EURODOS - Peace in Europe


1. Introduction

The text comprises several international declarations - the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations with an introductory 'Note on the History of the United Nations', the 'Final Act of Helsinki' and the 'Charter of Paris for a New Europe' of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), former the Conference of Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). Furthermore the party program of the CPSU. The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had adopted in 1986 a new party program. This party program is the foundation of modern communist peace policy. The first declaration is Lenin's 'To the people of Russia!' at the day of the Russian Revolution.

These proclamations, declarations and the program of the CPSU reflect the socialist struggle for a humanistic development of international politics.

After the defeat of the German fascism through the victories of the Red Army at Moscow and Stalingrad and after the end of World War II the General Assembly of the United Nations declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in which in particular the right to work was proclaimed.

To overcome the Cold War the Soviet Union initiated the process of Helsinki and in 1975 the "Final Act of Helsinki" was agreed upon by the member states of the Conference of Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) which in 1994 was reformed to be the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It forms the most important international agreement of the policy of détente.

When NATO accelerated the arms race and the capitalist countries adopted economic policies which intensified the class struggle within their countries as well as in international relations, in 1986 the Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union adopted a new program. This program is the foundation of the peace policies of the communists in their efforts for "Disarmament and Social Progress".

As the Final Act of Helsinki is still based on the assumption of different social systems in 1990 after the fall of the wall and the reunification of Germany the "Charter of Paris for a New Europe" was declared in which the member states agree upon the market economy but also in the Charter of Paris the demand for full employment is found. The socialist states have paved the way by accepting the market economy to respect some formerly restricted bourgeois human rights without at the same time the member states have realised the social human rights also as this is clear from the persistent high unemployment in western Europe but now also in the East European countries. The mass unemployment shows clearly the inability of the capitalist states to achieve a social integration respecting human rights by means of a capitalist market economy. Also the most important object - to establish peaceful relations amongst states - has failed as most evidently the crisis in Yugoslavia shows. Therefore it remains the most important task of socialist politics to develop a social integration based upon a democratic economic order.

With the policy of overcoming the Cold War the socialists have advanced an important step to develop peace and freedom. The West European states are expected to follow that step and by realizing the social human rights especially by democratising the economies to fulfil their commitments which they have agreed upon in the declarations of the United Nations and the OSCE. But also the Eastern European countries are asked to form a socialist policy to establish a humanistic social order.


Letter to the Comrades, March 1995*


Dear comrade,

Last year we have met at the "Fête de l' Humanité" in Paris. I have proposed a project: the production of language courses in the official languages of the OSCE, that is to say in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. The objective is clear: to have language courses for advanced students and at the same time to get to know the texts and declarations of important international treaties, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.

In 1948 the community of the people of the world proclaimed the right to work and other social rights. That declaration and the Charter of the United Nations were created at the end of the Second World War when the victories of the Red Army of Stalingrad and Moscow had decided the class struggle in favour of the working class. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Charter of the United Nations those victories are manifested. The development of welfare states after the war was unavoidable. "The price of peace" (Sir William Beveridge, 1942) had to be paid.

But the coalition against fascism did not last long. At the Potsdam Conference the conflicts between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies became apparent. The Cold War had already begun. The situation in the socialist countries was very difficult during the Cold War. The efforts for military security were much to expensive. The people of the West have benefited from the power of the Red Army and the competition of the social systems to improve the social conditions without the working classes having showed in a proper way their solidarity with the eastern European states.

In this difficult situation the Soviet Union had developed an international policy concerning the intensification of the relations of the people and to establish the rule of law and a peaceful behaviour between states. It was Andrej Gromyko, the foreign minister of the Soviet Union who was at the head of the initiatives how they are expressed in the process of Helsinki. In 1975 the Final Act was signed in Helsinki and the CSCE became the most important body for the policy of détente.

The economic but also political situation of the socialist countries became even more difficult after 1978. The situation in Poland had created enormous costs and the militarism of Reagan and Thatcher had taken the world at the edge of a military conflict. The military confrontation had to be finished! Mikhail Gorbachev and the Communist party of the Soviet Union had taken the risk. It is limited because the organism to defend proper relations between states, the Conference, today the Organisation for Security and Co-operation OSCE was created. This policy was honoured by the awarding of the Nobel price to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev.

In the German Democratic Republic the government Honecker did not accept the primate of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the "Perestroika". That was the end of that state but with the destruction of the GDR the Soviet Union had lost its most important partner and perhaps that was the decisive fact for the destruction of the Soviet Union.

But still in 1990 in Paris the process to create more stability between the states had received a new element, the Charter of Paris for a new Europe. At the end of that declaration all the signatures of the heads of governments and states are presented to underline their personal responsibilities.

After the destruction of the Soviet Union the social condition did deteriorate not only in the socialist countries but also the "free riders" of the West had lost the power of the Red Army! The situation for the socialists became more difficult. Several leading socialists were killed. But with more numerous contacts between the people of Eastern and Western Europe the experiences which have been made in the capitalist and socialist systems can cumulate and one can observe already positive initiatives to press forward the project of humanism.

The second wave of Socialism, it will come!

Amsterdam, 25.3.1995

* The letter has been corrected for this publication.


Copyright © 2000, EURODOS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands