 |
| Andy Brooks addressing conference |
By Andy Brooks
Delegations from
91 communist parties, representing 73 countries, took part in the 20th
international meeting of communist and workers’ parties that was held in the
Greek capital of Athens last month. New Communist Party (NCP) leader Andy
Brooks, together with Peter Hendy from the Central Committee, took part in the
congress at the headquarters of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), where the
first conference began in 1998. The theme of the meeting was the task of the
working class and its political vanguard in the struggle against exploitation
and imperialist wars. This is the NCP’s contribution to the debate.
We
meet again at a time of sharpening contradictions – and the primary
contradiction in the world today is that between US imperialism and the rest of
the world it seeks to dominate.
When the Cold War ended the bourgeoisie of
Europe as a whole closed ranks behind the US bid to rule the world in the name
of the “new world order”. They supported US “regime change” in Yugoslavia,
Iraq, Libya and Ukraine, and supported US efforts to overthrow the Syrian
government.
Licking the boots of the Americans has
been the policy of the British ruling class since the Second World War in the
belief that this would help ensure continued US protection of their global
interests in the post-colonial world. To a certain degree it did but only when
it served the over-arching interests of American imperialism.
The Trump administration has widened
existing divisions within America’s ruling circles over how to pursue those
interests. Donald Trump claims that the Republicans want to “Make America Great
Again”. But that is exactly what the Democrats want as well. The entire
American ruling class wants to establish US hegemony over the world. What
divides them is how to achieve it.
During his presidential campaign Trump
claimed he was in favour of a rapprochement with the Russians. In the White
House however, Trump is a prisoner of the most aggressive circles within the
American ruling class.
Democrat leaders still believe in the ‘new
world order’, though they now prefer to call it “globalisation”. Trump, on the
other hand, represents circles who want to cut back US military expenditure in
Europe and north-east Asia so that they can concentrate on controlling the
global energy market by taking over the entire Middle East and restoring US
imperialism’s hegemony over south and central America.
In Britain working people have rallied to
Jeremy Corbyn’s left social-democratic Labour banner amidst increasing demands
for a new referendum or another general election to end the crisis over Brexit.
The call for a second referendum, which
began the day after the Remainers lost the first one in 2016, comes from the
Europhile wing of the ruling class with the support of many Labour MPs, the
Liberal-Democrats and Scottish Nationalists, most of the trade union
leadership, the European Union (EU) institutions and the Soros foundation.
Their objective is, of course, to force
the May government to agree to a new vote or call for an early general
election. This, they believe, will result in a Labour minority government
dependent on the Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats, whose support
can only be bought with a second referendum, which they believe is now
winnable.
The problem we face is that amongst Jeremy
Corbyn’s own supporters there are many who believe that “Another Europe is
Possible” whilst the old mainstream Brexit campaign that was largely based on
the chauvinist and anti-immigration platform of UKIP reinforced the claims of
the Europhiles within the labour movement that Brexit would lead to further
attacks on the unions and what’s left of the ‘welfare state’.
Most of the unions have swallowed the
Brussels lies that the EU safeguards workers’ rights and guarantees jobs. This
is reflected in Remainer support within the Labour Party that goes far beyond
the Blairite ranks in parliament. This view must be challenged. But although
British communists, of all hues, have long opposed the EU and the Treaty of
Rome, the left case against the EU has still to be won within the labour
movement.
The New Communist Party has never confused
the Labour Party with a revolutionary party nor imagined that we can overthrow
the bourgeoisie through parliamentary elections. But we believe that a Labour
government, with its organisational links with the trade unions and the
co-operative movement, offers the best option for the working class in the era
of bourgeois parliamentary democracy.
Our strategy is for working class unity
and our campaigns are focused on defeating the right-wing within the movement,
and strengthening the left within the Labour Party and the unions. We support
Labour’s demands for the restoration of trade union rights, progressive
taxation, state welfare and a public sector dedicated to meeting the people’s
needs.
We know that social democracy of whatever
trend can never lead to socialism. But the struggles of the future can only
come from a labour movement confident to lead the struggle for revolutionary
change.
Our party came into being out of the
struggle against revisionism, with the intention that we serve the interests of
the working class. We shall not be diverted from that. Let us work together to
build the movement that will ensure that this century becomes the era of
socialism.
