Communist youth in People’s China

Samuel and the rest of the international delegation

by Samuel Swale

Whilst Trump was in Beijing attempting to downplay his outright criminal behaviour on the global stage, People’s China invited youth delegates from communist parties across Europe and North America to build meaningful relationships, international solidarity and provide an example of a successful socialist society. From 7th to 18th May, 21 delegates from 19 countries toured historic sites and modern factories. 

Representing the UK was myself for the NCP and Maise Riley, the national chair of the Young Communist League and member of the CPB. 

Beginning just after the May Day celebrations, China was abuzz, notably with their focus on the youth. The first official dialogue between the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the invited delegates was championed by vice-minister Jin Xin, who eloquently spoke about the valuable place of youth in the communist movement and its relation to the elders and their wise leadership. The vice-minister was keen to impress the urgency to use one's youth to forward the cause. “The young are far less cautious and more bold, use this” he stated before adding that more seasoned members are fountains of knowledge that can guide ideological understanding, ensuring action is aligned with theory. 

Leaving Beijing, the delegation travelled to a city called Shijiazhuang. Hardly known to Westerners, the provincial capital of Hebei province was a bustling hub of activity at all hours. And the people reflected this with a polite inquisitiveness as to who and what the delegation was. After visiting a local industrial park, we were invited to a Putting The People First- A Dialogue Between the CPC and Foreign Parties forum. The delegation heard the story of Xingtang county and its rise out of poverty, not just in the format of reports from the top of the administration but also from the experiences of individuals.

One such story came from Zhang Hua, the owner of a local domestic services company. Just a few short years ago, Hua was a housewife in a poverty-stricken household. The local authorities began to identify those in the locality who were struggling to make ends meet, thus they offered her a place in the CPC Targeted Poverty Alleviation Scheme. In the United Kingdom, benefits are provided to lower income households. However, it is important to recall the old saying “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for life”. In China, individuals are provided with vocational training to enable them to improve their skills and enable them to achieve greater employment. After working as a housemaid, Hua was able to found her own domestic services company which now employs 300 women in the area, helping to lift a greater number of individuals in the local area. The people of China care deeply about their homeland and always seek to use personal benefit to the betterment of everyone. 

From here, the delegation visited Shaanxi, a birthplace not only of the revolution but also the cradle where numerous ancient Chinese civilisations began. The Yan’an base area has been transformed into a bustling little city with a grand monument to Mao Zedong and a museum to remember the sacrifice of the revolutionaries all those years ago. Tracing the steps of the Red Army in China shows how outdated the equipment that the soldiers used. Truly it was a testament to how revolutionary zeal and commitment to building a better world are what can propel a small group of dreamers into global leaders. 

After Yan’an, we moved south to Xi’an; a technological and cultural metropolis in the central regions of China. First in Xi’an, we were invited to attend the R&D centre of BYD, an electric car manufacturer that has grown from nothing in the space of 30 years. When hearing the term communism, many think of enormous state architecture in every business. Critics of China will be surprised to know that BYD is not a state-owned enterprise of the Chinese government, rather a private company. Birthed from the mind of a battery engineer at a separate company, BYD has sky-rocketed in sales nationally and internationally. Where other manufacturers built batteries for cars, BYD built cars around batteries creating a unique and versatile commodity that has been improving emissions and speed of travel. Once again, even though not operated by the state, the company is focused heavily on improving the lives of the people of China. In fact, they are even seeking to improve the carbon emissions of other nations, attempting to protect the world against climate change through technology. 

Those of a right-wing view of the world will be further disappointed to realise the unity of the Chinese people in their vast diversity. Xi’an is home to a sizeable population of Muslims, forming the Muslim quarter of the city with its own unique architecture. The people co-operate freely and work together to ensure the welfare of all those in China, not just the few. This only further shows how capitalism as a system only serves to antagonise the working class and ensure that the proletariat remains disparate and unable to resist. 

It was a pleasure and honour to visit China and represent the party. Truly at times it felt like I was on a different planet and I can understand why the western mind can struggle to comprehend what China is as an entity. It is an idyllic nation of noble ambition that truly shines a beacon in the darkness for all the proletariat of the world to look towards for guidance.

Stand up to racism!

Loyalist mobs are rampaging through Belfast, spreading terror amongst the black and immigrant population in the run-up to Orangemen’s Day on the “Glorious Twelve” of July. But attempts to spread hate in England have, so far, failed despite the best efforts of Tommy Robinson, Elon Musk and the Faragists to trigger racist pogroms in the wake of the Southampton riots.
The firm response of the anti-racist movements on the street, together with that of the local communities as a whole, has made sure that there’s been no repetition of the violence in Southampton that was triggered by far-right extremists exploiting the death of a student to advance their own fascist agendas and kick off the “race war” that they believe will propel them to power in the future.
Don’t let the far right divide us. That’s what the national Stand Up to Racism campaign says. 
Racists are still attempting to organise, and groups linked to Tommy Robinson continue to seek opportunities to build on local grievances. But organised resistance can deny them the space they need to grow.
The racists and fascists are on the march again, and communists must be in the forefront of the resistance. There is no substitute for blocking their path with massive numbers, even if the police do not like this.
So it goes without saying that on the streets and facing the fascists there must be maximum unity between anti-fascists of all political shades. We must remember that the biggest and most successful anti-fascist alliance of all time was led by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, and that they managed to work together despite having very little else in common, until the threat of Nazism was smashed. If they can work with each other then we can also work with everyone on the left and anyone else ready to stand up to racism and fascism.
As communists, working with other anti-fascists of all kinds also gives opportunities for friendly dialogue as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder against racism and fascism, and it in no way implies our support for the political views on other matters of the people we are standing next to. Those are matters for peaceful argument during the lulls in fighting the fascists. This is the only way to achieve the mass turn-outs necessary to stop the fascists. And it happens naturally on the streets. Anti-fascists of all shades will defend one another regardless where there is a threat of attack by fascists or by police.
The traditional tactics of the mainstream anti-racist movements and the more robust tactics of those up for confronting the fascists on their own terms are both needed, and should be co-ordinated for maximum effect.
Communists are great ones for meetings, conferences, debates and committees – work that is usually done sitting down. This is all essential work but it is only half the struggle. If all those great resolutions and clarifications of the line are just left hanging we might as well not bother. We must stand up, get out and about, and be at the forefront of implementation – on the streets, in the workplaces, in the communities, on the housing estates, putting our line into practice and communicating directly with workers and raising levels of political awareness and class consciousness.
We must ensure that the hardship and suffering caused by the austerity regime and attacks on working-class living standards turn into anger and not into despair and resignation. To do that we need some successes in struggle, we need to set at first modest, achievable goals to build morale and awareness. Defeating fascist and racist activity is a crucial starting point.

It’s still the same old story…

...from the likes of Nigel Farage who’ve been stoking up the flames of racist violence in Southampton following the trial and conviction of the young Sikh responsible for the death of a teenager in a fight last December.
That's not to say there aren't serious questions to be answered about the way the Southampton police handled the incident, or indeed about their training and their general policy in dealing with violence of this nature. 
But there’s no doubt that the enraged mob on Southampton’s streets, headed by Tommy Robinson and urged on from afar by Nigel Farage and the American hi-tech tycoon Elon Musk, exploited genuine anger at the conduct of the local police at the incident that led to the death of  the student. These people, to be sure, are not fascists or Nazis in the conventional sense (though some fascists and neo-nazis were amongst the mob that attacked the police). But they are certainly racists, trying to incite a pogrom in Southampton. The ring-leaders deliberately ignore the fact that the fatal incident was not racially motivated (the killer's claim that he had been racially abused was rejected at his trial) not to mention the calls from the victim's family and those of the killer for calm.
None of them care about the victim. Nothing is said about root cause of the spike in violence on the street – the alienation of the youth and the decadence of capitalism in its final days.  No, as far as these people are concerned it’s all down to immigrants and asylum seekers. Kick them out and it’ll all be better – like the never-never land of the 1950s they talk about when there was full employment and everyone knew their place. Or so they say...
The NCP doesn’t support "open borders". We accept that all states, including the UK, have the right to control immigration and emigration in accordance with their resources and    economic needs.
But we are opposed to any controls based on ethnic or religious grounds. Asylum-seekers are different. The UK is bound by international agreements to receive those claiming asylum regardless of their countries of origin. Asylum seekers must be treated humanely and their claims dealt with swiftly. They should be allowed to work to help to pay their own way while their status is being reviewed (a right that was revoked by the Blair government) which is also a demand of the TUC. 
 The ruling class tries to confine the political arena to endless debates on law and order, immigration and the European Union. We have to break the bourgeois consensus that uses immigration to divert working people from the real issues that affect their lives. We must put socialism back on the working class agenda!

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat: what does it mean?

Paris Commune 1871 -- the first workers state

by John Maryon

The qualitative transfer of society from obsolete capitalism to progressive socialism is the historical mission of the working class. Karl Marx, Frederick Engels and Vladimir Lenin developed an essential and powerful ideological theory to achieve scientific communism.  A cornerstone of Marxism-Leninism is the need for a revolutionary change to bring about the dictatorship of the proletariat.  Those opposed to Marxism-Leninism are at pains to deny this essential process and foster an illusion of gradual transformation using the bourgeois state apparatus. In effect tinkering with a collapsing system and incorrectly assuming that the working class will grow in terms of knowledge and understanding. In practice the power of the bourgeoisie needs to be challenged by the united efforts of all sections of the working class.
To fully understand the dictatorship of the proletariat it is important to be aware that it does not imply the use of force or threats against others. In Marx and Engel’s days the term "dictatorship" didn’t mean autocratic one-man rule in the way we understand it today. They used the term to mean class rule. In the capitalist era we live under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The dictatorship of the proletariat means the working class taking power to establish a new type of democracy.  To organise the economy to benefit the former exploited classes.  To raise political and social awareness of the masses.  And to stimulate progressive cultural developments. This would see an end to identity politics, elevation of trivial diversions above matters of substance, the greed and corruption of lobby groups and the politics of hate, blame and exclusion that we experience in Britain today. The Paris Commune gave a first glimpse of the dictatorship of the proletariat in action. Tinkering with the bourgeois machinery of the state will achieve nothing. It must be replaced with a new management apparatus as an essential prerequisite for building true sustainable socialism. 
The basis of the dictatorship of the proletariat lies in the creative organisational activity in leading the masses towards building a new form of society. Lenin emphasised that it is the rule of the working class through strength of organisation and discipline using all the achievements of culture, science and technology.  Also to develop proletarian affinity with all working people to develop prestige and respect.  It may take different forms and methods depending on the nature of the socialist revolution, the existing social structure, the level of economic development and cultural background.  Proletarian democracy systemically creates a state of the whole people with the working class playing the leading role.
 Lenin said that capitalism condemns the masses to a downtrodden, crushed, anxious existence. A gigantic apparatus of falsehood and deception hoodwinks the workers sowing confusion, fostering ignorance and stultifying their minds. We see this in Britain today. It is obvious that we have reached a great watershed in our political system. As the capitalist crisis has developed the establishment is no longer able to govern in in the traditional manner.  There is an increasing risk of neo-fascists gaining power and influence. Today the population of Britain is largely politically ignorant, is incapable of critical or analytical thinking and has sadly becoming brainwashed by continuing propaganda.  Multiple colour leaflets issued by Reform reflected the politics of blame and hostility but ignored austerity, affordable housing, crumbling infrastructure, a collapsing health service or job security. 
So what political forces are there left in Britain today that can defend workers rights, educate and enthuse the masses for something better? The Labour party has for the past century been the main political party for workers in Britain forming an essential component of the labour movement.  Sadly it has always been dominated by its right wing with affinity to social democracy. It has a long history of betrayal.  Ramsay Macdonald, the first Labour prime minister, started progressively by recognising the Soviet Union shortly after Lenin's death and by opposing imperialist wars but was to later betray the party by forming a National Government with the Conservatives. The tremendous social progress made immediately following the Second World War was implemented only because of the pressure of the people who demanded change. Sadly the party has gone downhill since those halcyon times. With the abandonment of clause four and the establishment of New Labour the Labour Party abandoned any pretence of socialism.
We have always gritted our teeth and supported Labour because of its link to the trade unions. Today we face unprecedented changes which may forge new alliances in a totally different political landscape. If they can get their act together Your Party may play an important role for the left in Britain but will be limited in what it can achieve if it becomes just another hopeless social- democratic institution. Keir Starmer is on the way out but will his successor be any different? I very much doubt it.
One thing becomes immediately obvious. The urgent need is to build unity among all progressive forces to put forward the case for socialism. This is where a vanguard party like the New Communist Party of Britain has an important role to play.  We must grow to be more effective in motivation of the working class.  Don't delay join us today and help put Britain on the road to socialism. 

What a difference a day makes…

...or not in the case of Sir Tony Blair whose comments on the current turmoil within the Labour Party were splashed all over the bourgeois press last week. Whatever he achieved in office –  Scottish and Welsh devolution, ending the conflict in northern Ireland and pushing through some minor social  reforms – was far eclipsed by his despicable role in supporting the American onslaught on Iraq which ended in invasion and the execution of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. The dreams of Anglo-American imperialism ended in the streets of Baghdad as the Iraqi resistance fought back to eventually free the country from imperialist occupation. Blair fell from grace soon after – leaving Downing Street to console himself with lucrative sinecures, non-jobs like his “peace-keeping” role in the Middle East, that were given to him by the Americans as a reward for his life-time of service to imperialism. 
To be fair Blair never pretends to be anything more than he is – a mouthpiece for what he thinks is the dominant trend within the ruling class. He has plenty to say but he’s got nothing to offer workers. Or as Jeremy Corbyn  put it “Tony Blair thinks the answer to this country’s problems is AI, welfare cuts and endless spending on war. Who benefits? Arms companies and tech billionaires. Once again, Blair is wrong. The answer is a redistribution of wealth and power and the relentless search for peace”.
Tony Blair, like Ramsay MacDonald and Sir Keir Starmer, divided and ultimately betrayed the Labour Party. But to paraphrase Orwell and say “all Labour leaders are rubbish, but some are more rubbisher than others” may be going too far.  Attlee, Wilson and Callaghan did have their moments – though this was largely due to the immense pressure at the time from the labour movement as a whole for social justice.
Tony Blair is a rich man who has also acquired a number of gongs along the way. These include the usual honours reserved for past Prime Ministers as well as the American Presidential Medal of Freedom and the more dubious Dan David Prize given by Tel Aviv University for Blair’s "exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to areas in conflict".
None of this has, however, restored his political standing in Britain. The fame that Blair so longs for continues to elude him. His paean of praise for the sort of  American-style neo-con policies that have been embraced by both Democratic and Republican administrations in Washington throughout the 21st century may have been music for the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg in the Conservative party but it didn’t go down well with Keir Starmer or the two contenders for his job, Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, and can only serve to remind them of how glad they were to see the back of him in 2007.