‘Britain’s communists condemn without reservation the barbarous murders in Paris of journalists and other civilians by jihadist terrorists’, Communist Party of Britain General Secretary Robert Griffiths declared at the weekend during the first meeting of the CPs new executive committee.
‘Hard-won democratic and human rights must always be defended against reactionary elements and states that seek to undermine and destroy them’, he told the two-day meeting at the CP headquarters in Ruskin House, Croydon.
Mr Griffiths also reaffirmed the Communist Party’s long-standing commitment to secularism, multiculturalism and working class unity against all forms of racism – including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia – and religious fundamentalism.
But he slammed the ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘double standards’ of politicians and commentators who deplored the shooting of Charlie Hebdo journalists last Thursday, yet who had justified the US and NATO bombing of Serbian and Al-Jazeera television stations during the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, killing many more broadcasters and civilian workers.
‘It should be remembered that the seeds of Islamist terrorism were sown by the US, British and NATO interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning with Western and Saudi Arabian backing for the mujahideen and Osama Bin Laden against progressive, pro-women regimes in Kabul’, the CP leader pointed out.
