That was the question posed at a seminar in London this month. The 30th anniversary of the start of the dialogue between the NCP and the RCPB (ML) was appropriately marked by the opening of a discussion that both parties believe needs to be taken throughout the labour movement. NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the meeting at the NCP Centre, welcomed everyone to the seminar at the Sid French library or by video link and the discussion was opened by Michael Chant, the RCPB (ML) leader. The theme was Tasks of the Communists in the Light of the July 2024 General Election, and this is Michael’s contribution to the discussion.
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| Solidarity:Andy Brooks and Michael Chant in 2014 |
We
are taking up these themes as fraternal parties who see the need for
the unity of the communist movement. It seems important to remind
ourselves of this to set the context of such joint initiatives as
this seminar, which is the communist equivalent of modern scientists
presenting seminar papers and opening the way to sorting out the
problems in their field so as to accord with reality.
We took up this cause in 1994, and so have 30 years of discussion between NCP and RCPB(ML) under our belt, and our first point of contact was between myself and Comrade Andy and we have kept our relations vital since that time. When I spoke at the funeral of Eric Trevett, who was General Secretary of NCP from 1979 to 1995, and subsequently its President until his passing in 2014, I mentioned on behalf of RCPB(ML) that “this work to build anew the communist movement which had its common roots in the anti-revisionist movement of the 1970s was our common aspiration, and our two Parties have made strenuous efforts to make this aspiration a reality”. And in our message of condolence, we said “our two Parties continue to make headway in developing our unity, discussing all the questions of the strategy and tactics which a communist party must adopt in the 21st century, and beginning to pay attention together to the theoretical work without which the revolutionary movement cannot take full shape. To honour Eric’s memory, let us continue to overcome the obstacles which the bourgeoisie places in the path of building the unity of the communist and workers’ movement.”
Besides giving messages on important anniversaries, such as those of the founding of the NCP, and attending each other’s Congresses and conferences, we have continued the efforts to make our aspirations a reality. We have even issued joint statements, such as on the Anglo-US aggression against Afghanistan, on Kashmir, against war on Iraq and in support of the Palestinian people, and in 2003 giving the call for an anti-war government. Particularly we have worked together in Friends of Korea in building friendship with the DPR Korea. Among the events which have taken place are the joint seminars On the Agenda for the Working Class in 2014, and What it means to be a communist—new and revolutionary today in 2022.
In this last seminar, I opened by saying “taking the topic at face value, and giving an answer in a nutshell, one could say to be a communist means seeing the face of the New in the crisis of the Old, and working for the necessary change, for the transformation of the Old into the New, with revolutionary sweep.
“Further, one cannot conceive of being a communist without membership of a communist party, a modern type of party which mobilises and organises the people to defend their own interests, collective, individual and the general interests of society.
“And, as both propositions imply, the communist party takes up the problems of the day, whether national or international, with the spirit of proletarian internationalism, in order to provide solutions and to advance the progress of society”.
So this is all by way of introduction and setting the scene on the independent programme of the working class.
There are the overall tasks of the communists in this period of the past 30 years, and there is the experience of the communist and workers’ movement in the light of the general election, which is not so decisive in itself. But we can use it to say, this is a confirmation of what are the tasks of the communists. We can use it to ask, what is the call of history that the communists must take up. This, in a word, is to leave the Old behind, renovate our thinking and continue to inspire, organise and set the line of march for the working class as the detachment in Britain of the international communist movement.
When the tasks of the communist and workers’ movement was addressed in “Discussion”, in 1994, the document which began the discussions between our two parties, and which set the tone for this period of history, it was said:
On the role of communist parties: While the basic doctrine of communism remains the same, it is quite clear that the communist movement has a lot of work to do in terms of elaborating a theory and line based on the circumstances within which each party finds itself. It has to be understood that while the communist movement has historically been guided by the doctrine of communism of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in its general form, the working class has always had to work out the particularities based on the specifics of its own situation. The entire economic, political and philosophical basis for a new system has to be elaborated as an integral part of the workers’ movement. The modern proletariat needs its consciousness and the communist parties have to be in a position to provide it.
We took up this cause in 1994, and so have 30 years of discussion between NCP and RCPB(ML) under our belt, and our first point of contact was between myself and Comrade Andy and we have kept our relations vital since that time. When I spoke at the funeral of Eric Trevett, who was General Secretary of NCP from 1979 to 1995, and subsequently its President until his passing in 2014, I mentioned on behalf of RCPB(ML) that “this work to build anew the communist movement which had its common roots in the anti-revisionist movement of the 1970s was our common aspiration, and our two Parties have made strenuous efforts to make this aspiration a reality”. And in our message of condolence, we said “our two Parties continue to make headway in developing our unity, discussing all the questions of the strategy and tactics which a communist party must adopt in the 21st century, and beginning to pay attention together to the theoretical work without which the revolutionary movement cannot take full shape. To honour Eric’s memory, let us continue to overcome the obstacles which the bourgeoisie places in the path of building the unity of the communist and workers’ movement.”
Besides giving messages on important anniversaries, such as those of the founding of the NCP, and attending each other’s Congresses and conferences, we have continued the efforts to make our aspirations a reality. We have even issued joint statements, such as on the Anglo-US aggression against Afghanistan, on Kashmir, against war on Iraq and in support of the Palestinian people, and in 2003 giving the call for an anti-war government. Particularly we have worked together in Friends of Korea in building friendship with the DPR Korea. Among the events which have taken place are the joint seminars On the Agenda for the Working Class in 2014, and What it means to be a communist—new and revolutionary today in 2022.
In this last seminar, I opened by saying “taking the topic at face value, and giving an answer in a nutshell, one could say to be a communist means seeing the face of the New in the crisis of the Old, and working for the necessary change, for the transformation of the Old into the New, with revolutionary sweep.
“Further, one cannot conceive of being a communist without membership of a communist party, a modern type of party which mobilises and organises the people to defend their own interests, collective, individual and the general interests of society.
“And, as both propositions imply, the communist party takes up the problems of the day, whether national or international, with the spirit of proletarian internationalism, in order to provide solutions and to advance the progress of society”.
So this is all by way of introduction and setting the scene on the independent programme of the working class.
There are the overall tasks of the communists in this period of the past 30 years, and there is the experience of the communist and workers’ movement in the light of the general election, which is not so decisive in itself. But we can use it to say, this is a confirmation of what are the tasks of the communists. We can use it to ask, what is the call of history that the communists must take up. This, in a word, is to leave the Old behind, renovate our thinking and continue to inspire, organise and set the line of march for the working class as the detachment in Britain of the international communist movement.
When the tasks of the communist and workers’ movement was addressed in “Discussion”, in 1994, the document which began the discussions between our two parties, and which set the tone for this period of history, it was said:
On the role of communist parties: While the basic doctrine of communism remains the same, it is quite clear that the communist movement has a lot of work to do in terms of elaborating a theory and line based on the circumstances within which each party finds itself. It has to be understood that while the communist movement has historically been guided by the doctrine of communism of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in its general form, the working class has always had to work out the particularities based on the specifics of its own situation. The entire economic, political and philosophical basis for a new system has to be elaborated as an integral part of the workers’ movement. The modern proletariat needs its consciousness and the communist parties have to be in a position to provide it.
What kind of party is necessary at this time?
This question must be answered by keeping as a constant that it will be a communist party, it will be revolutionary and it will be based on democratic centralism. The modern feature which will be added in a demonstrative way is that it will not come to power itself or as the representative of the working class. It will be the instrument of bringing the working class into power to lead the people to establish the broadest possible democracy.
The sharpest class struggle is taking place on the question of what kind of democracy and what kind of system should be established in various countries. Is there a party which can exploit this situation in favour of the working class and open the path to the progress of the society?
On the question of modern definitions on the basis of which solutions to having fidelity to the relations between humans and humans, and humans and nature, are to be found: Today the struggle has to be directed against all the theories of the liberal bourgeoisie, all of whom are essentially Tories. It has to be directed against those who want to divert the communist movement and working class movement away from its task. All parties have to, within their conditions, work extremely hard to extricate themselves from that narrow-mindedness, that myopia, which has been imposed as a way of life. They have to present themselves as having relevance to modern society. There is a space for communism.
At this time, unless minds like Marx, so to speak, exist who revolutionise social science within the present circumstances, who are travelling on the high road of civilisation, there will be no revolutionary movement. Such a role belongs at this time to political parties and not to individuals alone.
In Britain where the greatest crisis in political theory exists, the bourgeoisie will not want to see and will not respond to those who would want to establish a democratic society in modern terms. A communist party cannot remain aloof from waging the most vigorous struggle to isolate the bourgeoisie.
When I appeared at the Undercover Policing Inquiry, along with Kate Hudson and Lindsey German, I had to explain to the inquiry that a Marxist-Leninist party had its various fronts of work, that communism represents the modern high road of civilisation and enlightenment, and that it was not characterised by the violence and public disorder with which the capitalist state tries to blacken its name. It is characterised by the mass line, not the obsession with recruiting members. Following which the undercover officer who had tried to infiltrate our Party in the early 1980s was obliged to say that while undercover he had felt he was out of his depth and spoke as little as possible for fear he would blow his cover.
Now, the debasement of politics by the cartel parties puts the need to raise the level of political discourse on the agenda by workers, women and youth setting the example themselves. Ways and means must be facilitated so that the working class and people can speak in their own name, and, while emphasising that the warmongers and neo-liberals in this so-called “representative democracy” do not speak in their name, use this as the transformation to becoming empowered.
Communists have a duty to call on workers to not permit the debasement of politics and nor should they drop out in disgust. Rather, the ruling class must not be given free rein to commit crimes. This is what happens when they manage to disorient the working class and people on matters related to the economy, sovereignty, war and peace or divide them on a racist basis by blaming immigrants for all the social ills plaguing the capitalist society and making them targets of attack. Communists emphasise and organise for the importance of getting together with one's peers to discuss the challenges the country faces and speaking out in one's own name on all matters of concern. It has to be said that illusions about the Labour Party changing the situation in favour of the people have reduced drastically since the days of Tony Blair. For working people to get together and give solutions for changing the direction of the economy and society at all levels is the necessity at this stage of history.
All of the developments centring around the July general election show the untenable state of affairs in the Parliament and the urgent need for democratic renewal – that working people provide for themselves the occasions and the means to speak in their own name, make their views known, organise to see that their demands are met and by empowering themselves provide a pro-social alternative to cartel parties and the private and supranational interests they represent. In our view, the political situation has deteriorated so that these parties are appendages of the state, rather than mass parties where members set the policy and programme, and determine the conduct of their own affairs. This is the meaning of what we refer to as cartel parties, which are wedded to the arrangements in society whereby the people are marginalised from political life and institutions. This is the meaning of the battle of democracy, of fighting for democratic renewal.
It is true that the results of the July 2024 elections saw a move towards independent candidates and smaller parties. In this context, it is a moot point whether an official coalition of small parties or independent candidates would transform the Commons proceedings in favour of the people, or would confer an illusory legitimacy on the party system and not challenge the present party-centric approach to the conduct of political affairs. The issue is to encourage the electorate to find new forms in the battle of democracy and encourage them to participate in setting the political and other agendas, based on their own experience, transforming the conception of a political party into one which truly links the electorate with governance, not simply as voting machines which resolve nothing.
It is also true that the actions of the working class in fighting for their rights and interests make a significant difference, and that forces the cartel parties, notably the Labour Party, to take notice to attempt to get the workers’ movement onside. But it can also be looked at the other way, in that the Labour Party programme, historically of social democracy, but now of a cartel party arm of the state in its pro-war, pro-business, anti-social outlook and programme, feeds its way into the workers’ movement. Nevertheless that same workers’ movement is showing evidence of its independent working class stands, such as the TUC’s stand for Palestine, and the rejection of the neo-liberal austerity measures.
In our way of thinking, as I stressed earlier, communists at this time have to heed the call of history and show imagination in envisioning the line of march, and calling the working class and people to leave the Old behind. This means bringing the organising work on a par with the political work that we take up.
What brings about wars of destruction, of genocide? What brings about droughts, climate crises, famines, mass migrations of people escaping untenable conditions? Who controls the decision-making and who the decisions benefit are of course key. But this means that it is the power structures which are characteristic of these crises, not right or wrong policies as such. It is the human factor/social consciousness which is decisive, the working people speaking out on their own behalf, and the task of the communists is to organise to bring this into play, in terms of the class struggle which is being waged, the battle for democracy and democratic rights. As we conclude our document, There Is A Way Out of the Crisis, which is included in the first issue of Discussion, we strive to unite all people in a storm against “the cuts”, working together with all for the empowerment of the people and for the creation of a socialist society!
Our conclusion is that the cutting edge of our work is the fight for an Anti-War Government. This has only been confirmed with the election of Starmer who is for further integration into the US/NATO war machine and virulently pro-Israel and against the resistance which the government labels as terrorism. This is not to say that we do not include Labour MPs in campaigns we engage in, particularly in the anti-war and pro-social movements. But the crucial issue is who makes the decisions on war and peace. In this respect, the conception of an Anti-War Government is not simply that within the status quo you have a government which takes an anti-war stand. It prepares the way for bringing about a society and state arrangements that embody a modern democratic personality.We could sum up our strategic goal in this period as:
For a Socialist
Britain with an Anti-War Government!
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