'NO TO PUTIN'S WAR, NO TO NATO!' SAY COMMUNISTS

Britain's Communists have reiterated their opposition to Russian president Putin's invasion of Ukraine and urged people to step up the campaign for a ceasefire and a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

'The working class and peoples of Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere will not be the winners of this war', Carol Stavris told the Communist Party's executive committee at the weekend. The CP women's organiser highlighted the huge and lasting impact of the Russian offensive on hundreds of thousands of women and children fleeing Ukraine.

'Meanwhile, the giant armaments and energy corporations are reaping super-profits as they intensify the cost of living crisis in Britain and elsewhere', she noted.

Ms Stavris warned that the Ukraine War is being used to boost fossil fuel industries, with fresh oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, an end to Britain's ban on fracking and a major increase in US exports of fracked oil and gas to Germany in place of Norstream imports from Russia.

'The British and US governments show no signs of pushing for a peaceful settlement', she charged, pointing to recent Tory government decisions to send more arms to Ukraine and more troops to Poland.

Ms Stavris accused Prime Minister Johnson and President Biden of putting the expansion of NATO and the weakening of Russia before the search for peace. 

She also accused the owners and controllers of Britain's mass media corporations of trying to discredit and silence anti-war and anti-NATO voices, with the assistance of Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.

Britain's Communists expressed their solidarity with peace campaigners around the world, including in Russia, and reaffirmed their view that NATO is a force for instability and conflict rather than for security and peace.

The CP executive welcomed the upsurge of industrial action against real-terms pay and pension cuts as millions of workers and families face the growing cost of living crisis.

'Wall-to-wall coverage of the Ukraine War must not be allowed to crowd out coverage of workers' battles to resist and defeat employers' attacks', Ms Stavris insisted, criticising the TUC decision to call off its 'Britain needs a pay rise' during the Tory Party conference in Blackpool on March 19.

The CP executive approved plans to contest local council seats in England, Scotland and Wales this May, with its candidates campaigning for more public sector housing, an end to privatisation and outsourcing and the renationalisation of gas, energy and water.  

Robert Griffiths

General Secretary