1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties


On 5–17 June 1969, an International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties was held in Moscow. The meeting occurred in the aftermath of the Sino-Soviet split and the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia. The preceding international meeting, held in Moscow in 1960, had been dominated by disputes between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on one hand and the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania on the other. By this time the split between the two poles had been finalized. Pro-Chinese elements were absent from this event. However the phenomenon of Eurocommunism had begun to emerge, which was notable amongst some of the delegations present.
Notably the Workers Party of Korea and the Workers Party of Vietnam, both cautious at the time to take a stand in the Sino-Soviet conflict, were absent.
The two main points of discussion of the conference was the strategy of cooperation with anti-imperialist forces and the centenary celebrations of the birth of Lenin. On both issues, the conference passed a document. The document on the Lenin birth centenary was passed unanimously, but the document on the alliances between communist parties and anti-imperialist forces was not signed by the Norwegian, Dominican and British delegations. The Italian, Sammarinese, Austrian and Reunionese delegations only signed one of the four parts of the document.

Participants

Delegation leaders in brackets. Names of some underground parties were left out in official conference reports, and are thus not included here. Participants in italics were from countries where the Communist Party was banned.

Socialist Bloc countries