CPGB-ML meeting honours Comrade George Habash


On 9 February 2008, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist Leninist) (CPGB-ML) organised a memorial meeting to honour the life and work of Al-Hakim, Comrade Dr George Habash, the founder and first Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of the Palestinian people, who passed away on 24 January 2008.

The place of the meeting was adorned with various portraits of Comrade Habash, the Palestinian flag and the flag and banner of CPGB-ML.

The meeting was chaired by Comrade Ella Rule, who also spoke on behalf of the Party, along with Comrade Ranjeet Brar, representing the Indian Workers’ Association (IWA GB) and Comrade Keith Bennett.  Invitations to speak were also extended to the New Communist Party and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), however they chose not to support the meeting.

In view of the political importance of the material contained in the speeches, and as our own tribute to Comrade Habash, we are reproducing them in this issue (see pp. 12-18).  A further tribute was paid with a revolutionary poem and song in Urdu in support of the anti-colonial struggles of the people of the world.

A lively discussion took place after the speeches in which the essential difference between the reactionary violence of the oppressor and the revolutionary violence of the oppressed was highlighted and clarified, as was the need to support the right of the Palestinian people to found a democratic secular state of Palestine in the whole of their historic homeland.

The meeting adopted a series of resolutions, including supporting a democratic secular state of Palestine; upholding the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants; demanding the restoration of the democratically-elected government of the Palestinian Authority, and a return to the Mecca Agreement, which advocates unity between the different wings of the liberation movement; and the release of all political prisoners, including the Palestinian parliamentarians, held by Israel.

Read the speeches:

Speech by Comrade Ella Rule, International Secretary of the CPGB-ML
Tribute delivered by Comrade Keith Bennett
Speech by Comrade Ranjeet Brar on behalf of Indian Workers Association (GB)