet Union and its own
development, leading in turn to the emergence of a
number of gaps in the process of building Socialism. The
class enemy could penetrate through those gaps, taking
them as a ground in its battle
against Socialism from
inside.
3. Ignoring the class
struggle under the presence of two
opposite world systems has
allowed the underground anti forces in
the socialist countries to
play a multiform destructive role in the
process of building
Socialism. This confirms the validity of the
thesis that underlines the
increase of the class struggle intensification whenever
getting closer to Socialism is active. What
happened in the last few
years in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union urges the discovery
of the deep reasons behind that
condition. The explanation
of the previous thesis lies probably in
the thesis of the 'oneness
of the world', meaning that there is one
integrated and
interinfluential world; and in the thesis saying that
the world lives the stage
of an international transition from
Capitalism to Communism,
the two opposite patterns of material
production. One should say
also that building Socialism for the first
time in history has
offered humanity a lot, most importantly that
experience on which basis
the new socialist regimes would rise.
The changes in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe have had
many consequences and
raised various issues upon which true
solution the future
development of the world revolutionary
movement depends largely.
One of the most dangerous
effects is the change in the world
balance of forces for the
advantage of world imperialism, especially
the American imperialism,
which is trying to avail itself of this
situation in order to
impose its uni-pole order through the so-called
"new world order": an
essentially old order and a compound form
of both old colonialism
and neo colonialism and which carries the
worst of their features.
The international changes
did not lead into a more stable
secure, or more war-immune
world. On the contrary, the world
today has become more
explosively dangerous, and the regional
and civil wars, that cause
the death of hundreds of thousand of
people, have increased
considerably.
Through what is known as
the "new world order", the world
imperialism is trying to
firm up its control and domination over the
Earth and its resources
and peoples. Resorting to whatever means
enabling it to realize
that goal, the world imperialism follows
basically the following
ways:
1. Flaring up wars through
stirring the ethnic, religious and
sectarian intrigues.
2. Imposing the
stipulations of the World Bank and the
International Monetary
Fund over the countries of Asia, Africa
and Latin America, in
order to overplunder their resources
through the horrible and
rapid deterioration of their peoples
living standard.
3. Spreading the
scientific and technological retardation
over complete nations and
regions with the aim of keeping them
as sources of raw
materials and cheap manpower.
The provisional setback of
the world revolutionary movement
has disturbed the world
balance of forces and enabled the world
imperialism to give free
rein to its arrogance and its criminal plans
Yet, that very policy
pursued by imperialism in the new circumstances actually
results in enlarging the front of its anti fighters to
include everyone interested in the continuity of life
itself on this globe.
The other pole -the pole
of the forces of liberation, progress
and Socialism which has
been existing even before the emergence
of Socialism as standing
regimes in the twentieth century- still
exists and is advancing
day after another, depending upon the fact
that it is impossible for
Capitalism to offer solutions to any of the
serious problems suffered
by humanity, such as poverty, hunger.
environmental pollution,
...etc.
Therefore, it is possible
to say that the main contradiction that
still rules our time is
that one between labor and capital, a
contradiction that takes a
variety of shapes according to its
surrounding conditions.
If the advanced capitalist
states were able to soften these shapes domestically,
they could do so only through increasing the
exploitation of both
nature and the developing countries- the poor
South. This means that
those capitalist countries did not reach to an
fundamental resolution of
that contradiction, rather they deepened
and enlarged it.
Capitalism's development
at the end of the 20th century has
brought it into an
inescapable dead end. It is deepening and
intensifying the
contradictions of Capitalism in many fields,
particularly with:
- The developing
countries- the poor South, which are
exhausted by the world
capitalist plunder.
- Nature, which
unrenewable resources have been exploited,
and its environment
polluted, through the random development of
the productive forces.
- The techno-scientific
progress with complete fields of it
consecrated against the
human interest itself, particularly in the
realm of military
industries.
Furthermore, the
contradictions that may play an important
determining role for
Capitalism as a world system have intensified,
most importantly the
inter-contradiction among the familiar
imperialist centers
themselves (USA, Western Europe, and Japan).
This does not rule out the
possibility for the rise of new imperialist
centers, leading to a more
intensified world conflict among
themselves for redividing
the regions of power.
The 20th century
Capitalism could not introduce satisfactory
answers and solutions for
the spiritual and material problems
suffered by humanity; what
it introduced in fact is utterly the
contrary. Therefore,
Socialism still introduces itself as a sole
alternative for the
capitalist system, which became more rotten and
parasitic to a large
extent and turned into an obstacle before the
future development of
mankind, even into a threat to the very
existence of humanity
itself.
The twentieth century is
the century of the first socialist
systems that paved the
long way for humanity to march towards
a society of social
Justice and freedom. Regardless of the setbacks
the socialism that
appeared in the socialist countries and the
achievements it had
introduced to their peoples proves itself as a
living idea which will
continue making its way in spite of the
frequent and sometimes
unexpected zigzags.
The feature of the age is
still the transition from Capitalism
to Socialism. This is a
fact, despite the stumbles of that process in
one stage or another. This
transition is governed by the main contradiction in our
time, that is the antagonistic contradiction
between labor and capital
which can only be resolved by the
triumph of Socialism and
Communism.
The Arab
National Liberation Movement
The Arab national
liberation movement, ANLM, is a part of the
world national liberation
movement, and accordingly a contingent of the world
revolutionary movement. This movement includes all the
liberation movements in the Arab countries.
The ANLM achieved a great
number of victories during its long history, most
important of which is the national independence which
was gained by the Arab countries as a result of the
struggle of the broad masses, helped by the Soviet Union
in every field, against the direct colonial occupation.
Many significant
progressive transformations, such as the agrarian reform
which dealt a blow to the positions of feudalism
and the remains of the old
backward social relations, and the formation of the
state sector in the national economies, took place in
the Arab countries which were governed by national
regimes.
The development process
performed in these countries managed to make a
considerable advancement in the standard of the
productive forces and serious changes in the relations
of production. Such socio-economic transformations,
however, did not stop the development of the capitalist
relations of production, rather they make them dominant,
because these transformations after all did not exceed
the limits of bourgeois-democratic changes. In the other
Arab countries, particularly those governed by
monarchies of different forms, a considerable progress
in the development of the production forces was also
realized, but it occured under a thorough domination of
the imperialist monopolies and under the great influence
of the pre-capitalist remains. Consequently these
countries became increasingly dependent upon the world
imperialist centers politically and economically.
The ANLM underwent as well
serious setbacks, the most important of which was the
downfall of many national regimes as a result of the
imperialist conspiracies and the pressure exerted by the
local reaction. The shrink of the political supporting
basis of these regimes played a role in their collapse,
as they failed in guaranteeing wide democratic freedoms
for the working class and all the toiling masses, who
objectively constitute the social ground for the
national regimes. Such experiences tell us that the more
the democratic freedoms of the national and progressive
forces are guaranteed, the stronger and more solidified
is the social and, consequently, the political basis of
the national regimes.
The forces constituting
the national liberation movements differ in accordance
with their different conditions and tasks. The more
common the tasks are, the larger the social basis of the
concerned movement is. The standing nucleus of these
movements, however, remains the working class and all
the arm and brain labors whose basic interests are
organically associated with the victory of the national
liberation movement in the given country. At present,
the national bourgeoisie might have a role in
confronting the imperialist schemes, because its
interests fall objectively in contradiction with the
interests of the international monopolies aspiring not
only to loot the resources of the peoples but also to
suppress the different sections in the developing
countries under their political and social domination.
This entails the formation of the broadest national
alliance that defies the imperialist designs under the
banner of freedom and national
independence.
Some forces have
activated recently camouflaging their political goals
with a religious cover. The evolution of this phenomenon
has its own objective grounds. The rapid and deformed
development of Capital ism and its accompanying social
and political phenomena has led to the formation of a
certain petit bourgeois type of personality which is
desperate and frightened by that development and that
believes that the social redemption can never be reached
except through a return to the fundamentals as a means
for salvation. Such people constitute the relatively
broad popular basis for the religion-covered movements.
Still, it is frequently often that the social basis of
these movements comprises the parasitic bourgeoisie that
already has its economic
gains, yet is unable to
realize its political goals. So it uses such
movements in its effort to
assume political power. 7'hc excessive
richness of the ruling
sections and their associate circles, on one
hand, and the sharp
deterioration of the living standards of the
toiling masses,
accompanied with the absence of the enough- needed
democratic freedoms for the national and progressive
forces, on the other, lead into a further strengthening
of the positions of the religion-covered political
trends. The setbacks of some patriotic forces and
regimes poured water in that stream. In general, the
interests of the imperialist circles do not fall in
contradiction with the strengthening of the
religion-hidden reactionary trend, as the consequence of
its triumph in the countries it dominates would be their
retreat for hundreds of years backward, socially,
economically and politically. Such a victory would
ensure the inability of these countries to defy the
modem imperialist machine. The leading forces of the
ANLM believe that the horizon of victory does not lie in
pushing the wheel of history backward, but in moving
forward towards building a society where the public
ownership of the means of production and the principles
of social justice prevail.
The Marxist-Leninist
communist parties in the Arab countries
are an important
contingent of the ANLM. Ever since their rise,
these parties have along
with their peoples fought all the national
and social liberation
battles against imperialism, Zionism and the
Arab reaction. The
historical evolution proved that the existence
of these parties is an
objective necessity that reflects the aspirations of the
Arab peoples towards freedom, real democracy and
Socialism.
The communist parties in
the Arab countries are a leading
faction of the ANLM, a
characteristic they have attained as they
interrelated the question
of the complete victory of the liberation
movement with the question
of the social liberation; i.e., the cause
of realizing the socialist
system.
The Palestinian cause is
one of the basic questions that have
been facing the ANLM. The
establishment of the State of Israel on
the land of Palestine by
the imperialist-backed Zionism, after an
aggressive war that
resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of
Palestinian Arabs from their homeland, has created a
permanent focal point of
tension in the Arab region. The successive
wars launched by the
Zionist Israel against the neighboring countries and the
later occupation of the complete Palestinian soil in
addition to some lands of other neighboring Arab
countries have been intensifying that tension and
forming a standing threat for the Arab peoples. Israel,
under these new conditions, is trying to impose its
political and economic domination over the Arab
countries and to dictate a peace that ensures such a
control.
A just peace in this
region is |