On behalf of the Communist Party of Sudan I would like to express our gratitude to the Communist Party of Greece for making it possible for the Communist Party of Sudan to take part in this very important gathering.

At the same vein we would like to congratulate the Communist Party of Greece for its eighth Anniversary as well as all of you on the occasion of 150 years after the First Communist Manifesto was announced. It is very befitting on this moment to celebrate these events with joy and proud hands in hands together united fighting the policy of domination and neo Liberalism and forward.

Since the military coup in Sudan 1989 which brought the National Islamic Front to power, the ruling junta has pursued a disastrous economic policy, against the national interest in favor of Islamic businesses seeking speedy enrichment at the expenses of the Sudanese people, engage in plunder, extortion hoarding while transferring their ill-gotten gains abroad. On the other hand the NIF regime at Khartoum adopted policy of war which leads to escalation of civil war, bombardment of civilian targets, the civil war, re-ignited in Southern Sudan in May 1983, has been intensified by the current government's drive for a military solution, bringing the estimated death toll in Southern Sudan to over 1.5 million. Millions of people have been displaced: massive and upheavals of communities have been promoted by killing, rapes, slaves and destruction of villages and crops. Now 350,000 people on the brink of starvation in Bahar el Ghazal, south of the country. Apart from the estimated 350,000 in Bahar el Ghazal region of south-west Sudan, a similar number face a slightly less serious situation in western Upper Nile and Eastern Equatorial provinces. In addition the government of the National Islamic Front (NIF) in Khartoum is using food as weapon against inhabitant in the area controlled by the opposition the Sudan People's Liberation Movement SPLM. Efforts to help those in need are being hampered by the Sudanese government's insistence that all aid flights-even to areas which have been in hands of the SPM for years- be cleared by Khartoum a month in advance. What is happening in the Southern Sudan mainly in Bahar el Ghazal is inhuman it can not be tolerated. Even after the horrible pictures featured in international news there is no serious effort to save lives of children, women and elderly people in the famine affected areas. In the eve of 21^st century people of Sudan are experiencing slavery and dying of hunger!

After the military operation that started on October 1996 in Northern part of our country, the Sudan entered a new phase in our people's struggle to up rooted the National Islamic Front. New political situation has emerged. The armed struggle in North has started for the first time after more that a century, within the framework of the comprehensive strategy of the National Democratic Alliance NDA- and according to the resolution of Asmara Declaration June 1995. A war front has been established extending from Nuba Mountains across the South, through the South East to Eastern Sudan. The regime in Khartoum for the first time finds itself threatened by battle grounds close to the site of the central authorities. The regime was forced so as to face this serious threat to mobilize all its capabilities and potentialities along the new front. This is in addition to the war already taking place in the South and Nuba Mountains. Although the regime kept boasting that the door for popular uprising is definitely closed yet it became to realize that the new development actually indicate that conditions are becoming clear for the popular uprising.

The regime is trying to misinform the international public opinion by allegations of foreign military intervention with danger that threaten Islam and Arab nationalism in the Sudan, and menace that looms over security and water interest of Egypt at the Nile sources. There are circles in the Arab countries and perhaps else where else who confuse between the demagogic propaganda and the genuine anti imperialist stance. Besides Moslem Brothers and fundamentalist organisations who sympathize with the National Islamic Front, there are the Arab nationalist parties and organisations who confused, either because of ignorance of what is happening inside Sudan or because of their sympathy with battles launched by Hisballah, Hamas and fundamentalist movements including the regime in Sudan.

The Communist Party of Sudan has indicated categorically it view on armed struggle of the NDA which reference to the shortcoming and loop-holes in tackling the problem of armed struggle in Asmara Conference as well as the lack of a clear -cut strategy and particle program for the political and military commissions can give way to the emergence of paternalist or romantic reaction of adventurist mentality. The need for close co-ordination between the NDA inside and outside the country, especially in military issues, so that the recent development and the future of the armed struggle could not lead to difference in appraisal as it closely inter connected with the issue of armed popular uprising and the role of each in toppling the regime which determine the trend in developing the NDA armed force built-up. The rational, sober and objective dialogue which lead to the consolidation and unity of the NDA ranks is a necessity. Our principled position is that the armed struggle is not a substitution or alternative to the popular uprising but a complementary and supporting factor.

The objective of our party is to consolidate the unity of the NDA and close all loop holes possible and keep vigilant any attempt to sow divisions based on ethnic or racist bias between the SPLM on one hand, and the Northern political forces on the other. We will adhere to our principled stance as regard the armed struggle and will continue to provide what necessary for the enhancement, protection and success of the popular uprising.

As far as the thesis of reconciliation and peaceful resolution of Sudan ordeal, we in the Communist Part welcome any initiative leading for peaceful and democratic outlet the Sudan crisis, but it is very important to differentiate between the reconciliation with the fascist regime which means reconciliation with the terrorism, deposition, totalitarianism. Organized crime corruption and also overlooking the gravest crime against humanity ever committed in all history of the Sudan. The peaceful solution means peaceful dismantling of the NIF regime and restoration of democracy and the rule of law without bloodshed, while adhering to the principle of accountability of perpetrators and their right for a just trial in front of an independent court. That's why we have continued our terms of reference towards a peaceful initiative, focusing on the following:

1. The termination of the NIF regime and its political system

2. The restoration of democracy based on political and part pluralism and

respect of human rights

3. Instigation of legal action against anybody who had participated in the plotting and execution of the military coup of June 30, 1989 and all those who had contributed to the establishment of the dictatorial regime or had committed crime against the homeland or humanity.

4. Commitment to the NDA Charter and the Asmara Declaration 1995 and the principle issues.

There are two conflicting trends posting their solution for the Sudanese crisis: The trend of the political and social forces that are aware of the lessons of the previous experiences and practices after independence and the trend that do not care to revert to the same practices that led to the conflicts in our country. In fact the mere acceptance of the project of reconciliation with the NIF regime means the implicit approval of the salvation of the NIF project to rule Sudan and thereby the perpetuation of the chronic turbulent crisis in our country and the disregard of all hopes and aspiration of our people expressed in the Asmara Declaration 1995.

We in the Communist Party believe that it is essential to block the way in front of those social and political forces which do not want to drop completely the option of Islamic state and do not want exclude the NIF from political sense. They want to exploit them in the future in the forthcoming fight against the democratic and progressive forces and the future social and political conflicts. It is in the interest of democracy and, national unity and social progress that all grantees for supremacy of democracy have to be provided and the elimination of all obstacles that our people in their historical development acknowledge.

The building of a democratic Sudan of National unity and social progress requires the existence of guarantees for the protection of human rights, the supremacy of democracy, the rule of law. This can not be achieved if the NIF remains unaccountable for all crimes committed by its regime in political, economic, cultural, religion and social fields.

One of the prominent developments in our party in the last decades was growth of faith in democracy and pluralism as the best means of stimulating and motivating our people on the road to progress and to end the chronic crisis of governance in our country revealing since independence. Our party continued to call for the abolishing of the repressive and freedom curtailing laws, for the constitutional enactment of fundamental freedom and democratic rights ever since the workers struggle for their rights to organize in trade unions of their own choosing as early as 1947. Our belief in modern democracy is just a development of what was part of our intellectual heritage. It therefore natural that the Communist Party of Sudan has adopted a democratic stand of racial, religious and cultural pluralism in our country and called for equality in citizenship and enjoyment of political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. At its 3^rd Congress in 1956 our party pioneered the demand for regional autonomy for the South and for equal wages for equal work for the benefit of workers in Southern Sudan at the beginning of fifties.

We are confronted today with a world situation which has characterized by uni bipolar, policy of domination new ugly faces of imperialism, exploitation and negative legacy of the Cold War. This situation is a consequences of the collapse of the Soviet model of socialism which has of course influence our party like others.

We are small party in one of the most backward and isolated countries of the world, our ability to acquire information and to the complex questions of advanced societies is very limited. Nevertheless we would not like to repeat the past errors of following any model. At the same vein the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism can not be treated as closed book. Once we have defined a phenomenon in a certain way we stick to it dogmatically, many parties including our own followed a simple definition of socialism basically arising from the experiences following the October Revolution of 1917 that socialism is characterized by public ownership of means of production.

Without doubt this is an important aspect. In this context the Marxism-Leninism must remain a creative ever developing science of theory and practice. On the other hand we are no pragmatists in the philosophical as well as practical political sense. We merely decide what is good now and what is bad than and selectively choose from the vast body of knowledge. Basing on this we believe that every party should first formulate its own conclusions. Concerning us for example, we have to reach at view that based on the lessons of the Sudanese political movement, to be drafted in such independent and original manner as to enable it to withstand the political and ideological storms of the modern world.

Hence, our central task is to shape the theory of the Sudanese revolution, comprising the theory of building the revolutionary party that is to carry out with other forces and parties that revolution. The moulding of that theory should be regarded as a process that commences by drawing up conclusions from past experiences to tackle new question and problems. For that it is necessary to master Marxist dialectics. The theory of the Sudanese revolution, shall be without value if it was not founded as a Marxist basics only by that and not by being a Sudanese version of Marxism, shall it acquire its independence. It is our view that it is wrong to attribute the crisis of Marxism to the application of the theory rather than to the theory itself. It should be admitted that the conclusions drawn by Marx, Angels and Lenin from conditions of their time, have in fact fell behind the needs and requirements of our time. For this reason the strategy and tactics of a revolution must be derived from the needs and requirements of the actual situation, and should not be copied from another country nor conform to the situation in another country.

Marxist dialectics is down to earth and revolutionary, but naturally it is no guarantee against errors. It should be used correctly to study the Sudanese, regional and international developments and it is possible to reach conclusions that could contribute to common theoretical platform.

Such is how we see our contribution in finding a way out of the crisis of Marxism: From inward to outward, from particular to the general.

The central Committee of the Communist Party is organizing a general internal debate on that issues with special emphasis on how to renovate our party, upgrading its ideological outlook, program, rule, organization and even it names if it may be needed, with critical evaluation of our past practices and an equal critical review of the crisis of Marxism and the failure of the Soviet model of socialism.