COMMUNIST Party general secretary Robert Griffiths has called on Britain to be a voice for peace and social justice — not a junior megaphone for US expansionism and EU neoliberalism.

Mr Griffiths told the party’s political committee on Wednesday night the bloodshed and tragedy in different parts of the world “cried out for an independent foreign and defence policy from Britain.”

He asked: “Who in the West is speaking out against Israel’s brutal bombardment by air and sea of the Palestinian people of Gaza?”

Mr Griffiths insisted that an independent British foreign policy “free from US domination” would demand an end to Israeli aggression and occupation.

Turning to the situation in Syria he argued the “US-British strategy to replace President Bashar al-Assad’s regime with Western puppets has crumbled along with numerous Syrian towns and cities.”

In particular, Mr Griffiths condemned the “cynical” role played by Nato member Turkey and Western-backed dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf which had armed and financed the Islamic jihadist forces now occupying swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The military offensive launched by the Poroshenko regime in Kiev against pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine was also condemned.

“Yet again, we see the bloody results of US-Nato-EU policy to draw yet more more countries into their orbit of imperialist exploitation and control,” added Mr Griffiths.

The committee welcomed the formation and growth of the Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in the Ukraine movement.

They also charged delegates to the forthcoming Labour Party policy forum to condemn the proposed EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), oppose the costly renewal of Britain’s US-controlled nuclear weapons and support sanctions against Israel.