The Party of the European Left back again participated in the Fête de L'Humanité, as it has done in the past years, as well as in the Festival of the Workers Party 2006 in Hungary, in the Communist Party of Austria, in the Communist Refoundation  Party in Italy and will do the upcoming weekend at the Feast of the Communist Party of Spain in Madrid.

 

The expected victory of Syriza, the tough negotiations with the Troika, the referendum, the subsequent signature of the memorandum and the elections the next weekend have opened the a great debate within the left that rethinks everything, including how to build the European project of the left against a European Union that has shown its brutal and authoritarian face crushing the democracy of the Greek people.

 

And in this debate the Party of the European Left has taken part. As its vice president, Maite Mola, said in one of the more than half a dozen seminars where PIE intervened, "we made the mistake of thinking that could negotiate with the enemy. It was a mistake and they have won",  but also she repeated in the different scenes that they lost a battle but not the war. The EL Vice President added that " the Marxists know very well  how the enemy can attack them" and this requires that the left work together.

It was the same idea that exposed Pierre Laurent, PCF President, and of the EL too, welcoming  the international delegation in the meeting in the stand of the National Council of the PCF and to which was invited the delegation of the European Left " to defeat the right in the debate we need to reassemble all the communists and anti austerity left".

 

Maite Mola also spoke about the invisible causes at the origin of the refugee crisis, which are imperialist wars and European colonialism, used to divert attention from other debates, such as NATO, capitalism, Greece, or what is doing Hollande in Syria. It has been recalled that the refugee crisis is not new, including Libya, Afghanistan or  Africa, "second-class refugees", and all the thousands of deaths in recent months to try to reach Europe.

 "And what about women? They never mention that, wages and unemployment among women, the abortion, etc ". 

Natassa Theodorakopoulou (Syriza), Anne Sabourin (French Communist Party), Anna Camposampietro and Fabio Amato (Communist Refoundation Party), Heinz Bierbaum and Andreas Günther (Die Linke),  Attila Vajnai (Workers Party of Hungary 2006) were some who gave life to the debate on the present and the future of Europe.

They talked about the systemic crisis and the neoliberal policies of the EU, but also on the economic and social policies for the Europe of the people and working on feasible alternatives.

That same need for debate was reflected in the continue presence of visitors in the EL stand, people who came to ask and continuously collect information from this alternative left, for the  3 days in Paris.  All had the chance to meet representatives from more than 80 parties in the world with over 450 stands distributed in more than 70 hectares. Heavy rain failed with the combative militancy and 200,000 daily visitors attending this annual meeting in Paris.