The 10th Northern District Congress of the Communist Party of Britain was held at the Newcastle TUC Building on Saturday 9 June 2007.   The Congress:

• adopted the Report of Work of the retiring District Committee;
  accepted the Financial and Auditor’s Reports;
  unanimously agreed a Main Resolution based on the Draft Resolution of the retiring District Committee, but incorporating some 21 amendments from Branches;
  agreed two Branch Resolutions ;
  welcomed and received the EC Fraternal Address from General Secretary Robert Griffiths;
  unanimously elected a new District Committee of 8.

PRESS RELEASE 10 JUNE 2007

 “State monopoly capitalism is a corrupt, moribund system which is poisoning human society and the whole planet,” said Communist Party General Secretary Robert Griffiths in Newcastle upon Tyne on Saturday.

Speaking at the party’s Northern District Congress, Mr Griffiths censured the G8 summit for its failure to outline a post-Kyoto agreement to combat climate change, excoriated the cover-up over massive bribery in the BAe arms deal with Saudi Arabia, and slammed New Labour complicity in US secret ‘rendering-for-torture’ flights.

“These developments underline the extent to which New Labour represents the interests of state monopoly capitalism rather than the working class and the mass of the people”, he continued, stressing the importance of the Morning Star’s forthcoming “Politics After Blair” conference and the need for unity around a Left Wing Programme as elaborated by the CPB.

Earlier, in introducing the main resolution to the Congress, District Secretary Martin Levy had lambasted the impact of deindustrialisation in the region since New Labour’s election victory of 1997.  “There are high levels of ‘hidden unemployment’, average household incomes are the lowest in the UK, and there are more people living in deprived areas than in any other region”, he said.

Pointing to the relentless New Labour assault on the working class and public services, he welcomed the recent struggles by public sector workers but also stressed the need to build the Communist Party, with its vision and strategy for change.

Delegates unanimously adopted the main resolution and also a composite branch resolution condemning the government’s go-ahead for Trident replacement, but calling for diversification by BAe Systems to safeguard the jobs of shipyard workers at Barrow-in-Furness.