(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Kimball Cariou

The ties between the British Conservative party and reactionary political forces in Europe are coming under new scrutiny. Two leaders of ultra-right parties spoke at the latest Conservative congress in Britain, and these parties have formed a grouping in the European Union parliament.

     One recent episode reveals interesting parallels with the proposal by ultra-right groups in Canada to build an anti-communist monument in Ottawa.

     According to an Oct. 14 commentary by Efraim Zuroff in The Guardian newspaper, "if anyone needed additional proof of the unsuitability of the Latvian For Fatherland and Freedom party as a partner for the British Conservatives, their response to a ceremony held yesterday in Riga to honour the Soviet soldiers who liberated the city in 1944 should be a stark reminder of the lack of shared values between the two parties."

     For Fatherland and Freedom condemned Riga mayor Nils Usakovs for placing a wreath at the Victory Monument which commemorates the liberation of Riga from Nazi occupation, and for taking part in a rally to mark the event. The party called Usakovs' presence at these events "an insult to the victims of Communist terror and a glorification of the Soviet troops."

     However, For Fatherland and Freedom is well known for honouring Latvia's Waffen-SS veterans who fought for Third Reich and Nazi domination of Europe. As Usakovs stated, "had Riga not been liberated from the Nazis in 1944, there would be no independent Latvia today [and therefore] it is our duty to thank those who fought against the Nazis."

     In Zuroff's view, the positions taken by the Fatherland and Freedom leader Roberts Zile and other ultra-right politicians "are hardly exceptional in their home countries... (In) eastern Europe, numerous local collaborators volunteered to participate in the mass murder of Jews and played an integral role in the annihilation process, which in many countries - especially in the Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine and Croatia - took place nearby, not in the death camps, all of which were in Poland. Baltic death squads such as the Latvian Arajs Kommando and Lithuanian Ypatingas Burys and 12th Auxiliary Police Battalion were among the most deadly and the Croatian Ustasha earned notoriety for their savagery and cruelty."

     By joining forces with Fatherland and Freedom and Poland's Law and Justice, says Zuroff, "the Conservatives are granting important legitimacy to a false narrative that seeks to whitewash war crimes and erase the heroic victory of those who saved the world from Hitler and the Nazis."

     The UK-Latvia link is not an isolated phenomenon in Europe, where right-wing forces in many countries are pressing for bans against Communist political activity.

     Here in Canada, the federal Conservatives have hitched their wagon to a similar attempt to falsify history. Stephen Harper and Tory cabinet minister Jason Kenney have both encouraged the groups which initiated the proposal for a "monument to the victims of communism" on the grounds of the National Capital Commission.

     Historically, such efforts have always been part of a much wider effort by the ruling class and the big monopolies to crush working class resistance. The aim of the capitalist state and "independent" pro-fascist groups is to isolate and destroy the most militant fighters for revolutionary change - the Communists and their allies.

     The struggle to expose such fascist campaigns is vital for the future of the entire labour and democratic movement. As the Cold War period in North America showed, the largely successful attempt by the ruling class to remove Communists and other left-wing activists from the leadership of the trade unions was a vital step towards blunting the ability of the working class to fight back against right-wing policies.

     Workers in Canada and the U.S. paid a heavy price for that setback. The Ottawa monument proposal is part of a present-day campaign to whip up a new wave of anti-communism at a time when millions of working people are questioning the crisis-ridden capitalist system and looking for radical alternatives.