São Paulo, July 9th, 2012
Dear comrades,
On behalf of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), we congratulate the South African Communist Party for its 13th Congress. We hope your congress will be full of political, organizational and ideological successes.
Your 13th Congress takes place in a context of impasses and turbulences in the international stage. The long-lasting and persistent financial, economic and social crisis of capitalism cannot find a way out, increasingly aggravating the situation of peoples and deepening international instability. The main capitalist countries find their economies paralyzed and heighten their impasses with the sharp increase of unemployment rates.
In Europe, where the crisis is more acute, combined measures - austerity packages and injections of money to bail out the bank system - curb economic development and deepen the social crisis. The crisis is concentrated mainly in Greece (where GDP fell 17.8% between 2008 and 2012), Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy. France and Great Britain are literally stagnating. There is no improvement in sight for 2013. Unemployment affects 17 million workers in the Euro Zone. In Greece and Spain, that rate reaches 20%. In developing countries, China and India are decelerating moderately.
The tension spots caused by the bellicose policy of the United States and its armed hand, NATO, in the Middle East, Iran and the Korean peninsula cannot escape the circle of fire stirred up by imperialist appetites. In Syria, the aggression reaches extreme levels by means of ostensive foreign provocation, as a direct armed intervention is prepared. Now it further aggravates with the open threat of France, with its new social-democratic government, in open opposition to Russia and China.
The fact that the long-lasting, persistent capitalist crisis spilled over the political sphere did not tip the balance to favor new political forces that could really led the alternative of overcoming the crisis in favor of workers and broad popular strata. To the contrary, there has been an increase in the action of right and far-right reactionary forces and of imperialism, where the dominant status quo has not changed and the policies aimed at safeguarding the very dominant circles responsible for the crisis prevail.
In Latin America and Caribbean especially in South America, living a new political situation where democratic and left-wing forces prevail, local pro-imperialist circles insist on provocations and prepare coups d`état. The recent coup perpetrated by conservative and reactionary forces in Paraguay, displacing president Fernando Lugo, who was elected by the broad majority of the people, is an example of that, as well as what happened in Honduras. Imperialism also tries to intervene in the elections in Venezuela, heavily financing anti-Chávez reactionary forces, in an attempt to revert the democratic and popular achievements that were reached with much effort.
In that context, the Communist Party of Brazil tries to forward its revolutionary accumulation of forces. In the next local elections, to be held next October, PCdoB expects to increase the number of mayors, including States capitals, therefore expanding its presence in local parliaments.
Taking part actively in the Dilma Rousseff´s administration, PCdoB struggles to carry out deep structural reforms that will allow taking steps towards improving economic and social development and the rights of workers.
As the SACP holds its 13th Congress, PCdoB reiterates its solidarity with the struggle of South African communists and reiterates our friendship and cooperation with your party.
Fraternal salutations,
Renato Rabelo
National President of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB)
Ricardo Alemão Abreu
Secretary of International Relations of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB)