National Council of the Workers` Party of Belgium (PTB) to the 13th Party Congress of the South African Communist Party

Brussels, 22 July 2011

Dear Comrades,

On behalf of the National Council of the Workers` Party of Belgium (PTB), we express our warmest fraternal greetings on the occasion of the 13th Congress of your Party, taking place in Empangeni, from July 11 to 15, 2012. We are confident that your Congress will successfully tackle relevant ideological, political and organizational matters so as to help steer your Party and the masses forward in their struggle against imperialism and capitalism, with the perspective of socialism.

As in all places where imperialism and capitalism reign, the African masses are today reeling from the most severe world economic crisis since the 1930s. At the same time, several countries, including on the African continent, have been struggling against or are being threatened with imperialist aggression, be it by means of embargoes and sanctions, military intervention under a thin `humanitarian` veil or outright war.

While this is indeed a period of great suffering and misery, we, communists, see such crisis-ridden periods also as challenges full of opportunities to deal blows to our class enemies and advance the workers` and people`s struggles to a higher level. For many decades, the South African Communist Party has been at the forefront of the South African workers` and people`s relentless struggle for freedom and democracy, for justice and equal rights, for land and jobs, practicing a principled policy of a class-oriented united front. The SACP will continue to lead the masses towards their liberation from oppression and exploitation, towards their socialist future.

For the crisis of the world capitalist system also points to the necessity of an alternative society and mode of production, of socialism. It is but the Communist Party that is able to concretize this vision into a material force for societal change, in South Africa as elsewhere.

We wish you success with your 13th Party Congress, and look forward to further developing and deepening the internationalist ties of friendship and solidarity between our two parties.

Bert De Belder

Member of the National Council

Head of the Department of International Relations

Workers` Party of Belgium (PTB)