12.03.1998

Open letters

The CPGB PCC has written to the NUJ Morning Star chapel and the CPB executive committee, declaring its support for the strike aims

NUJ Morning Star Chapel

Wednesday March 11 1998

Dear Comrades,

The Communist Party of Great Britain fully supports the current strike action by Morning Star journalists for the immediate reinstatement of sacked editor John Haylett and in defence of their rights as workers.

We recognise the self sacrifice of comrades who choose to work for a pittance at the Morning Star as their personal contribution to the workers’ movement. If Morning Star journalists and employees failed to stand up for their own rights as workers, they would be incapable of fighting for workers’ rights elsewhere, and their self sacrifice would be rendered meaningless.

In solidarity, we wish to offer the NUJ Morning Star Chapel space in the Weekly Worker, for the duration of the strike, to report developments, argue their case and mobilise support for their action.

Yours in solidarity,

Ian Farrell

for the Provisional Central Committee

Communist Party of Britain Executive Committee

Wednesday March 11  1998

Dear Comrades,

The Communist Party of Great Britain welcomes the replacement of Mike Hicks by Robert Griffiths as general secretary of the CPB, in the hope that this signifies a step away from the bureaucratic suppression of differences of opinion, towards a more open regime in both the CPB and the Morning Star.

The sacking of editor John Haylett has placed in jeopardy the very existence of the Morning Star, established and sustained by the hard work and self sacrifice of generations of communists. We call upon the CPB executive committee to recognise the need to open the columns of the Morning Star to all shades of opinion on the left, so that it can truly become “the daily paper of the left”. On this basis, all sections of the left could be drawn into the immediate struggle to save the paper from extinction, and then to sustain and develop it as a weapon in the class struggle.

As a gesture of comradeship, and as an encouragement to pursue the path of openness, we offer the CPB executive committee space in the Weekly Worker to make use of as it sees fit, for so long as the Morning Star is not available to it.

Yours in comradeship,

Ian Farrell

for the Provisional Central Committee