The Communist Party USA received the news of the death of Gladys Marin with great sorrow. All of us, members and leaders, veterans and new activists alike held her in high esteem and will always cherish our memories of her life, her ideas and her work.
Our respect and love for comrade Gladys are inseparable from our feelings about the heroic Communist Party of Chile, and the working class and people for whom it has fought for more than 80 years.
As U.S. Communists, we have always felt a special connection, responsibility and solidarity with the Chilean people, given the criminal role of US imperialism in the overthrow of Salvador Allende's Popular Unity government.
We hold our government responsible for the bloody coup and destruction of democracy that engulfed Chile at that time. Alongside our sadness today there is also anger for the terrible personal losses suffered and sacrifices made by Gladys and so many thousands of others.
The main responsibility for crimes committed against the people of Chile, of Latin America and the world, continues to be the transnational corporations and institutions in whose service successive U.S. administrations have operated, in particular the very dangerous regime of George Bush.
But our people, like people the world over, reject the Bush administration's goals for our country and the world. Our Party looks with admiration and hope at the emergence of left and left-oriented governments in Latin America.
The Communist Party of Chile and comrade Gladys Marin made an invaluable contribution to sowing the seeds of a new era for Latin America. Your experience continues to contribute hugely to the world Communist movement and revolutionary process.
Comrade Gladys was and will always be an inspiration to all of us, for the courage she showed during the long dark years of the dictatorship and the tenacity, energy and Communist creativity she brought to rebuilding the Party and the movement. We will honor her memory always and we will teach the new generations in our country about her.
Most importantly, and we're sure she would agree, we will be steadfast in our opposition to US imperialism and the war, repression, poverty and disease that it sows. We will work as she did for peace and justice, for an end to oppression and want, and for the other world that is possible, and necessary -- socialism.
