Dear Comrades,

The Portuguese Communist Party warmly greets the delegates to the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and, through you, all the Communists and working people of India. We wish you success in your Congress proceedings, and hope that your decisions will help strengthen the CPI(M) and the struggle of the working class and all working strata of the people of your vast country.

The peoples of the world are today facing a very serious and dangerous international situation. At the root of this situation lies the deepening of the structural crisis of capitalism and its expressions in all spheres. The end of the USSR and of the socialist camp in Eastern Europe at the end of the 20th Century ushered a period of unbridled offensive by imperialism against the achievements and advances won by workers and peoples in their struggle for social and national emancipation. For over three decades, criminal and illegal wars of aggression were waged in many corners of the world, from Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, to other countries. Any attempts at sovereign developments at the service of the peoples’ interests were met with subversions, multi-faceted acts of aggression, sanctions and blockades, as in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and many other countries. China and Russia and any country that did not submit to imperialist diktats was increasingly targeted in this attempt to preserve a world-wide hegemony of the US, namely with the support of the UK and EU imperialist powers.

An ever-expanding NATO was transformed into a world instrument at the service of this strategy of world domination, in addition to investing in other alliances and partnerships, such as AUKUS or QUAD. At the same time, a major class offensive was unleashed against the working class and all non-monopoly strata of societies. In many countries the rights, achievements and living standards of working people came under a brutal assault, a fact that is inseparable from the world-wide offensive of imperialism. Massive human migrations and trafficking of human beings have also become a hallmark of our times.

All of this could not prevent the emergence of a full-scale crisis of the capitalist system, that became evident in 2007-8 and which was never overcome, despite the enormous sums of public money that were spent to prop up a decaying financial system. The crisis of capitalism and, more recently the Covid pandemic, were used as further pretexts to destroy working peoples’ living standards and rights, whilst the wealthiest sectors of the ruling class increased even further their obscene concentrations of wealth, exponentially increasing social inequalities and development asymmetries between countries.

The eight years of war in Ukraine and Russia’s recent military intervention in this country is a direct result of the 30-year long confrontation policy of imperialism – which has intensified in recent years, particularly against China and Russia – that is, of a long period of onslaught against international law by the US, NATO and EU powers and the ruling classes of these countries, who now pretend to be peace-loving doves but who, having been responsible for decades of wars and aggressions, have no moral authority to criticise the events that are unfolding. All the more so, since imperialism’s response is to further intensify their militaristic and war-mongering traits, with the very real risk of leading humankind to a major catastrophe.

It is of paramount importance for the peoples of the world to halt the race towards the abyss. Today, as in the past, it is up to the workers and the peoples to fight for peace and to reject all attempts to further sacrifice the peoples to the lust for world domination by imperialism. The Communists and other revolutionaries of the world should be at the forefront of the struggle to create an anti-imperialist front that can defend peace and live up to its historic responsibilities in our troubled times.

In this very difficult context, the Portuguese Communist Party is doing its utmost to mobilise the Portuguese working people in the struggle for peace, to defend their living standards against the spiralling cost of living and the attacks which, under multiple pretexts, are being carried out against their rights and working conditions. We are firmly convinced that it is only through the struggle of the masses that it will be possible to defeat the right-wing policy – including the subservience to the EU, NATO and the US – and open the path to an alternative, patriotic and left-wing policy, at the service of our people and our country, to an advanced democracy with the April revolution values, to socialism.

And we are well aware that an indispensable condition for this path lies in strengthening our Party, its link with the Portuguese workers and people, so that it can fulfill its national tasks, its internationalist duties, its historical responsibility. The mass rally that, on March 6th of this year, culminated the celebrations of the PCP’s Centenary, was an act of resistance and an encouraging response in this direction.

Dear Comrades,

Reaffirming the bonds of friendship and solidarity between our two Parties and the will to strengthen them, we renew our wishes of a fruitful 23rd Congress that will enable the CPI(M) to strengthen its ranks and its activity on all fronts, in defence of the interests of the Indian working class and all working people, of the workers and peoples all around the world.

Long live the friendship between the Portuguese Communist Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)!

Central Committee

Portuguese Communist Party

Communist Party of Brazil

DEAR comrades,

It is with great joy that we salute the leaders and militants of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for holding its 23rd Congress. The CPI(M) is a party whose political and theoretical formulations are valued by the entire world revolutionary movement.

The proposed political resolution of the 23rd Congress has points of great identity with the PCdoB’s elaborations.

We are in full agreement when the CPI(M) points out that the Covid-19 pandemic has unmasked the cruelty of imperialism and the bankruptcy of neoliberalism, further exacerbating the systemic crisis of capitalism, without a solution since 2008.

In addition to its great theoretical capacity, the CPI(M) is an example of struggle, as demonstrated once again in the struggle against Narendra Modi’s government showing that the communists in India are combative in defense of democracy and national sovereignty.

We also thank you for your solidarity with the Brazilian people since the coup against president Dilma in 2016. Now we are struggling to defeat Bolsonaro and elect presidente Lula da Silva next October.

We take the opportunity to reinforce our desire to strengthen our parties friendship, cooperation and solidarity.

With all the best wishes for the 23rd Congress.

Ana Maria Prestes,

International Relations Secretary, PCdoB