(The following article is from the May 16-31,  2010 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

The following joint statement marking the 65th anniversary of the defeat of fascism has been issued by several dozen Communist and Workers' parties, including the Communist Party of Canada

On May 9th, we commemorate 65 years of the victory over Nazi-fascism - the most violent and brutal expression of monopoly domination in a capitalist system in deep crisis - which led humanity to one of the worst catastrophes of its history, with the barbarity of concentration camps and the Second World War's procession of death and destruction for the peoples.

     The communists were on the frontline from the very first moment, mobilising and organising workers and peoples in the resistance. The anti-fascist struggle was marked by the firm and determined action of the communists, to which millions gave their lives.

     The heroic contribution of the USSR, of its Red Army and of its people, which suffered around 27 million deaths, was decisive for the victory over the fascist hordes.

     It was with the victory in 1945 and the formation of the socialist camp that millions of men and women undertook their emancipation, freeing themselves from exploitation, oppression and colonialism, with the working class movement winning enormous social and political victories on a progressive path never before attained in human history.

     In the current situation, at a time of capitalism's deep crisis in which the imperialist offensive is hitting so seriously the toiling masses, humanity is again facing great dangers resulting from imperialism's deepening contradictions, from the arms race, from the reinforcement of aggressive military alliances and from the attempt to forcefully impose a brutal intensification of exploitation, precariousness in labour relations, dismissals and unemployment, poverty and the negation of the most basic necessities for millions of working people.

     In commemorating the 65th anniversary of the victory over Nazi-fascism as an important action of struggle for peace, we also condemn the monumental falsification of history which currently tries to place fascism and communism on an equal footing and to erase the communists' decisive role in the peoples' liberation from the yoke of Nazi-fascism. This anti-communist campaign - which, as history proves, is always anti-democratic - seeks to make illegal and suppress not just the actions of the communists, but of all democrats who oppose capitalist domination and exploitation and who resist and fight in an organised manner against monopoly and imperialism.

     For us communists, evoking the 65 years of the victory is to reaffirm our deep belief in the struggle for social emancipation, in the justice of our values and liberating ideals. We reaffirm our determination to fight against the forces which were at the root of the fascist horror. We reaffirm our unshakeable confidence that the future does not belong to those who oppress and exploit, but to the workers and peoples who resist and fight for humanity's emancipation from the shackles of the exploitation, and for a society in which the workers fully enjoy the fruits of their labour, and in which social progress, peace and welfare prevail. The future belongs not to capitalism, but to socialism and communism.