- The Guardian
- Issue #2000
Below are further greetings from our fraternal parties from around the globe, sending us messages of well wishes and solidarity. More will be published in the following issue.
PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY (PCP)
The Portuguese Communist Party conveys its warm greetings to the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Australia, which is being held under the slogan “Build the Party for a Socialist Future”, and through its delegates, to all the Communists and the working people of Australia. We want to wish success in the work of your Congress and in the strengthening of the struggle of the workers and Australian people.
We are living in troubled times, where grave dangers and threats coexist with great potential for progressive and revolutionary developments processes.
The structural crisis of capitalism has further revealed the system’s exploitative, aggressive, predatory and inhumane nature. Decades of US/NATO/EU wars of aggression and subversive campaigns of interference have targeted the peoples and countries that strove to preserve their sovereignty – from Europe to Latin America, from the Middle East to Asia and Africa – to impose imperialism world-wide hegemony. These have been accompanied by major offensives by the big capital against working people’s rights and living standards and the plunder of the world’s natural resources. Social inequality has reached shocking levels. Immense wealth has been accumulated by tiny minorities, at the same time as poverty grows, even in the heartlands of the great capitalist powers, such as the US or the great powers of the EU. Public money has been used to feed the profits of finance capital, rather than to help working people. This class offensive against the working class, farmers and other non-monopoly strata of society has been taken to new heights during the current pandemic, during which big capital has further increase its already massive accumulation of wealth, whilst at the same time attacking the livelihood and the rights of the peoples.
But the resistance to imperialism’s offensive never ceased and the world balance of forces is changing. All over the planet, working people and sovereign countries fight back – as has been seen in many countries, from occupied Palestine to Bolivia, from Syria to India, from Cuba to Venezuela. The enormous economic growth by other countries, namely the People’s Republic of China, have changed the economic balance of forces in the world. The limits of the capitalist economic system have also become increasingly clear, in particular after 2008. The response by the capitalist ruling classes has been to further enhance the exploitation of working people, a flight into unbridled financial speculation which is increasingly detached from any real productive base, and a growing trend towards authoritarianism, fascism and war. The danger of a new major conflict engendered by US imperialism and its allies is real. The struggle for peace is a key task for the communists and the workers’ movement in today’s world.
In this context is particularly serious the developments in the situation in Eastern Europe, which is inseparable from the dangerous strategy of tension and confrontation promoted by imperialism against the Russia Federation, involving the continuous expansion of NATO, the reinforcement of its offensive military apparatus along the borders of Russia and the instrumentalisation of Ukraine since the 2014 coup d’état, resorting to fascist groups, and which led to the imposition of a xenophobic and warmongering regime, whose violent action is responsible for the worsening of fractures and divisions and for eight years of war in that country. A US, NATO and EU strategy of tension and confrontation that finally led to a large-scale Russian military operations in Ukraine.
The PCP considers that is urgent the de-escalation of the conflict, the establishment of a cease-fire and the opening of a path of dialogue for a political solution to the conflict in Ukraine, for a response to collective security problems in Europe, for compliance with the principles of the UN Charter and the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference.
In Portugal, the PCP remains firmly committed to the struggle for the Portuguese workers’ and people’s rights, for a break with the right-wing policy and for a patriotic and left-wing alternative – which asserts national sovereignty and breaks with submission to the European Union and NATO –, for an advanced democracy with the values of the April Revolution, for socialism. In a very complex and difficult situation, we are committed to strengthening the mass struggle, to creating a broad social front. We are well aware that strengthening the ranks of our Party and our links with the masses is the key element that will enable us to resist and to achieve meaningful change and transformations in our country.
And we are also convinced that the grave situation and challenges which working people face all over the world demand a stronger international communist and revolutionary movement, that promotes a broad anti-imperialist front that can halt the race towards the abyss by the imperialism and ensure a future of peace, social progress and justice.
Reaffirming the greetings of friendship and solidarity of the Portuguese Communists, we express our desire to further strengthen the relations of friendship between our Parties, for the cause of the emancipation of the working class and the peoples of our two countries, of the emancipation of the working class and peoples of the whole world.
COMMUNIST PARTY OF VENEZUELA (CPV)
On behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (CPV) we greet you on the occasion of the celebration of the 14th Congress with the slogan “Build the Party for a Socialist Future.”
We wish you every success in the deliberations to build on the experience accumulated over a century of struggle for the Australian working class, on the national situation in the context of geopolitical issues and in the election of the new Central Committee. We await with great interest the conclusions of your Congress.
The Communist Party of Australia has shown throughout its long history and in the different stages of the class struggle in your country ideological firmness, based on Marxism-Leninism and political vision in the scientific combination of strategy and different tactics of struggle.
The CPV, always respecting the autonomy and independence of each party, has observed with interest the efforts of the CPA to advance a sovereign and independent policy. Also in this matter you can count on the full solidarity of the CPV.
From the Central Committee of the CPV we want to express our gratitude for the consistent solidarity of your Party with the Communist Party of Venezuela and the Venezuelan working class of the city and the countryside in the present political struggle which is creating a situation totally different from the one we have been used to during the last two decades of the political process.
We look forward to the deepening of the bilateral relations between our parties and express the high interest in maintaining the fraternal ties of friendship, solidarity and cooperation with the CPA. We look forward to continuing to share mutual political exchanges with our Australian Comrades.
We wish you good health and success in your high responsibilities.
With fraternal greetings,
Oscar Figuera
General Secretary
Carolus Wimmer
International Relations Secretary
TE NUKU MAUĪ LEFT PARTY
The Party Board of Te Nuku Mauī Left Party sends warm wishes to the members and delegates of the Communist Party of Australia on the occasion of your 14th Party Congress.
The Communist Party of Australia has a long-standing relationship with both the former Communist Party and Socialist Party of Aotearoa which together now form Te Nuku Mauī Left Party, and we are confident that this neighbourly and comradely relationship will continue.
From the increased militarisation of the Pacific Ocean, Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, which both our countries call home to a common commitment to workers’ and indigenous rights, CPA and Te Nuku Mauī have a shared interest in developing a socialist alternative on both sides of the Tasman. We look forward to deepening dialogue and exchange between our two parties.
Te Nuku Mauī hopes your party congress can produce fruitful decisions and allow the CPA to further unfold the red banner of socialism in Ahitereiria.
In solidarity,
Party Board
Te Nuku Mauī Left Party
IRAQI COMMUNIST PARTY
We convey the warmest greetings of Iraqi Communists to the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Australia. We are confident that this Congress will contribute to strengthening our fraternal Party and build on the rich experience of 101 years of struggle for the Australian working class and upholding the lofty ideals of socialism and communism.
The role of your Party is increasingly important in defending trade union rights against the onslaught of the capitalist system that has intensified with the deepening of the economic and financial crisis as a result of the COVID pandemic. It has also an important role in the struggle for Aboriginal land rights as well as the environment.
Your party is also an active force in defending the cause of world peace, at a time when imperialist warmongers and reactionary forces are whipping up cold war hysteria. This is demonstrated by your campaign against the AUKUS Treaty.
The Iraqi Communist Party successfully held its 11th National Congress during the period 24-28 November 2021 under the slogan: “For Comprehensive Change: A Democratic Civil State and Social Justice”. It was attended by more than 200 delegates and fifty observers. The opening ceremony that took place in central Baghdad was a mass event and received wide media coverage. It received messages from fraternal parties all over the world. Your party’s greeting message to the Congress was warmly received by the delegates. It was published in our party’s newspaper and media.
On this occasion, we express our appreciation for your Party’s international solidarity with the Iraqi people and Communists.
While wishing your 14th National Congress every success in its deliberations, we extend our wholehearted greetings to its delegates and all the members of our fraternal Party.
We look forward to strengthening the relations between our two parties in the joint struggle for peace, freedom, democracy, social progress and socialism.
Political Bureau
Iraqi Communist Party