Britain, Communist Party of Britain [En.]

To the Central Committee

Communist Party of Greece

24 March 2013

MESSAGE OF INTERNATIONAL GREETINGS TO THE 19TH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE FROM THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRITAIN

Dear Comrades

The Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Britain sends its international greetings and solidarity to the Communist Party of Greece on the occasion of its 19th Congress.

We have read with great interest the Theses of the Central Committee prepared for the Congress.  We note in particular:

·                    Your characterization of the crisis as one of capitalism in its imperialist phase in which inter-imperialist rivalries intensify but are also combined with a common drive by imperialist powers to break working class resistance

·                    Your emphasis on the determination of the Greek ruling class to utilize this crisis, through the institutions of the European union and directly, to weaken all opposed class forces

·                    Your stress on the continuing ability of the Greek ruling class to manipulate the parliamentary system to co-opt and control opposition, to utilize both opportunist leftism and racism and fascism to divide working people

·                    Your call for resistance to all aspects of the ‘austerity programme’ and for the creation of People’s Committees and a People’s Alliance by which organisations of the working class can broaden their front of opposition to include the unemployed, semi-proletarian strata and farmers

·                    Your determination to keep the objective of socialism at the forefront of the political struggle

Your party’s struggle is of central importance for working people in Britain and your experience in developing a People’s Alliance is of direct relevance to our own objectives. 

Working people in Britain face very similar challenges.  A weakened British imperialism today seeks close alliance with the United States in order to exploit joint interests within the European Union and globally:

·                    Our party seeks to rally the trade union movement to use its industrial strength against the policies of the current Coalition government which represent the anti-people interests of our ruling class

·                    We call for the creation of a popular democratic anti-monopoly alliance that can unite around the working class all those strata whose objective interests are injured by the dominance of finance capital and its intensifying drive to undermine democratic gains

·                    Our party opposes the European Union as a key instrument of this anti-democratic drive by the British ruling class.

·                    Our party stands opposed to NATO membership and immediately to the drive to war in the Middle East and interventions in Syria and North Africa

·                    We call for the elimination of Britain’s nuclear weapons, for an end to complicity with Israel and for solidarity with the Palestinian people in securing their rights as defined in UN resolutions

Dear Comrades, our two parties have had historic links of common struggle – against fascism and against the anti-people aggressions of the Cold War.

Today we send you our solidarity for your struggle to uphold democracy and workers’ rights and for your defence of the interests of all Greek working people

Your resistance has served as a beacon for working people across Europe.

We wish you every success in the work of your Congress and in charting a course that can defeat the forces of imperialism and reaction.

With our warmest international greetings

ROBERT GRIFFITHS

General Secretary