Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths said today
‘Democrats, socialists and communists the world over are today mourning the death and celebrating the life of comrade Nelson Mandela.
He lived and sacrificed for all the people of South Africa and inspired people throughout the world with his courage and humanity.
Like many who struggle for social and national liberation, he worked closely with the communists and was even, briefly, a member of the South African Communist Party’s central committee while heading Umkhonto We Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress.
He refused to leave prison until De Klerk’s regime agreed to lift the ban on the SACP and refused pressure from the US to stint in his lavish praise of the role played by Cuba and the Soviet Union in the long struggle against apartheid.
Britain’s communists extend our condolences to South Africa’s people and will maintain our solidarity with all those striving to realise Nelson Mandela’s aspirations for a democratic, multiracial and socially just South Africa.
We also rededicate ourselves to the fight for other causes close to Madiba’s heart, not least for peace instead of imperialist war, for national sovereignty for the peoples of Africa, for the closure of Guantanamo Bay concentration camp and for national statehood for the Palestinian people’.
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