p Comrade Chairman and Comrades,

p The General Secretary of our Party was to have addressed this conference, but due to illness, he is unable to attend our sessions, and as a result of this our contribution will be very brief. But we felt we could not let so great, and historic an occasion pass without making our contribution, however brief it may be.

p On behalf of the Executive Committee and the delegation of the Communist Party of Northern Ireland, I bring warm fraternal greetings to this Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties and to the representatives of all the Parties taking part.

p Our Party believes that this world Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties is both timely and necessary.

p Though imperialism may be losing its power in the world today, it is still dangerous and aggressive. This is to be seen in the bloody and aggressive war being waged against the heroic people of Vietnam in spite of the world outcry against the imperialist aggressors. It is seen in the Middle East war and in the rise of neo-nazism in West Germany and the right-wing military coup in Greece.

p It is seen in the huge arms bill of the imperialist countries, headed by the United States, and in the penetration of the big monopolies in other countries, for bigger and better profits.

p In Northern Ireland this monopoly penetration has now engulfed banking, insurance, property, industry and distribution of goods. But it has not solved a single problem for the thousands of our people who are unemployed, or have to emigrate. Our workers and peasants are still the biggest export of our country.

p Just recently the Northern Ireland government, which hands out millions of pounds to the monopolies in the form of free grants for the building of factories and for machinery, etc., had to admit that their planned target for economic development would have to be changed due to the capitalist financial crisis. The effect of this is to reduce the number of homes, schools and hospitals to be built, and cut plans for more jobs and other development.

p Since October of last year, as a result of a vicious attack by the police on a peaceful demonstration for civil rights in one of our cities, our people have increased one-hundred-foid their struggle for democratic rights and civil liberties.

p Though the government has promised reforms, it rushes repressive legislation through parliament, in an attempt to curb the demonstrators at the same time.

p In the period since October of last year, the civil rights struggle has split the ruling Unionist Party, has brought about a general election, caused ministerial resignations, and ensured that the actions of the government will be viewed with severity by the working class of Britain and the world.

p In this we wish to acknowledge the active help our Party and people receive from the Communist Party of Britain, the Australian Communist Party, also from working-class organisations in the United States and from the publication of our problems in journals such as New Times and various other publications of the USSR.

p The struggle of our people for civil rights has brought to the notice of the peoples of the world the reactionary nature of our ruling party, who by repressive legislation, known as the "Special Powers Act", can imprison our people without trial. But it has done more than this, it has united the political parties who are opposed to the ruling party on a greater scale than we have seen for many years, and our Party figures prominently among them.

p This is in line with the programme of our Party, which calls for unity of all the opposition forces as the only real alternative to the ruling Unionist Party which uses sectarianism and politico-religious means to divide the working class of our country.

p It is this call of our programme that is the main guide to our approach to the Main Document of the conference.

p In the conditions that exist in our country, our Executive Committee would have prepared a shorter document, since in Ireland, both North and South, the tempo of the struggle against imperialism and imperialist ideology is rising.

p Nevertheless our Executive agrees that there is much that is good in the Document, since its main emphasis is on the struggle against imperialism. Our Executive is prepared to stand by its conclusions and apply them to our conditions ’^here possible.

p We will also give our full support to the other documents before the conference. We have listened, with great admiration, to the achievements and economic advances of the socialist countries, and particularly to the impressive outline, given by Comrade Brezhnev of the labours and achievements of the Soviet Union. This is the answer to the wage freezers, credit squeezers and the monopolists who are intervening more and more in the role of the capitalist state.

p Socialism, not capitalism, is the main driving force of society today.

On behalf of our Executive Committee and our delegation we wish to thank the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet people for their hospitality and for the excellent facilities they have provided for this conference, also we would like to thank once again our Hungarian comrades for their work in the arrangements for the Preparatory Committee meeting in Budapest; and last, but not least, all the Parties and delegations who helped to make this world conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties a great success.