Greeting from the Workers’ Party of Ireland

To: Central Committee

Communist Party of Canada

 20 May 2016

Dear Comrades,

The Workers Party of Ireland wishes to send warm comradely greetings to the Communist Party of Canada on the occasion of its 38th Convention which is taking place in Toronto on 21-23 May.

The CPC stands on firm socialist principles, defending and advancing the demands and interests of Canadian workers, and promoting a programme of full employment, higher wages, taxation of the wealthy, the expansion of social and housing programmes, the protection of labour rights, justice for Aboriginal peoples, full gender equality, nationalisation of energy, natural resources, and the banks and withdrawal from NATO.

Austerity is not an accident. It is not neutral. Austerity is ideological. It is an inevitable consequence of the failed system in which we live where everything is judged by the yardstick of profit and built on inequality, exploitation and waste and which exists for the benefit of capital and big business.  Under capitalism those who produce the wealth of the country, the working people, do not own it. Austerity has been used to make working people pay for a crisis which is not of their making. It has been used to wage war on the public sector, to prepare large areas of the public sector for privatisation. It has caused immense suffering to the working class. The problem must be tackled at its root by challenging the ownership and control of the economic system

Real, fundamental, transformative change requires a break with the present system to create a world where the working class controls its own destiny and which maximises human potential, dignity and development rather than a system driven by the relentless pursuit of profit for the benefit of the few. Exploitation will only be ended under a radically transformed social, economic and political system where the capitalist system is abolished and where the working class controls its own destiny – socialism.

Dear Comrades,

The Workers’ Party of Ireland recognises that the Communist Party of Canada stands for the victory of socialism in Canada and throughout the world.

The WPI conveys its best wishes to Liz Rowley, the first woman to become the central leader of the CPC. We also convey our warm wishes to Miguel Figueroa who has stepped down from the Party leadership for health reasons after serving in this office for 23 years. Miguel is well known to the Workers Party of Ireland and throughout the international movement, having been a prominent representative of  the CPC at the annual Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties.

 

The Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of Ireland salutes the Canadian communists in their continuing struggles and sends best wishes to the leadership and members of the Communist Party of Canada on the occasion of your 38th Convention.

Yours in solidarity,

Gerry Grainger

International Secretary

Central Executive Committee

Workers Party of Ireland