from the Hungarian communists
The Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party has held its 25th Extraordinary Congress 11 May 2013 in Budapest.
We have changed the name of the party. Our party will be called in the future Hungarian Workers Party.
The change of the name of the party does mean any political or ideological change. We want to continue our fight against capitalism openly, rather than be forced into illegality. That’s why the congress has modified the party’s name in order to register as the Hungarian Workers Party.
Although our name will change, our principles will not. We remain a Marxist-Leninist, Communist Party fighting against capitalism.
Comrades,
We have been forced to have this congress because the Hungarian government launched a new and very serious attack on the party. On November 19 last year, the parliament in Budapest adopted a new statute banning the public use of names connected with the “authoritarian regimes of the 20th century.” (See the attachment)
The law came into force on January 1 this year. According to the Hungarian Constitution and current government policy, “authoritarian regimes” mean the fascist dictatorship headed by Ferenc Szalasi, which existed from October 1944 until April 1945, and all the governments of socialist construction between 1948 and 1990. Not, you’ll note, the Miklos Horthy dictatorship of 1919 to 1944.
Accordingly, no political party, company, organ of the mass media, street, square or public place can include the “name of persons who played a leading role in founding, developing or maintaining the authoritarian political regimes of the 20th century, or words and expressions or names of organisations which can be directly related to the authoritarian political regimes of the 20th century.”
This means that 43 Lenin streets, 36 Karl Marx streets and six Red Star streets have been renamed. So, too, will 44 Liberation streets – named originally to celebrate the liberation of Hungary from Hitlerite fascism – and the 53 Endre Sagvari streets named in honour of Hungary’s most famous anti-fascist martyr, killed in 1944 by the fascist police. His name shall not be spoken. All the People’s Army, People’s Front and People’s Republic streets have to go. Budapest’s well-known Moscow Square has recently been renamed.
In effect, the public use of such words and categories as “communist,” “socialist,” “liberation” and many others have been made illegal.
Why do the pro-capitalist forces attack our party? It is because Hungary is in crisis. Almost 500,000 people are officially registered as unemployed – just over 11 per cent of the workforce. About the same number of young people are working in other EU countries, notably Britain, Austria and Germany, because they could not find a job at home. Even so, the rate of youth unemployment (under the age of 25) in Hungary stands at more than 28 per cent.
The Fidesz (Civic Union) government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban is well aware of these facts, while proclaiming the “Hungarian miracle.” The reality is that many ordinary people are worse off than they have ever been.
The pro-capitalist forces in Hungary know very well that only our party proposes a real alternative to mass unemployment, poverty and the colonial occupation of Hungary by multinational companies.
More and more people are waking up and realising that it is not only capitalist governments, which are to blame for their plight. It’s the capitalist system in general that isn’t working – at least for them. They also appreciate that Hungary’s communists are on the side of the workers. Our party has accumulated considerable moral capital in our society.
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