Charting the future in China

By Andy Brooks

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar on China’s Two Sessions at the Chinese embassy in London in March. This is his contribution to the discussion.

This has been a stormy month. While the millions upon millions of people in all five continents recoiled in shock and horror at the American-Israeli onslaught on Iran plunging the Middle East into the flames of a war that threatens the entire stability of the world another event – in the heart of China – charted the future not only for the Chinese people but for the cause of peace and socialism throughout the world.
There, in Beijing, the annual legislative sessions of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC) were the focus of discussions on the way forward for the people’s government and the 1.4 billion people it represents.
The ‘two sessions’ are always significant events in the Chinese people's political life, bringing together thousands of deputies and delegates from every corner of the country and all walks of life. Their proposals are aimed at solving everyday issues to build a better life for the people. 
This year marks the commencement of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, a pivotal phase in the country’s medium to long-term development. In a turbulent world threatened by the grasping hand of American imperialism the Plan and the discussions during the Two Sessions give momentum and certainty into global development, charting a steady course for the new journey ahead.
The Chinese revolution that established the people’s government in 1949 has transformed the country that was then the poorest in the world. China has now risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to become a force for peace in the global arena, with the second largest economy in the world. Productivity gains, innovation and consumption need have become the main drivers of growth.  As a major industrial country, China's manufacturing, innovation and construction will continue to serve the world. As China transforms it shares what it has learned with other developing countries facing similar challenges. And equally the communist party, which led and continues to lead the Chinese people’s march to socialism, is always ready to share its knowledge and experience with the rest of the communist movement around the world.
Marxist-Leninist philosophy challenges the fatalism which is promoted by those who are afraid of change and believe that we can turn back the clock to a past socialist “golden age” that only exists in their imagination.  But  we believe that we make our own history by our actions. The building of socialism is far more than raising production or economic indicators.  It is concerned with the evolution of human thought as well as social and cultural progress.  The failure of comrades in the past to recognise this fact has led to serious setbacks
For many years communists in the imperialist heartlands of Europe and North America looked to what many of them called the “Soviet model”.  Others thought the experience of the people’s democracies in Europe could simply be repeated in their own countries. They sent delegations to the USSR and Eastern Europe but they did not fully understand what they saw. In fact the Soviet Union was a unique state based on Soviet power that could not be replicated in other countries. People’s democracy, on the other hand, in the immediate post-war period, was understood to be the way communists could build united front governments on the road to socialist advance. And in those early days most expected it to be a long road.
However the Soviet communists from Khrushchev’s day onwards used their influence to accelerate the process throughout Eastern Europe sharpening the existing contradictions and social problems that contributed to their downfall – and indeed that of the USSR in the late 1980s.
This isn’t the time or place to look at the Chinese experience except to note that the Communist Party of China took a number of differing roads ranging from the “Soviet model” to the socialist emulation of the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution which all worked for a time but eventually failed. People’s democracy or the people’s democratic dictatorship as it is known in China has proved successful. Reform and opening up has transformed China. Absolute poverty has been eradicated. Measured in terms of real GDP  (the real value of goods and services without such American features as exorbitant medical fees, high rents and legal costs) China is on a par with the USA.  Its mixed economy does have certain risks but the cardinal task of the Communist Party of China is to put people first and ensure that no one is left behind. Over one third of China's major development targets for the 2026-2030 period will focus on resolving the pressing difficulties and problems that concern the people most. 
Democracy is a shared value of humanity and a right of the people of all countries. In China a prosperous society is being created for everyone to enjoy.  And people’s democracy is an instrument to solve problems for the people who are the masters of the country. We see it in the Two Sessions and in the words and deeds of the Communist Party of China.

Capitalism’s finished – not us!

by Andy Brooks

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined social scientists, businessmen, solidarity workers and other communists for an economic seminar at the Chinese embassy in London on 24 October 2025 The Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, opened on the important decisions made at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that week and the new developments in China and the opportunities it gave to the world that was the theme of the symposium and the discussion that followed. This is Andy Brooks' contribution...

The world today stands at a crossroads of profound transformation and turbulence, with uncertainty pervading the globe. This is a time of sharpening contradictions – and the primary contradiction in the world today is between United States imperialism and the rest of the world it seeks to control and exploit.  
While the imperialists live in the past with their “American Dream”, their “new world order” and “Making America Great Again” the Global South aims for the future – a better tomorrow that was charted out in Beijing by the leaders of the people’s democracies and the leaders of the Global South during the top-level discussions on the sidelines of the Victory Day celebrations in the Chinese capital in September.
Donald Trump and the other old men who lead the bourgeoisie in America and Europe have nothing to offer the new generation apart from tales of an imagined glorious past when imperialism in all its forms ruled most of the world. And all they can promise is never-ending poverty, forever wars and endless austerity in the future.
These venal politicians and the ruling class that they serve maintain that capitalism is the only game in town. And it is – but only for themselves. Capitalism, in the final analysis, is simply a system designed to perpetuate the rule of the landowners, industrialists and capitalists to ensure that a tiny handful of parasites can live the lives of Roman emperors off the backs of millions upon millions of working people. There is only one solution to the capitalist crisis – socialism.
Humanity has passed through a number of historical epochs from the first glimpses of primitive communism in the Stone Age to the growth of feudalism and the emergence of capitalism and imperialism in the modern era. Today a new stage of development is underway in the people’s democracies on the road of socialist advance which will in turn make the qualitative advance to communism.
Now a new economic and political counter to US-led imperialism is being built by China, Russia and the rest of the Global South. BRICS and the Belt & Road initiative provide an alternative to imperialism’s one-sided “deals” and “partnerships” that solely serve the interests of the trans-national corporations of the imperialist world.
In Beijing the Chinese leader Xi Jinping outlined five core principles that should be the driving force for global reform: sovereign equality, adherence to international law, multilateralism, a people-centred approach, and focus on practical action. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, backed China’s new initiative on global governance, calling it “timely and positive”. He reaffirmed Russia’s support for China’s proposals, which aim to build a more effective and fair international system amid Western dominance. 
Today socialism in forms suited to specific local conditions is back on the agenda. The social progress and economic might of People's China has been amazing.  Measured in terms of real GDP  (the real value of goods and services without such American features as exorbitant medical fees, high rents and legal costs) China is on a par with the USA.  Its mixed economy does have certain risks but the cardinal task of the Communist Party of China is to ensure that no one is left behind.  A prosperous society is being created for everyone to enjoy.
The other people’s democracies are also making excellent progress.  Cuba has endured a blockade by the USA for over 60 years and Democratic Korea, Laos and Vietnam, who all took on and defeated the might of American imperialism in their fight for freedom, have recovered from almost total destruction and their governments have led the drive to build strong, prosperous, democratic and equal societies with the people as its true masters.
In China the government, led by the Communist Party, ensures that the fruits of economic and social progress are shared by the vast majority of the people, effectively avoiding issues such as wealth polarisation and social fragmentation that we see all the time in the West.
In Britain and the rest of the imperialist heartlands politics has become a game for those who serve the ruling class. Venal politicians tell us  that we have free speech and democracy, but it’s democracy and freedom only for themselves. They have elections but only so that the smallest number of people can manipulate the maximum number of votes. They have parliaments but they are all frauds designed to mask the fact that bourgeois government rests on the bourgeois state, which exists solely to serve the interests of the ruling class. 
In China the people’s government remains committed to advancing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of its people. This commitment has laid a solid foundation for long-term social stability and harmony. When people realise that the nation's development blueprint is closely linked to their own interests, they will come together with tremendous strength and unity to strive forward.
Stable growth, stable policies and stable expectations – this is what the people want. China's development follows a clear direction that is taken with confidence and determination – whether it is a top-level design for developing new quality productive forces based on local conditions, the solid advancement of common prosperity through high-quality development, or a systematic plan to accelerate the formation of a new development project. 
This is China’s answer to Western calls for tariff walls and trade wars. China's approach to development is not about fighting for your own corner but about serving the people for the benefit of the entire world.
The 15th Five-Year Plan, which starts next year, is a carefully designed blueprint for realising the Chinese people's aspiration for a better life. Serving the people, the plan charts the way forward for the People’s Republic in building a community with a shared future for humanity that will make ever greater contributions to world peace and global development.
The history of humanity is a history of exploitation and class struggle. For century after century working people – the slaves, the peasants, the artisans, dreamt of justice and equality. But in the modern era with the rise of the working class and the development of scientific socialism it is now possible not only to dream of a better world but also to concretely build it.
The imperialists think that their guns will ensure that they can ignore the will of the people for as long as they like. But they were proved wrong in the 20th century and they will be proved wrong today. The days when people listened to the rich men who told us that the greatest virtue of humanity was the possession of the largest amount of money are over.
Great mass movements are again sweeping the continents. The masses are demanding social justice, democratic rights and an end to exploitation. It’s capitalism that’s finished – not us. 
Everywhere we look in the capitalist world we see unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. The symptoms of industrial decline, inflationary pressures, stock market volatility and economic stagnation. This is capitalism. And working people are being made to carry the burden of its failure. But in People’s China working people aren’t simply reacting to global challenges – they are shaping the very future of our world. 

For a genuine working class party

Starmer & Zelensky - the unpopular front

Last month Ihe NCP and the RCPB (ML) held a seminar to look at the challenges facing the communist movement following Labour’s victory in the summer general election. Both parties believe this is a discussion that needs to be taken throughout the labour movement. At the seminar Ian Donovan spoke on behalf of the Consistent Democrats, a Trotskyist movement that takes it name from a famous phrase of Lenin’s, and has, over the years, supported a number of NCP initiatives including the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign. This is what Ian said:

Starmer’s Labour is the least popular new British government after 100 days in office than any in living memory. The Tory government it replaced was an absolute shambles, led initially by the public school right-wing populist Johnson, whose corruption and penchant for pathological lying were legendary. When he had to fall on his sword having been caught partying when the population at large was locked down during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, he was replaced by Liz Truss, the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history, whose 2022 mini-budget with her Chancellor Kwarteng introduced massive, unfunded tax cuts for the very rich in such a way as to spook the capitalist market and cause a near-collapse of the British economy. When she was forced out after only 45 days, she was replaced by Rishi Sunak, the husband of an Indian IT heiress richer than the British monarch, who, like John Major at the end of his 1992-7 Tory premiership, struggled and juggled for nearly two years with multiple crises in a government that had obviously completely run out of steam. 
But after only 100 days in office, Starmer’s approval ratings dipped below those of Sunak, who is still caretaker Tory leader while they tear themselves apart trying to elect his successor!
A key starting point of this was the government’s refusal to abolish the Tories’ brutal two-child benefit cap, which condemns millions of working-class children to dire poverty and even homelessness. Popular hostility to Starmer’s government then exploded with his attack on poor and middling pensioners, subjecting their annual winter fuel payment, previously a universal payment, to draconian means testing so that 9 million pensioners, whose income is just above the threshold for pension credit, will have their winter fuel payments of around £300 taken away. They lost the vote at Labour Party conference on this, but of course the government does not take any notice of things like that – Starmer’s regime is implacably hostile to the trade unions.
 The new government abolished the Tories’ brutal scheme to deport refugees to Rwanda, but only because it was considered an expensive failure, not for any reason of principle.  In fact, Starmer has been off to Albania trying to arrange a cheaper replacement. The Blairite Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, ordered a massive series of immigration raids across the country in July, almost as soon as they took office. The anti-migrant, Islamophobic riots incited by far-right Zionist helpmates in August were seen as a ‘law and order’ problem, not a problem of racism, and the government had nothing to do with the mass mobilisations of socialists and anti-racists that stopped the wave of attempted pogroms. On the contrary, they instructed MPs and councillors not to go on anti-fascist demonstrations, and in some cases suspended those who did and were too outspoken against the far-right terrorists who were burning down mosques and refugee accommodation, and violently attacking people for having the ‘wrong’ colour skin. They have also been instructing the cops to harass anti-racists and Palestine protesters and arrest them often on phoney charges of supporting ‘terrorism’ (resistance to genocide)  and ‘anti-Semitism’ just as much as the Tory regime did.
Starmer and his neo-liberal clique are more worried about satisfying their Israel lobby donors and more general corporate sponsors than the working class, trade unions and oppressed minorities. This has manifested itself in the sleaze scandal, of Starmer and his ministers receiving gifts of luxury items from ‘donors’ who have nothing to do with the labour movement, which has discredited them the way similar scandals discredited the Tories. Though, like a classic bourgeois liberal party, which they aspire to project themselves as to the ruling class, they must make some gestures to the unions, they keep them as far away as possible from influencing policy. This has even upset Starmer’s most virulent supporter and apologist from the trade union bureaucracy, UNITE’s pro-Zionist semi-syndicalist Sharon Graham. Her leadership has actively sought to suppress political opposition to Starmer within the union, echoing the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ witch-hunt against militants within UNITE sympathetic to Jeremy Corbyn, and banning the showing of films about the witch-hunt within the union. But even she was not able to endorse Starmer’s General Election manifesto, and not does not endorse his tepid softening of some Tory anti-union attacks, as they do not remotely meet the concerns even of the union bureaucracy. 
Starmer’s government did not come to power on the back of a wave of working-class support and anger, and determination to sweep away the brutal Tories. Everyone with the slightest political consciousness in Britain knew Starmer as the political assassin of Jeremy Corbyn, whose main purpose was to smash the resurgent left that brought Corbyn to the labour leadership in 2015, and within a whisker of unseating Theresa May’s Tories in the 2017 General Election. In 2017 Corbyn’s Labour got 40% of the vote, nearly 13 million votes (12.87 million to be exact). In 2019, Corbyn’s Labour got 10.29 million votes, but a resurgent right-wing populist Tory party meant they got only 32.1% as a percentage. In 2024 Starmer got only 9.7 million votes, which amounted to a higher percentage, 33.6%, only because of a considerably lower turnout. This was not a class vote based on working-class enthusiasm for Labour, as was clearly the case in 2017. The vote was depressed because Starmer made it very clear (not that his war against the left did not already) that his government in power would just be another variant of anti-worker neoliberalism, fundamentally the same as the Tories, with only secondary differences. Thus, there was no principled basis for socialists to support Labour in the General Election in July.
Starmer’s government came to power 9 months into post-October 7th Israel’s Western-backed genocidal onslaught against the Palestinians, and in a developing crisis caused by the US/NATO slowly losing their Nazi-fuelled proxy war in Ukraine. It has proven utterly craven, supportive of these genocidal projects on a consistent basis, and as willing as the Tories to steal the remaining and threadbare social gains working class people depend upon to funnel the proceeds to Netanyahu and Zelensky.
Supporting Israel’s preservation as a transplanted settler-imperialist state in the Middle East is a strategic priority of imperialist capitalism in the early 21st Century. This is the reason that the pretence of so-called ‘international law’ has collapsed, and why there is such huge resistance from the ruling classes of the major Western powers to doing anything to hinder, let alone stop, the extermination of the people of Gaza and now the extension of similar monstrous crimes to Lebanon.  
The same goes for the proxy war against Russia over Ukraine and the seemingly distant, but gradually nearing prospect of a similar proxy conflict with China over Taiwan. All these militarist projects reflect the class interest of the imperialist bourgeoisie and the over-arching project of the bulk of them to preseve Israel and maintain the political cult of Zionism that helps to hold them together as a cohesive world-dominating class-cartel.  At the same time, they wage a parallel campaign for neo-liberal regime change and dismemberment of the anomalous bourgeois states of Russia and China, which embody elements of two social systems – capitalism and embryonic/invading socialism - in a unique manifestation of ‘combined and uneven development’. These giant former workers’ states are still too close to ‘Communism’ for the imperialists’ liking. 
Furthermore, they have put themselves at the head of a revolt by semi-colonial, oppressed countries around the world and thus threaten imperialist domination as it has existed since the late 19th  century. The aim of the proxy war and mooted extensions is to open them up fully to Western economic penetration and thus give the imperialists’ declining system a new lease of life. The converse possibility, of a defeat for NATO in Ukraine and possibly defeat of Israel by the Arab masses, opens up a horrendous scenario for the imperialists, where militarism and ‘sanctions’ (imperialist economic blackmail) no longer work, and the so-called ‘rules-based order’ (“we make the ‘rules’, you do as you are told”) ceases to function and hold any terror for oppressed countries around the world. The monopoly of world power of the Western imperialist countries, which lasted the whole of the 20th  Century and so far in the 21st century, is within sight of its own mortality.
So Starmer’s government represents the will of the bourgeoisie, pure and simple, and in no sense can be said to be even a deformed product of working-class resistance to capitalism and neoliberalism. The strategic task of Marxists is to build a party that can split the working-class base from Labour to a genuine working class party, one that has the potential to generate a revolutionary programme and lead a proletarian revolution as part of an international revolutionary movement. This is a key strategic task for Marxists in Britain, but it finds expression in different ways depending on the concrete political configurations that dominate in Labour at a given time. In the period of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, from 2015 to 2020, the correct tactic for Marxists was to join the Labour Party and actively get involved in the struggles of its subjectively pro-socialist left wing against the neo-liberal Blairites, who despite Corbyn’s election remained enormously powerful in their hold over the apparatus of the party. In the late 20-teens the Blairite and Zionist right-wing, the ‘friends of Israel’ etc, devoted huge amounts of energy to sabotaging Labour’s chances of achieving government, both through the smears of so-called ‘anti-Semitism’ against the left, and though manipulating the issue of Brexit to try to mobilise backward workers influenced by right-wing populism against Corbyn and the Labour Party.
It is now very clear that the ‘anti-Semitism’ witch-hunt was political preparation for the Labour Party to support the genocide in Gaza, which was always on the cards. Indeed, Starmer’s Labour has done so, quite openly, as when on Nick Ferrari’s LBC Radio show in October 2023 Starmer clearly endorsed the measure announced by the genocidal monster and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who denounced Gaza’s Palestinians as “human animals”, that Gaza was to be starved of fuel, energy food and even water. Starmer, when explicitly questioned by Ferrari about these measures, replies that “I do think that they [Israel] have the right to do this.” A clear endorsement of monstrous, genocidal actions that should lead to Starmer being charged as a political accomplice of genocide. 
More recently, under massive pressure of public opinion and the Palestine Solidarity movement, the Starmer regime has put an embargo on around 10 per cent of arms export licences to Israel. But Starmer’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, who is a prominent supporter of Labour Friends of Israel, made clear at a meeting of that body that they did so reluctantly, that this was the minimum that they could get away with doing, and that if he had his way and his hands were not tied by popular pressure, even these minimal measures would not have happened.
Likewise over Ukraine, the Starmer regime has made very clear its support for NATO’s proxy war against the people of the Donbas, and Russia itself, and its support for the massive arming of Ukraine’s dominated politically by followers of the Nazi leader Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who since the far right, US-funded Maidan coup of 2014, have waged war against Russian-speaking Ukrainians and the people of Crimea, on a genocidal basis. They seek to crush the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass and openly use cluster bombs and depleted Uranium against them. They fire missiles at Crimea aimed to kill civilians and punish them for voting to rejoin Russia in 2014, as they do to the Donbas population that voted to join Russia in 2022. The Starmer regime has stated that it would like to allow Ukraine to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles against Russia, which has drawn warnings from Russia that such actions would be regarded as an existential threat and likely to provoke a nuclear response. Because of these statements from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, the Biden administration backed off from such provocations, in fear of Russia’s evident military capacity. But Starmer’s government has made it clear that it abides by the US decision reluctantly – it would like to let Ukraine go ahead and attack Russia with long range missiles.
Over the past few years, since the beginning of the Special Military Operation in February 2022, the Starmer regime has threatened any Labour MP who dares to endorse even pacifist opposition to what the West is doing in Ukraine would be thrown out of the party.
The tactical task of Marxists confronted with Labour at this point is to try to cohere a genuine (not bourgeois), workers party in opposition to Labour, and to give it as much coherence as possible in that regard. That is the point of our activity in the Socialist Labour Network. That does not mean that we cease to regard Labour as a bourgeois workers party. Our strategic aim is to split it along class lines. But a workers’ party outside it could be a key means of doing so in a period like this when the bourgeois, imperialist pole has achieved unparalleled dominance. That may change, as it did from Blair/Brown via Miliband to Corbyn. If it does, which is not guaranteed, we would have to change our tactics. But at this time, for Marxists, these are the correct tactical positions to take.

Which way forward for the communists following the election?

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.

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.

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!

People’s China: taking the lead for peace

 by Andy Brooks

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar on the role of the Communist Party of China and the world today at the Chinese embassy in London in August. This is his contribution to the discussion.

We meet at a time of sharpening contradictions — and the primary contradiction in the world today is between United States imperialism and the rest of the world it seeks to dominate.
    Generations of Chinese communists struggled against dogmatism and sectarianism to build a people’s democracy in their own way, to serve the needs of the working people of China and throughout the wider world we live in – a world torn apart by war and stricken by poverty and disease. While the American imperialists incite conflict and sectarian division People’s China has taken the lead in helping to build the economies of the Global South while working for peace and harmony throughout the world
    We too must struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament – as well as the abolition of
other weapons of mass destruction.
    Imperialism fans the flames of war in Ukraine and the Middle East, blocks the return of Taiwan to its Chinese homeland and prolongs the unhappy partition of many countries including Cyprus, Ireland, Kashmir and Korea. China’s perspective, on the other hand, is based on the concept of ‘one country, two systems’ and the principle that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’. But the most aggressive sections of the American ruling class now at the helm in Washington clearly believe in “one world, one system” and that nuclear war is, under certain circumstances, entirely winnable.
    The Chinese revolution that established the people’s government in 1949 has transformed the country that was then the poorest in the world. Since then China has risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to become a force for peace in the global arena with the second largest economy in the world.
    People’s China, the fifth permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is the only veto-power actively supporting proposals for multilateral nuclear disarmament. Pledging never to be the first to use nuclear weapons in any conflict, China stands for the complete prohibition and total destruction of all atomic weapons.
    China, backed by many other countries, has repeatedly challenged the West to implement the entire non-proliferation treaty, signed in 1968, that not only called a halt to nuclear proliferation but also committed the signatories to work towards universal nuclear disarmament.
    The struggle to abolish nuclear weapons is crucial for the survival of humanity. But central to averting a Third World War is the need to eliminate the causes of war. And that is why communists have always understood that the struggles for peace and socialism are indivisible.
    The Chinese communists are striving to achieve lasting world peace, so that all countries can enjoy a peaceful and stable external environment and their people can live a happy life with their rights fully guaranteed to build a world that is free from fear and enjoys universal security. 
    This is, of course, a quantum jump from the post-war Soviet policies of “peaceful co-existence” and “detente” that failed to end the Cold War and probably accelerated the collapse of the USSR. Peaceful co-existence mistakenly believed that the capitalists could be economically beaten at their own game while detente was, in essence, a futile Soviet attempt at achieving nuclear parity with the Americans to divide the world into Soviet and American spheres of influence.
    Sadly the United Nations has been marginalised by the imperialists who only pay lip service to UN institutions when it suits their purposes. When it doesn’t the world forum is ignored and discarded.
So though the United Nations remains a prime focus China has taken the initiative in setting up other platforms for economic and diplomatic co-operation including BRICS, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Co-operation Council.
    China has become a beacon of hope for all the peoples of the world struggling to build their own independent economies without imperialist interference. While Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism use their military and economic might to impose their neo-colonial rule throughout the Global South the Chinese people can, and do, provide the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America with an alternative source of high technology and economic assistance without the odious strings attached that always go with deals with the West.
    China puts people first. China has become a pivot for peace in a world torn apart by imperialist greed and aggression. China is strong but it threatens no one. China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. It stays true to the principle of equality of all countries big or small, strong or weak, and rich or poor, and it respects the development paths and social systems independently chosen by all the world’s peoples. The people’s government is dedicated to promoting a human community with a shared future.
    China stands ready to work with all countries and peoples who love peace and aspire to happiness to address all kinds of traditional and non-traditional security challenges, protect the peace and tranquility of the planet, and jointly create a better future for humanity, so that the torch of peace will be passed on from generation to generation and shine across the world.
    Earlier this year the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, launched the “global security initiative” that lays out core concepts and principles regarding global peace and security.
    The first is to eliminate conflict through the establishment of a balanced, effective, and sustainable security framework under which countries respect the legitimate security concerns of each other and promote political solutions to cope with hotspot issues.
    The second is the promotion of economic development in the Global South.
    The third is respect for diversity. It is the right of every country to choose its own
political system and development path.
    Finally all international disputes should be resolved through dialogue not unilateralism and hegemonic acts. The UN can play a positive role in international affairs if the voice and representation of countries throughout the Global South is expanded in the world forum.
    This is what we should all be working for. Hopefully we will live to see it happen in
the years to come.

Proud to be a Communist in the 21st Century

by John Maryon

A contribution to the joint NCP-RCPB-ML seminar held recently in London

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels cooperated to publish the Communist Manifesto in1848. It was at the time of the Industrial Revolution when industrial cities were being and millions flocked from the countryside to seek work in the new factories. It was also a time of harsh exploitation by the bourgeoisie who accumulated great wealth from the surplus value created by the workers. The Communist Manifesto examined the development of nature, society and productive forces and proved the necessity for a class struggle. A struggle that would not only lead to a redistribution of wealth through various forms of public ownership. It would also serve to change the aspirations of the proletariat and the social relations within society itself.
    Today the those dark satanic mills may have gone but sweat-shops, with low pay and appalling working conditions, still exist where capitalism flourishes. Often the owners are to be found living in luxury near their tax havens. Grim polluted factories, with a dangerous work environment and employing children, are no longer to be found in Britain but we do have low pay and zero hour contracts forcing workers to rely on food banks. In former times agricultural labourers were forced to carry out hard manual labour, almost from dawn to dusk, but today their equivalent may be NHS staff. Some qualified ambulance workers may still be working 15 hours into a shift. And although the workhouse may be a thing of the past homeless people today can be left to die cold, lonely and frightened in some mean dark street.
    Capitalism still exists to enslave many parts of the world and remains powerful and influential. It is however in terminal crisis facing irreconcilable contradictions, as predicted by Marxists, leading to booms and slumps Cycles of inflation, unemployment and business failures occur but the main burden will always be carried by the workers. Imperialist rivalry increases with great hostility to the socialist countries bringing with it the constant danger of war. Communists today have an essential and vital role to play, in educating and organising the working class, to fight for improved wages and working conditions while maintaining the struggle for world peace.
    We now live in the digital age, an era of quantum physics and instant communication, but the fundamental nature of capitalism has not changed. The class struggle must continue and it is the duty of communists to lead it. Tinkering with a failed system by Social Democrats will achieve nothing. Communists believe that a revolutionary change is essential with full commitment to the class struggle.
    It can take courage to be a Communist. A situation similar in some ways to young men refusing to enlist for the First World War. Incessant propaganda by the bourgeois media creates an image in people's minds of communists being dangerous red monsters with evil intent. Others with alternative views such as anarchists are also tarred with the same brush by being presented as only wanting to destroy. A good communist must be able to stand tall and proud, be fair and honest and work hard to gain the trust and respect of his fellow workers.
    Communists may stand side by side with others to fight for a common cause. Whilst they may not agree with all the other parties honest held views those opinions will be respected and discussed. Communists will join with allies to form a broad front when it is expedient to do so.
    We will never abandon our core values or commitment to the scientific philosophy of Marxism Leninism. Communists will strongly resist the negative influence of a number of trotskyist organisations and also expose the treachery of the pseudo-left. Throughout the Labour movement there are individuals who while pretending to be progressive follow a reactionary agenda of their own. They emerge at critical times to oppose the workers struggle, make false claims against the socialist countries and some apparently have no qualms about stabbing their leader in the back.
    Communists will endeavour to equip the working class with the knowledge and confidence necessary to establish state power and build a socialist society. For centuries the poor, oppressed and disadvantaged have fought for justice and equality. Now in the modern world, with the rise of organised labour and the development of scientific socialism, it is possible to not only dream of a better world but to build it.
    Marxists realise that in the real physical world there is constant change. It is important to learn lessons from history and adapt to new conditions as they arise in order to meet new challenges that may lie ahead. There is no point however in re-fighting the ideological battles between Stalin and Trotsky of over 100years ago. This is merely a last ditch attempt by some Trotskyists to gain some relevance in the modern world.
    Communists respect an individuals sexuality and oppose any attempt to discredit or hassle others. We regard ourselves as all citizens of the world and are totally opposed to racism, social segregation or any persecution of ethnic minorities. We seek to build a beautiful new world based upon equality with the establishment of real human rights; something that is impossible in a capitalist society.
    Communist party members are committed to democratic centralism. This ensures that factional disputes, which would weaken the movement, are avoided. Policies are discussed fully and openly following which a vote is taken. The policy then becomes binding on all comrades.
    The struggle of the working class is international. Communists are true internationalists realising the importance of working together to coordinate their struggles with multi-national cooperations. There is also the question of aid in the form of material or military assistance given by powerful states to weaker one's being bullied by imperialism. In Afghanistan it is reported that a number of people have been forced to sell their kidneys to buy food. The US has frozen the nation’s assets but China has stepped in to provide aid including medicines. This is the kind of action that makes me proud to be a communist in the modern world.

What it means to be a communist in 2022

by Theo Russell

A contribution to the joint NCP-RCPB-ML seminar held recently in London

A thorough understanding of Marxist-Leninist theory and philosophy - dialectics, a materialist, scientific and multi faceted view of the world. Thorough knowledge of the contributions of Stalin, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and other revolutionary thinkers.
    Applying correct Marxist-Leninist positions to real day to day problems, understanding the errors of right and left revisionism, and of anarchism, and their relationship with bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideology.
    Understanding the different trends within bourgeois ideology, liberal and reactionary bourgeois ideology (e.g. in different periods the bourgeoisie moves from one to the other), and that in normal times, they are not the same as fascists (a common ultra-leftist error).
    Thus our fight with both Tories and right-wing Labour is against their upholding neo-liberal capitalism at home and imperialism abroad, but at the same time we still enjoy extensive democratic rights which have been won in battles from the English Revolution onwards. The same can be said of most advanced capitalist states. It’s important to remember that the Bolsheviks had to work secretly underground under the brutal Czarist dictatorship.
    Understanding that even under bourgeois rule, and when there is no possibility of revolutionary change, the working class can still be mobilised to make enormous gains, as in the period of the 1945 -51 post-war Labour government, that such reforms can strengthen the morale of the organised working class, but never losing sight of the need to educate the vanguard and to take up the fight to achieve socialism when the time comes.
    A thorough understanding of the bourgeois, capitalist state in the epoch of imperialism and monopoly finance capital, which rides roughshod over the rights of workers and the small bourgeoisie alike. Knowing our enemy well and understanding that bourgeois democracy is only genius democracy for the bourgeoisie. This explains why in the same breath as telling socialist countries to adopt multi-party “democracy” and the “rule of law”, the dominant capitalist states also back violent subversion and corrupt and undemocratic regimes.
    Understanding that the handful of rich capitalist states still enjoy overwhelming dominance over the world economy, allowing them to use sanctions and financial subversion as powerful weapons, but also that this domination – especially in the fields of science & technology – is on the wane.
    The ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood and to search out truth from all sources, especially communist and honest, progressive sources. This may seem obvious to communists, but it distinguishes us from those who pose as leftist or revolutionary, but who have not left behind bourgeois / petty-bourgeois thinking, and are still infected with the lies of the capitalist censored mass media.
    Understanding the need to always work in alliances, first and foremost with communists and socialists, including a non-sectarian approach and working with organisations on vitally important issues while disagreeing on other issues.
    Understanding that we can ideologically side with all sorts of strange bedfellows, such as during the Brexit referendum, and right now we would agree with both S Khan and P Patel that the Met Police have to clean out the racist and sexist pigs from their animal farm. This is something which U-Ls get into huge theoretical twists about, but which also shows the world that we share the basic norms of democracy and civilised life with the masses.
    Likewise, understanding that if and when socialism is achieved, there is no magic wand which turns the masses into revolutionaries, but that you have to work with and bring with you a very wide alliance of forces to continue the revolution.
    The ability to work in all working class and progressive organisations democratically and collectively, not imposing our ideas on others but putting forward correct positions and proposals and accepting the decision of the collective without question. Never claiming to be better than the collective or the leadership.
    Setting an example of hard work, dedication and upholding an organisation's principles, eg in a trade union working to recruit members, build branches, inform and educate members, support strike action, and never fail to join picket lines – the coal face of working class struggle; if working with the Labour Party, always turn out for canvassing and any other tasks the local branch sets.
    Never to expect too much, to be prepared to continue working for months, years and decades with possibly little or no result, but when the class is ready to move and take up the fight, to be in position where you are known and trusted by many who are not in our party, are not communists, but who know that we fight for the same goals as they do.
    There are no easy solutions to the difficult and complex problems which life throws up.

What it means to be a communist, new and revolutionary today

by Michael Chant

A keynote opening given by the leader of the RCPB-ML at a joint seminar with the NCP that was held recently in London.

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.
    But, as always, the nub of the definition centres around how the question poses itself. To be a communist is not necessarily synonymous with being new and revolutionary. It is great that in our two parties, if one wants to separate them, we share the name communist; and one has New in its name and the other Revolutionary. I think this emphasises a common aspiration. It is difficult to think of a communist party worthy of the name that is not a party of revolutionary action, and which fights for the New. It seems to us essential that this quality is present.
    Being new and revolutionary is an act of being. In contrast, when it is posed, what it means to be a communist, one is invited to think of ‘communist’ as a category, how many criteria one fulfils, what the communist positions are, and so on. It is interesting how much difference a little ‘a’ can make: from ‘to be a communist’ to ‘to be communist’. In other words, ‘to be communist’ is not a question of ideological beliefs. It is a question of action, of structures, of membership. At the same time, how can it not include being new and revolutionary, immersing oneself in the struggles of the working class and people for their rights and interests, struggles which are in defence of the rights of all, and recognising the urgency of change, having a burning flame that the New has to come into being, since the political, economic, cultural and every other kind of crisis of the Old world is causing havoc and suffering to the people wherever they are in the world. In this respect, being communist is to have an optimism, to see in the movements of the people, whether against war, whether against the anti-social offensive, that the outcome can be something positive, creative, the people mobilised and organised to speak and act in their own name and have fidelity to the ensemble of all human relationships and what they are revealing, most importantly the need for political power. This looks like it is closer to how the question poses itself, and what it means to be a communist, new and revolutionary, today.
    So, ‘today’. This is crucial, because the argument is sometimes put that a communist party can only be revolutionary when there is a ‘revolutionary’ situation. So, then, what it means to be new and revolutionary today. It is the revolutionary nature and character of the party that matters, the revolutionary culture and driving force within it. But it is true that the revolutionary actions of the communist party are not to be understood as storming Parliament or Windsor Castle with an armed people’s militia. Nor is it the answer to return to a catechism of Lenin’s words that a revolutionary situation consists of when working people do not want to live in the old way and the ruling class cannot rule in the old way. Or, one could look at it from the point of view that that situation characterises the present, with the destruction of the public authority!
    But one can characterise the issue as what does the communist party take up for solution in this period of our era. When in the 1980s the world was going through its turning point from flow to ebb of revolution, of which, for example, the coming to power of Gorbachev in the Soviet Union was an example, the conclusion could be drawn that no force could act in the old way. Tony Blair tried to convince the world that there is a Third Way, but his new type of way was not in fact new, but pro-war, anti-worker, pro-covenant thesis.
    What might be said is that what is taken up for solution today is the battle of democracy, of which the defence of the rights of all is part, and which is characterised by the people being the decision-makers versus ‘representatives’ of the people claiming to act in their name but serving a fictitious person of state. In our view, not to engage in this battle of democracy condemns you to extinction today, particularly the communists. So these are crucial fronts of struggle that affect the lives of everyone: for economic well-being, for a ban on the use of force in settling conflicts, for the protection of the environment. It is our view that people are expressing their deepest desires for something new with these demands, which can be characterised as engaging in the battle of democracy, of the necessity to establish an anti-war government.
    Just to quote from the article Era, which Hardial Bains wrote in April 1991: “The main content of the era remains the same, but the forms of struggle have to be changed so that the working people can grasp and fight for the realisation of those demands which could improve their situation, bring peace, and protect the environment. The new situation demands a new approach and solutions that working people want.” So the tasks of today present themselves with profound meaning as engaging in the battle of democracy, taking it through to the end. One could say that communists present one face to the world, not a revolutionary face and a reformist face. It is a matter of our being. The working class will emancipate the whole of humanity through revolution, through the act of emancipating itself.
    In our view, confusion arises when ‘revolution’ becomes an act of belief rather than a historical outcome of the working class and people participating in making history. In this sense, ‘revolution’ as a belief simply says that the bourgeois ruling is overthrown by force with an act of revolution, to be replaced by the proletariat ruling by force. But the state form must be changed profoundly, and it is not a question of force – it is a question of bringing into being those arrangements that empower the people to be the decision-makers. We stand with the slogan: “There Is An Alternative! One Humanity, One Struggle!”
    That is to say, people are the history makers. How can the communists mobilise and organise the working class and people to this end, with this consciousness? The communists are not in a competition to best describe the ills of capitalism and of US imperialism striving for domination in the world. Communists are striving to develop the proletarian front and to provide an alternative, so that the New can overcome the resistance of the Old and prevail.
    Not only is the history-making of the 1917 October Revolution still unfolding – but the battle of democracy from the time of the English Civil Wars has still to be brought to completion! It is not a matter of indifference whether this battle is joined or not!
    The working class must stand at the head of the struggles of the people to turn things around in their own favour, and modern definitions are needed, not catechisms. That means that organising work for the communists takes pride of place. This means advancing step by step, accomplishment by accomplishment, dealing with the state disinformation that puts a veil over the need for political power. The character of the veil is that the people are told there is no question of achieving that power for themselves, but only replacing one set of ‘representatives’ by another, left-wing versus right-wing. In this way, the conception that the people are being deprived of decision-making power gets thoroughly obscured or put off sine die [indefinitely]. We need a vantage point and a line of march to impart to the working class and people!
    So, very briefly, that is what I wanted to say on what it means to be a communist – new and revolutionary – today!

The future of socialism

 By Andy Brooks

NCP leader Andy Brooks took part in an international seminar titled “Marxism in the 21st Century and the Future of Socialism in the World” in Shenzhen in People’s China on 28^th May. Over 100 leaders and representatives of 75 communist parties from 50 countries from around the world met to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. This is the New Communist Party of Britain’s contribution to the debate.

 

 

Andy Brooks with a Bangladeshi comrade at the conference

 No one would disagree with Chinese President and Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping who said: “Marxism has not only profoundly changed the world, but also China”.

Marx and Engels stand out among the great scholars and revolutionary leaders of all time. They showed the working class and all oppressed people the way to emancipation from oppression and exploitation. They proved scientifically the possibility and the necessity of building a new society free of exploitation, oppression and poverty, with production, science and culture at the service of the people. Their research on class struggle, socialist revolution, socialism and communism has become the science of the development of nature, society and human thought.

Marx and Engels never expected to see socialism in their own lifetimes. They did, however, believe it was inevitable.

The bourgeois gurus who talked about the ‘end of history’ and a new golden age of capitalism, consigning socialism to the scrap-heap of history once the former Soviet Union had succumbed to imperialism and counter-revolution, did so because they were sure there was a new gateway to more global conquests opening up. They have been proved wrong as the flames of the October Revolution continue to blaze in People’s China, Cuba, Democratic Korea, Laos and Vietnam. Nevertheless we, as communists, have to try to understand why Soviet power failed while the people’s democracies whose economies were not directly linked to the USSR survived.

Though the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Stalin, showed that it was possible to build socialism in one state the USSR that was established following the communist victory in the civil war was a unique state, a union of socialist republics based on Soviet power. It was not the model for the people’s republics that were established during the revolutionary upsurge that followed the Soviet victory over fascism in the Second World War.

People’s democracy, based on communist united front policy, was an acceptance of the role of forces beyond that of the working class in the building of the new people’s governments. All communists accepted that this was a transitional period along the road to socialism whose length would be determined by the balance of class forces and the economic demands of each specific country. But the people’s democracies of Eastern Europe, whose economies were speedily integrated with that of the USSR, embarked on a programme of rapid collectivisation of the land, nationalisation and socialisation of society that seemed to work at the time but was ultimately tied to the performance of that of the Soviet Union.

In China, the people’s government established in 1949 initially followed the Soviet-led example of Eastern Europe but that failed to take into account the concrete conditions in the country – the poorest in the world in 1949. Subsequent attempts to use exhortation to boost production in the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution also failed in the long-term so the decision of the Communist Party of China to adopt a policy of reform and opening up was perhaps the only alternative in the late 1970s. 40 years later we can assess what has been achieved.

China is now the second largest economy in the world. Millions upon millions of people have been lifted out of poverty while the opening up has given China access to the high technology needed to enable China to provide concrete assistance to the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America and enable  the country to play a greater role in enhancing stability and peace throughout the world.

We meet today in a world where the primary contradiction is between American imperialism and the rest of the world it seeks to dominate. The imperialists preach about the superiority of the capitalist system, which they call freedom. But it freedom only for the exploiters to continue to rob and plunder working people across the globe to ensure that a tiny handful of parasites can live the lives of Roman emperors on the backs of the millions upon millions of working people.

The imperialists claim they stand for intellectual freedom but it is the freedom of the straitjacket and the dungeon. They preach this freedom with their Stealth bombers, their special forces and their economic blockades against all those who dare to stand up for themselves. We see what the ruling class mean by freedom in occupied Palestine, on the streets of Syria and the hills of Afghanistan.

They say we have free speech and live in a democracy but its democracy and freedom only for them. In fact bourgeois democracy is democracy only for the exploiters. It’s dictatorship in all but the formal sense for the exploited. Bourgeois elections, when they are held, are used so that the smallest number of people can manipulate the maximum number of votes.

But wherever there is oppression, there is resistance and now imperialism is on the defensive. Capitalism is in the throes of a deep crisis -- the slump that began in 2008 and continues still without any sign of real recovery.

In the opening words of the Communist Manifesto in 1848 Marx and Engels said “A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of communism.” That spectre is still there, despite all the twists and turns of the past 150 years. Now it haunts the entire globe because socialism is still charting the future in Asia, in Democratic Korea, People’s China, Vietnam and Laos and the Caribbean island of Cuba.

While millions of people scrabble to earn a living just to keep a roof over their heads a tiny elite live lives beyond the reach and often beyond the imagination of most workers.

Only socialism can end this. Only through socialism can the will of the masses, the overwhelming majority of the people, be carried out. Only socialism and mass democracy - not the sham democracy of the bourgeoisie or the myths of the social democrats, end the class system and free working people from their slavery.

Under socialism there will be no exploitation. Everyone will have decent housing, a job, good education, a truly free national health service and a decent pension when the time comes to retire.

There will be no more slums. No more poverty, racism, discrimination or bigotry. There will be culture, sports, arts and entertainment for all, by the masses and for the masses. The old decadent culture of selfishness, individuality and competition that pits worker against worker will go. Workers in their plant, office or collective will have an important role to play.

The destruction of the environment by capitalism will be replaced by planned sustained production for use, not profit.

There will be no more white-collar and blue-collar divisions and no more dead-end jobs because every job will have a value for society. Hours will be less and workers will have more recreational time; time to appreciate life, to discover and debate, to play or travel, time to ponder, time to create.

Socialism will unleash the great potential of working people to build a new and better society for themselves and the generations yet to come. Marx and Engels spent much of their creative lives in Britain as practical revolutionaries as well as great thinkers. They knew they would never see socialism in their own lifetimes but they never doubted the inevitability or the necessity for change. And the torch of freedom that fanned the fires of the Paris Commune and the flames of the 1917 Russian Revolution continues to blaze in Asia and the Caribbean.