The new anti-capitalist party (NPA) is being launched in France this month. A translation of these greetings will distributed to attendees at the congress.
The militants of Socialist Resistance join with you in celebrating the launch of the NPA. The political recomposition of the workers' movement in Britain began little more than ten years ago. After a century in which for a long time there was no visible party to the left of Labour, the first steps forward have been taken. In the late 1990s, the Socialist Labour Party and Scottish Socialist Party were formed by class fighters who left the Labour party and attempted to build an alternative to social democracy. Those organisations experienced both successes and failures, but they inspired a political space which the Socialist Alliance and its successor, the Respect party, expanded in England and Wales.
The success of the Scottish Socialist Party inspired socialists to unite in England and Wales. In the same way, the launch of the NPA is inspiring anti-capitalists across, France, Britain and the world. The NPA can give a voice to the millions of people who oppose war, greed, global warming, racism and sexism. It can reverse the division and isolation that the working class has experienced, and provide a positive way forward.
This week Britain has seen a wave of unofficial strikes in which workers' grievances against the employers were transformed by the social democrats into a nationalist tragedy. We, and our comrades of the Fourth International in Britain, argue that the workers' movement in Britain must welcome and defend migrant workers to build united action against the employers. Instead, the leadership of the unions and of the Labour party have used slogans like 'British jobs for British workers', which help the employers to divide the working class. Because the anti-capitalist left in Britain is divided, a strong alternative voice cannot be heard to call for the unity of all workers.
In France, as in Britain, the social democratic and communist parties contain many honest defenders of the working class. The leaders of those parties, however, fail to provide a successful strategy for working people during these times of environmental and economic crises. They sacrifice the struggles of working people today in exchange for the dream of social democratic government in the future.
Although the social democratic parties are better known, we have seen that they are paper tigers. Both the Scottish Socialist Party and Respect have won mass support, on a level we previously thought impossible, as they fight for a society that protects people and the planet not private profit.
Already, at the moment of its birth, the NPA is far ahead of the successes we have had in Britain. You are developing the trust and self-confidence needed to honestly discuss the real difficulties and serious challenges ahead. Today we join you in an international celebration, and tomorrow we will join you in an international struggle!