Communist leaders call upon fellows to unite

Leaders of communist parties of different countries yesterday at an international seminar called upon their party men for soul-searching and self-criticism to find out reasons for the present miserable condition of the leftist movement across the world.

The leftist leaders from India, Nepal, Russia, Sri Lanka, Germany and Pakistan also urged all the communist forces to unite under one umbrella to fight back the challenges of imperialism and neo-liberalism.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) organised the seminar styled "Imperialism, neo-liberalism and religious fundamentalism" at the capital's Jatiya Press Club as part of the party's four-day long 11th congress starting on October 28.

Addressing the seminar, KM Ram Krishna, general secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) said, "There was a time when almost half of the counties in the world were run by socialist and communist leaders. From that situation we have reached the present situation."

He underscored the need for exploring the reasons as to why this happened.

"We need to re-think the way we are running our party activities at present," Krishna added.

Shaymol Roy, state minister of Tripura and national secretary of All India Forward Bloc's central committee, said all the leftist forces should unite under one umbrella to fight against neo-liberalism and religious fundamentalism.

Nilotpal Basu, another Indian leftist leader, underlined the need for a greater cooperation among the communist parties of the region, particularly South Asia, to face the challenges of capitalism.

Questioning why the communist parties' influence, Sunrendra Prasad Pendey, former finance minister of Nepal and standing committee member of Communist Party of Nepal, said, "In the past we were taught that production means land, labour and capital. But this idea has now changed."

"Now the Western and European education have taught us that knowledge means production," he said, adding, "We will have to transform ourselves with the changing concept of the developed world."

Participants from Sri Lanka and Pakistan stressed the need for a common platform comprising the region's communist parties.

Alexander Potapov of Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Prof John Foster of British Communist Party and Thomas Beisenkamp of German Communist Party also addressed the seminar.