Ali Ruckert is quick to climb the stairs of the headquarters of Luxembourg’s Communist Party (KPL) in Esch-sur-Alzette. Aged 71, the party chairman and director of the communist newspaper Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek has decided it is time to step down and make way for someone younger.

In a meeting room on the first floor, where amid old newspapers and cardboard boxes lies an old portrait of Lenin, Ruckert looks back on his life, and past and recent history, in a joint interview with Contacto and the Luxemburger Wort.

At the age of 71, and after 26 years at the head of the party, you have decided to step down from the KPL presidency. Who will be your successor?

I won’t be a candidate for the party presidency at the next congress, which will be held in the second half of this year. But in the press, the role of party president is often overestimated. In the KPL, important decisions are taken by the Central Committee. I admit I would like to remain on the Central Committee, but we need a fresh face for the presidency, someone younger, between 40 and 50 years old.

How do you try to convince younger people to embrace Marxist ideas?

It’s very difficult. Last year, we started distributing leaflets in front of secondary schools in the south of the country, against militarisation, against rearmament, against the government’s plans to create a reserve army. We noticed that many young people identified with our arguments. Two years ago, we didn’t have a single young activist in the party, now we have a dozen.

The party’s decline has been ongoing for decades. In the last elections, the KPL got less than 1% of the vote. How, in 26 years, have you found the strength to fight against the KPL’s increasingly obvious irrelevance?

I believe that the Communist Party is absolutely necessary to fight for the interests of the workers. Even if there are times when the party isn’t strong. Twenty years ago, in our statutes, it was written that you can only be party chairman for two terms – a total of eight years. The next congress decided to remove that from the statutes. And I voted against it, but the vast majority of delegates voted in favour.

Most of the workers in Luxembourg are foreigners. But the Portuguese community, which runs the country’s construction and service sectors, has little political influence. Do you think the KPL could have given more visibility to foreign workers?

We can always do more, because our party doesn’t differentiate between Luxembourgish, Italian or Portuguese workers. But the Luxembourg Communist Party is not very strong at the moment. Unlike all the parties that are members of the Chamber of Deputies, we don’t receive a single euro [of public funding]. We don’t have the means to do much propaganda, for example, or to distribute a newspaper throughout the country. But we have very good relations with the Portuguese Communist Party.

Do relations with the Portuguese Communists go back a long way?

During the Salazar dictatorship, our printing presses often printed the newspaper of the Portuguese communist resistance. Comrades who were underground in France or Germany would come to Luxembourg and then take the copies back to Portugal, where they would distribute them in secret. In addition, we often took part in the Festa do Avante festival. And there is one more thing: a member of our party cannot be associated with any other communist party in the world, except the Portuguese Communist Party.

Far-right populism is growing exponentially in Portugal and Europe. Do you think this is a political cycle or do you fear the arrival of a new world order?

It’s difficult to say anything definitive about this, but it is true that right-wing and far-right movements are on the rise. This is true throughout the European Union. Why is that? Also because the European Union has been committed to neo-liberal policies for 20 years and there are more and more people who can’t make ends meet. People have big problems and are looking for simple solutions. Unfortunately, it is the right, and especially the far right, that proposes these supposedly simple solutions. In reality, they are just engaging in demagogue politics and supporting the interests of big business.

Is the left also to blame for this growth of the far right?

Yes, of course, because it has forgotten the people, the ordinary people. The left has focused on the minorities of society, which is very good. But first and foremost it needs to address the problems of the people. And that hasn’t been done.

Ali Ruckert worked as a journalist in Moscow during the Soviet Union era © Photo credit: Chris Karaba

Most of the workers in Luxembourg are foreigners. But the Portuguese community, which runs the country’s construction and service sectors, has little political influence. Do you think the KPL could have given more visibility to foreign workers?

We can always do more, because our party doesn’t differentiate between Luxembourgish, Italian or Portuguese workers. But the Luxembourg Communist Party is not very strong at the moment. Unlike all the parties that are members of the Chamber of Deputies, we don’t receive a single euro [of public funding]. We don’t have the means to do much propaganda, for example, or to distribute a newspaper throughout the country. But we have very good relations with the Portuguese Communist Party.

Do relations with the Portuguese Communists go back a long way?

During the Salazar dictatorship, our printing presses often printed the newspaper of the Portuguese communist resistance. Comrades who were underground in France or Germany would come to Luxembourg and then take the copies back to Portugal, where they would distribute them in secret. In addition, we often took part in the Festa do Avante festival. And there is one more thing: a member of our party cannot be associated with any other communist party in the world, except the Portuguese Communist Party.

Far-right populism is growing exponentially in Portugal and Europe. Do you think this is a political cycle or do you fear the arrival of a new world order?

It’s difficult to say anything definitive about this, but it is true that right-wing and far-right movements are on the rise. This is true throughout the European Union. Why is that? Also because the European Union has been committed to neo-liberal policies for 20 years and there are more and more people who can’t make ends meet. People have big problems and are looking for simple solutions. Unfortunately, it is the right, and especially the far right, that proposes these supposedly simple solutions. In reality, they are just engaging in demagogue politics and supporting the interests of big business.

Is the left also to blame for this growth of the far right?

Yes, of course, because it has forgotten the people, the ordinary people. The left has focused on the minorities of society, which is very good. But first and foremost it needs to address the problems of the people. And that hasn’t been done.

How did you become a communist?

I joined the Communist Party when I was 16, when I was in high school. My father worked in the steel industry and my maternal grandfather was already a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s. I started reading Marx and Lenin and thought they were the right answers to changing society.

From 1978 to 1980, you lived in Moscow. How did that happen?

Since 1976, I had been a journalist for Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek [the official organ of the KPL]. When we ran out of money, I went to Moscow as a correspondent. I was there for three years and wrote two or three articles a week.

Were you paid by Luxembourg or Moscow?

Neither. The newspaper only paid my social security.

That was at the end of the Brezhnev years, a time of economic and social stagnation. Did you have the impression that something might go wrong in the Soviet system?

The Soviet Union was a strong economic power, but there were a number of problems. I’ve written about that too. Productivity in the factories was very low. A social system that cannot be more productive and function better than capitalism doesn’t really have a future. Marx, on the other hand, considered the economy to be the most important thing. The collapse was due, on the one hand, to interference from the US and other capitalist countries, but, on the other hand, it also had a lot to do with economic problems.

Ali Ruckert joined the Communist Party aged 16 © Photo credit: Chris Karaba

How did you become a communist?

I joined the Communist Party when I was 16, when I was in high school. My father worked in the steel industry and my maternal grandfather was already a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s. I started reading Marx and Lenin and thought they were the right answers to changing society.

From 1978 to 1980, you lived in Moscow. How did that happen?

Since 1976, I had been a journalist for Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek [the official organ of the KPL]. When we ran out of money, I went to Moscow as a correspondent. I was there for three years and wrote two or three articles a week.

Were you paid by Luxembourg or Moscow?

Neither. The newspaper only paid my social security.

That was at the end of the Brezhnev years, a time of economic and social stagnation. Did you have the impression that something might go wrong in the Soviet system?

The Soviet Union was a strong economic power, but there were a number of problems. I’ve written about that too. Productivity in the factories was very low. A social system that cannot be more productive and function better than capitalism doesn’t really have a future. Marx, on the other hand, considered the economy to be the most important thing. The collapse was due, on the one hand, to interference from the US and other capitalist countries, but, on the other hand, it also had a lot to do with economic problems.

Speaking of US interference,what is your opinion of Nicolás Maduro and what does his capture mean?

President Trump’s intervention in Venezuela is an expression of US imperialist policy. Venezuela is a sovereign country that has the right to make its own policy, to manage its wealth, its oil. But the United States has now decided that the entire continent belongs to them, and that they can make decisions for other states. They’ve kidnapped the president of Venezuela and are going to try him for drug trafficking, which is truly ridiculous, absurd. The United States wants to decide everything in Venezuela simply because the country has the largest oil reserves in the world.

But do you have a favourable opinion of Nicolás Maduro?

Maduro was elected despite some problems, but that’s no reason for military intervention in Venezuela. We, as a communist party, have also had problems with Mr Maduro regarding his politics, because in the last elections he prevented the communist party from presenting candidates, which is not very democratic. But this has nothing to do with the intervention of the United States, which we strongly condemn.

Crossing the Atlantic, what outcome do you foresee for the conflict in Ukraine?

I’m not a fortune-teller, but it has to be said that the conflict really began in 2014. Between then and 2022, more than 15,000 Ukrainians died because the puppet government in Kyiv at the time waged a military campaign against the population of the Donbass. That’s where the conflict began. When the Russian army entered Ukraine in 2022, I made a statement as chairman of the KPL that we were against this war. That if there are problems, they should be solved at the negotiating table. No media outlet published this statement.

Almost four years have passed since the Russian invasion. Has your view of the conflict changed as the war has unfolded?

Yes, it has. At the beginning of the war, the whole of Nato supported the Kyiv government – including the Luxembourg government, which also sent arms, money and who knows what else. But in the meantime, the United States has changed and is talking about negotiating peace. We are still of the opinion that we need to talk, otherwise we won’t get anywhere.

Some European Nato countries have been busy adding fuel to the fire, saying that Russia must be defeated with weapons. And that doesn’t lead to anything, it leads to more war. There should have been talks and negotiations since 2014.

The decline in the steel industry is directly linked to a drop in the Communist Party’s popularity in Luxembourg, according to Ali Ruckert © Photo credit: Chris Karaba

Speaking of US interference,what is your opinion of Nicolás Maduro and what does his capture mean?

President Trump’s intervention in Venezuela is an expression of US imperialist policy. Venezuela is a sovereign country that has the right to make its own policy, to manage its wealth, its oil. But the United States has now decided that the entire continent belongs to them, and that they can make decisions for other states. They’ve kidnapped the president of Venezuela and are going to try him for drug trafficking, which is truly ridiculous, absurd. The United States wants to decide everything in Venezuela simply because the country has the largest oil reserves in the world.

But do you have a favourable opinion of Nicolás Maduro?

Maduro was elected despite some problems, but that’s no reason for military intervention in Venezuela. We, as a communist party, have also had problems with Mr Maduro regarding his politics, because in the last elections he prevented the communist party from presenting candidates, which is not very democratic. But this has nothing to do with the intervention of the United States, which we strongly condemn.

Crossing the Atlantic, what outcome do you foresee for the conflict in Ukraine?

I’m not a fortune-teller, but it has to be said that the conflict really began in 2014. Between then and 2022, more than 15,000 Ukrainians died because the puppet government in Kyiv at the time waged a military campaign against the population of the Donbass. That’s where the conflict began. When the Russian army entered Ukraine in 2022, I made a statement as chairman of the KPL that we were against this war. That if there are problems, they should be solved at the negotiating table. No media outlet published this statement.

Almost four years have passed since the Russian invasion. Has your view of the conflict changed as the war has unfolded?

Yes, it has. At the beginning of the war, the whole of Nato supported the Kyiv government – including the Luxembourg government, which also sent arms, money and who knows what else. But in the meantime, the United States has changed and is talking about negotiating peace. We are still of the opinion that we need to talk, otherwise we won’t get anywhere.

Some European Nato countries have been busy adding fuel to the fire, saying that Russia must be defeated with weapons. And that doesn’t lead to anything, it leads to more war. There should have been talks and negotiations since 2014.

Where were you when the Berlin Wall fell?

In Luxembourg, working in the newspaper’s editorial department.

What did you think at the time?

That it was a very negative development. That Germany would return to its former greatness, but under capitalist conditions. And that then the social achievements that existed in the GDR [East Germany] would be destroyed for a long time, which in fact happened.

Gorbachev was leading the Soviet Union at the time. Did you think at the time that your reforms were an opportunity to renew socialism or the first step towards its liquidation?

At first, we thought it was a step towards renewal. In fact, more in the direction we have always advocated: socialism needs more democracy, it needs more participation by the population. At first, we thought it would go in that direction, but we quickly realised that Gorbachev and his supporters had no fundamental idea of how the economy should work. If a society wants to be productive, the economy has to work. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. And then we realised that the direction was to betray socialism.

The KPL, which in the 1960s had as many as six deputies in the Chamber of Deputies, also failed to recover from the fall of the bloc. Can you imagine a Communist Party in a capitalist country?

The 1960s were a glorious time for the economy. And the Communist Party was very much rooted in the steel industry. Almost 90% of the KPL’s activists were metalworkers. When the dismantling of the steel industry began, this led to a decline in the Communist Party’s influence.

How does the party finance itself today?

Our only source of income today is membership fees. And sometimes we receive small donations. But it’s maybe €100 or €200 at most. The donors are partly party members and partly sympathisers. We have an obligation to report all donations over €200. All of this can be found on the Ministry of State’s website. There’s nothing secret about it.

(This article was originally published by Contacto. Machine translated using AI, with editing and adaptation by John Monaghan)