Communist Party ‘On the threshold of a new phase of development’.

Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths has issued the following statement today (November 10) following the party’s 56th congress on November 6-7.
The Communist Party in Britain is now at the threshold of substantial growth in size and influence in the labour and progressive movements.  Last weekend’s 56th congress marked the party’s emergence into a new phase of development after the long struggle to re-establish it since 1988.  The weekend’s debate and decisions reflected a unity and confidence that will stand the CP in good stead over the next two years. There were many more younger delegates than previously, itself a product in part of the great progress being made by the Young Communist League.  The 56th congress itself was attended by around 150 voting and consultative delegates, representing a CP membership that has risen by almost two-thirds to more than 1,200 since the previous congress in 2018.  International guests included representatives from the embassies of China, Cuba and Vietnam and from Communist and workers’ parties in Afghanistan, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Portugal, the Russian Federation and Spain.  Among the decisions last weekend were those to engage in major campaigns on the climate crisis and the public ownership of energy and against the ‘new Cold War’ declared by the Western imperialist powers against China.  Other important policy areas discussed by delegates included the ‘New Deal for Workers’, women’s rights, progressive federalism, racism, housing and homelessness, transport, the ‘Green New Deal’, gender politics, anti-Semitism, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine and Britain’s nuclear weapons programme.  The congress also elected the Communist Party’s executive committee for the next two years: Nisar Ahmed, Sonya Andemahr, Andy Bain, Mollie Brown, Andrea Burford, Sean Cannon, Ben Chacko, Andy Chaffer, Tony Conway, Mary Davis, Lorraine Douglas, Alex Gordon, Bill Greenshields, Moz Greenshields, Robert Griffiths, Jonathan Havard, Richard Hibbert, Johnnie Hunter, Bernadette Keaveney, Tam Kirby, Hugh Kirkbride, Gawain Little, Sarah McDonough, David Morgan, Tommy Morrison, Kevan Nelson, Evan Pritchard, Carol Stavris, Ruth Styles, Robin Talbot, Jade Welburn.