Dear comrades,

The New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) of France brings you its warmest greetings for your 5^th congress.

We wish in particular to salute the efforts that you have made to build a strong progressive and popular political force, independent of established power systems, capable of offering an v and solidarity alternative to talibanism and religious fundamentalisms, to militarism and to the bourgeois clientelist parties. We feel all the closer to your combat in that we are us also engaged in the construction of a new political force, characterized at the same time by its opening to the various traditions of the French radical left, by being openly opposed to the neoliberal policies of the right, and completely independent of a “governmental left” which has once again betrayed popular aspirations.

While we can easly identify with your combat, we also know that you are active under much more difficult and dangerous conditions than is the case for us today, in France. You are threatened with repression from the secret service and the army, of the militia in the service of the bosses and the property owners, of the religious extremists. You have already paid the price in blood for your engagement and your militants risk arbitrary detention permanently.

We salute all the more the courage with which you defend the democratic rights of all including of the religious minorities; the courage with which you contribute to the strengthening of the social movements - women, youth, peasants and workers; with which you affirm your internationalism in the anti-war movements (in particular Indo-Pakistani) and regional or world social forums; with which you fight against the patriarchal traditions; with which you defend a secular alternative in a country torn by fundamentalisms. We are with you in the opposition to the US and European imperialism, to the intervention of the United States and NATO (including the French Army) in Afghanistan and at the Pakistani border.

We greet the way in which you knew how to face up in these last years to a changing political situation, that was always very difficult for the popular movements. We are convinced that with the workers and peasants conference of January 29^th, your congress will be the occasion of a new step forward for you.

Receive our internationalist solidarity,

Alain Castan
For the NPA (France)