1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties

Summary

On 5–17 June 1969, an International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties was held in Moscow. The meeting occurred in the aftermath of the Sino-Soviet split and the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia. The preceding international meeting, held in Moscow in 1960, had been dominated by disputes between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on one hand and the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania on the other. By this time the split between the two poles had been finalized. Pro-Chinese elements were absent from this event. However the phenomenon of Eurocommunism had begun to emerge, which was notable amongst some of the delegations present.

Parties participating in the event

Notably the Workers' Party of Korea and the Workers Party of Vietnam, both cautious at the time to take a stand in the Sino-Soviet conflict, were absent.

The two main points of discussion of the conference was the strategy of cooperation with anti-imperialist forces and the centenary celebrations of the birth of Lenin. On both issues, the conference passed a document. The document on the Lenin birth centenary was passed unanimously, but the document on the alliances between communist parties and anti-imperialist forces was not signed by the Norwegian, Dominican and British delegations. The Italian, Sammarinese, Austrian and Reunionese delegations only signed one of the four parts of the document.[1]

Participants edit

Delegation leaders in brackets. Names of some underground parties were left out in official conference reports, and are thus not included here. Participants in italics were from countries where the Communist Party was banned.

Socialist Bloc countries edit

Africa edit

Americas edit

Asia edit

Middle East edit

Oceania edit

Western Europe edit

Observers edit

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ Osmanczyk, Edmund Jan/Mango, Anthony. Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Taylor & Francis, 2002. p. 428
  2. ^ Otegbeye had been the leader of the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party of Nigeria before it was banned in 1966. It is possible that it was the SWFPN that took part in the meeting.
  3. ^ According to The African Communist no. 78, 1979, Yusuf Dadoo was a member of the SACP delegation.Yusuf Dadoo - a biography Archived 2006-09-24 at the Wayback Machine at www.anc.org.za
  4. ^ According to Timothy Ashby, this meeting marked the formal beginning of the close relations between Guyana and the Soviet Union.Moscow Eyes Guyana Archived 2006-09-22 at the Wayback Machine at www.heritage.org
  5. ^ The other main communist group in India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was not invited to the event. It did however send a greeting to the conference.
  6. ^ Notably, PCC was the sole ruling Communist Party participating that did not send one of its top leaders to the summit.
  7. ^ Notably, the VPK Chairman C.-H. Hermansson did not take part in the summit.

Sources edit

  • Internationale Beratung der kommunistischen und der Arbeiterparteien. Moskau 1969. Prague: 1969, Verlag Frieden und Sozialismus.

External links edit

  • International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, Moscow 1969, documents and speeches of the meeting in PDF format