Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

1599 -- 1658

That 'tis the most which we deteremine can

If these the Times, then this must be the Man

Andrew Marvell
1621-1678

by Andy Brooks

OLIVER CROMWELL, the leader of the bourgeois English Revolution, died on 3rd September 1658. Stricken by a malarial fever that proved to be fatal the Lord Protector willed himself to live until his auspicious day – the day his first parliament met in 1654. The day he smashed the Scottish Royalists at the battle of Dunbar in 1650 and forced the young Charles Stuart to run for his life the following year when the Royalists were routed at the battle of Worcester.

Cromwell led the parliamentary forces to victory in the civil war which began in 1642 and ended with the trial and execution of the king, Charles Stuart, in 1649. He presided over the establishment of the Republic of England, or Commonwealth as it was styled in English, and in 1653 he became head of state, or Lord Protector. Cromwell’s death was marked by genuine mourning throughout the country. His state funeral was the biggest London had ever seen. Two years later the Stuart royalty were back.

Today Cromwell’s death passes largely unnoticed but Oliver is not quite forgotten.

Marie Lloyd, the Victorian musical hall queen, sang about “the ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit”. Elvis Costello wrote Oliver’s Army, a sardonic song about the modern British Army in 1979, and a radical punk rock band took the name of Cromwell’s New Model Army for their own. The name of Cromwell is preserved in the streets of London. Countless books, and articles have been written about his life as well as two feature films and a number of television documentaries and every year enthusiasts re-enact the major battles of the civil war.

The Quakers we meet on the peace demonstrations were founded by George Fox, whose pacifist beliefs were borne out of the violence of the revolution. Robert Owen, the founder of the Co-operative Movement, and William Morris, the Victorian socialist and artist, were both influenced by the writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the leader of the Diggers, the “True Levellers” whose attempt to establish co-operative farms in Surrey and other parts of the country were suppressed during the Commonwealth.

Irish nationalists call Cromwell a brutal English invader while many Protestants still see him as a religious reformer who fought for freedom of conscience for all faiths apart from Catholicism. And the Jewish community still remembers Cromwell as the leader who allowed Jews to live, worship and work in England for the first time since the pogroms of 1290.

But for the bourgeoisie Oliver is best forgotten, even though their ascendancy began when their ancestors took up the gun in the 1640s.

The ruling class abhor revolutionary change today because it threatens their own domination, so they naturally deny that their class ever came to power through it in the first place. For them the English republic is an aberration, a temporary blip in the steady advance of bourgeois progress, which is the myth they teach us in school. If they elevate anything at all it is the ‘glorious revolution’ of 1688, when the last of the Stuarts was deposed and replaced by a king of their own choosing. Though not as bloodless as they claimed – plenty was shed in Ireland – the establishment of a monarchy that was the gift of Parliament was achieved without the involvement of the masses, which was precisely what was intended.

For romantic socialists Cromwell represents the well-to-do Puritan merchants and landowners who dominated the Army Council – the Grandees who crushed the Levellers and the rest of the democratic movement in the army. But Marxists always recognised the historic role of Cromwell. In 1948 British communist leader Harry Pollitt said: “When the growing capitalist class, the poor farmers and craftsmen, led by Oliver Cromwell, shattered the system of feudalism, and executed King Charles I in the process, reigning monarchs and ruling nobilities everywhere saw the pattern of future history unfolding. The name of Cromwell was reviled, then, as much as Stalin’s is today, by the ruling powers of the old and doomed order of society.

“The English Revolution is ‘great’, because it broke the barriers to man’s advance. It allowed the capitalist class to open the road leading to modern large-scale industry. It permitted science to serve the needs of the new, capitalist society. And, because of these developments, it provided the basis on which, for the first time, a new class, the working class, began to grow, to organise and itself to challenge the prevailing system of society.

“Capitalism, at first progressive, in so far as it led the way for technical advance, developed to the point limited by its own structure. It became, as feudalism was before it, a barrier to the further advance of man. It ceased to serve a useful purpose. It had built up enormous productive forces, but was incapable of providing the majority of the people with a decent standard of life.

“Throughout the world, the working class, with the Communist Party at its head, now goes forward to put an end to capitalism and to build socialism. The English Revolution set this train of historic events in motion. That is why our Party is proud to honour its memory.”

World mourns loss of renowned “Red poet”

by Chris Mahin

The world has lost a great poet – and a militant communist. Jack Hirschman died suddenly on 22nd August at his home in the North Beach district of San Francisco. He was 87 years old. He died in his sleep, shortly before he was scheduled to take part in a Zoom meeting of the World Poetry Movement (WPA), a group of which he had recently been appointed coordinator.
    As the sad news spread, expressions of sympathy poured in from around the world – from other poets, former students, and fellow revolutionaries and political activists. In a statement issued to the Turkish news media, the World Poetry Movement called Hirschman’s death “a great loss to American and world poetry.” The organisation’s statement pledged that “WPA and the poets of the world, who share his humanist and revolutionary ideals, will keep the memory of this great poet alive; will continue to work … for a freer, more just and egalitarian world.”
    Jack Hirschman was a brilliant poet, scholar, and translator -- and a proud communist. (The documentary film made about him in 2010 is fittingly entitled Red Poet). In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, he stated: “The most important thing as a poet is that I worked for the communist movement for 45 years, and the new class of impoverished and homeless people.”
    In addition to publishing more than 100 volumes of his own poetry, Hirschman translated over two dozen books from languages including Russian, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Albanian, Yiddish, Vietnamese, and Creole. He was deeply committed to ensuring that the works of revolutionaries like Pablo Neruda of Chile, Nazim Hikmet of Turkey, and Rene Depestre of Haiti were available in English in the United States.
    Hirschman was named poet laureate of San Francisco in 2006 by then-mayor Gavin Newsom, a post that allowed Hirschman to create the San Francisco International Poetry Festival. Three years later, he became the poet in residence at the San Francisco public library.
    Jack Hirschman was born on 13th December in New York City in 1933 into a Russian Jewish family and grew up in the Bronx. While still a teenager attending the City College of New York, he worked as a sub-editor for the Associated Press. Later he taught at Dartmouth in New England and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Hirschman was fired from UCLA in the 1970s for encouraging his students to resist the draft during the Vietnam War.
    In 1973, he moved to San Francisco where he became part of the city’s vibrant literary scene, becoming a close friend of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the writers from the Beat generation grouped around City Lights bookstore in North Beach.
    For decades, Jack Hirschman was a constant presence in San Francisco’s streets and cafes, attending innumerable poetry readings and political rallies, distributing copies of his poetry and the People’s Tribune newspaper. Hirschman served as the assistant editor for the literary journal Left Curve, formed the Union of Left Writers in San Francisco and was a founder of the Roque Dalton Cultural Brigade, the Revolutionary Poets Brigade, and the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.
    I first met Jack in the early 1980s. He was always warm, funny, and totally unpretentious. He went out of his way to encourage anyone who wanted to write – provided they were going to stand on the side of the oppressed. Whenever I sent him an issue of the New Worker containing an article on US history that I had written, the man who wrote more than 100 volumes of poetry somehow always found the time to write back. His response would invariably contain kind words of praise for my article and for the New Worker – often with a few exclamations in Italian or Russian thrown in for emphasis.
    Above all else, Jack Hirschman had a warrior’s spirit, a fierce determination to oppose injustice anywhere in the world. As he himself once wrote: “Poetry is really a weapon. It’s a spiritual weapon for the transformation of the world. And, of course, all my poems are love poems. The nicest thing in the world is to propagandize for love.” Rest well, Comrade Jack. Others will take up your weapon.

End of an era

Few suppose Joe Biden will lose any sleep over the concerns of his European allies who are now bleating on about America’s hasty retreat from Afghanistan, let alone the wails of their expendable Afghan servants left stranded at Kabul airport when the last US troops pull out at the end of the month.
    The last few days have been a bitter lesson in real-politik for British politicians who still talk, at least in public, about a “special relationship” with the USA, whilst there’s a growing realisation amongst the movers and shakers of the European Union (EU) that their supposed ‘super-power’ status is just another Brussels pipe-dream.
    Britain, which still has the fifth greatest economy in the world, can of course stand on its own two feet. But Johnson prefers to spout nonsense about “Global Britain” rather than take any serious steps to break the slavish dependency on the USA, scrap the £billions spent on the useless US Trident nuclear weapons system and use the money saved to develop a truly independent economy for the benefit of the millions who live here.
    Tony Blair and his kind can drivel on for as long they like about “human rights” and “imbecilic” US decisions, but no-one takes them seriously – least of all anyone who counts in America’s ruling circles. The Americans are leaving Afghanistan because they’ve lost the war. Crocodile tears are the most that the Afghans left behind to the tender mercies of the Taliban can expect.

opportunity knocks

Sharon Graham has won the election to be the next general secretary of Unite. She succeeds the 70-year-old veteran Len McCluskey, who prolonged his stay at the top table but finally stepped down this year after 10 years in office. Unite’s first woman leader received almost 5,000 more votes than her nearest rival in a three-horse race that ended this week. She will now take over from Len McCluskey as leader of the second biggest union in the country.
    As usual these days the race to the top was, in practice, confined to three full-time officers and the factions they head. Whilst all three claimed to be following in the footsteps of Len McCluskey the only one who had their old chief’s blessing was Steve Turner – and that was only grudgingly given after Len’s chosen man, Howard Beckett, dropped out when he realised he couldn’t win. Turner – the official broad left ‘United Left’ candidate – came a credible second whilst Gerard Coyne – the right-wing ‘moderate’ – was well behind in third place.
    Sharon Graham coyly says she’s “not a member of any Unite or Labour faction – other than my own supporters group”, which though technically true masks the fact that her ‘Workers Unite’ group has built up a very powerful left-leaning platform supported by some Trotskyist movements within the union and focused on grass-roots issues to get the vote out.
    Turner relied on a run-down broad left machine that simply could not cope with the demands of social media or the lock-down restrictions imposed on public work during the campaign, while Coyne mistakenly hoped that the backing of the Murdoch press and dog-whistle support from Starmer & Co would be enough to turn the tables on his ‘left’ rivals.
    Sharon Graham says: “My slogan all along has been ‘Back to the workplace’ to build the union to fight for jobs, wages and conditions.” Let’s hope she does so.

Protecting our Beautiful Blue Planet

 By John Maryon

Yuri Gagarin was amazed as he observed the natural wonders of the Earth from the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 1 on 12th April 1961. The world's first cosmonaut said " Orbiting the Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it".
    Pollution and the depletion of natural resources affect our quality of life but the greatest threat to all life on Earth comes from global warming caused by a build-up of greenhouse gases. The most important are Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Fluorinated Gases in addition to the presence of water vapour. These gases allow sunlight to pass through but have far less transparency to infra-red radiation reflected back from the Earth's surface. This greenhouse effect could develop into a runaway form such as is believed to have destroyed the environment on Venus causing the oceans to boil away.
    Carbon Dioxide, (CO2), released from burning fossil fuel is the major cause of global warming and climate change. The problem is being made worse by the destruction of rain forests in Brazil and other areas which retained large quantities fixed carbon. Until recently the US administration was in denial of the problem, driven by political and commercial motives. They have now rejoined the Paris Climate Accord and accepted that action has to be taken. Global temperatures have almost reached the 1.5 °C limit and urgent action is required.
    The Paris agreement to limit temperature rise allowed individual countries to set their own targets taking account of trees, soil and oceans to absorb CO2. Climate finance would be made available to enable poorer countries to adapt and switch to renewable energy.
    The New Communist Party's policy for a Planned and Integrated Energy Strategy highlights the challenges facing Britain and puts forward active measures to overcome the problems. Privatisation of energy utilities has made essential planning virtually impossible due to the desire for quick profit and short termism. We call for full public ownership of the power generating capacity and supply networks. The infrastructure does not exist for a rapid transfer to all electrical vehicles making the shift from private car and road freight to public transport and rail goods transport important. Investment is required to convert all existing diesel rail links to electric, restoring rural bus services and for the development of hydrogen engines that only exhaust water vapour as they produce power.
    A balanced and safe energy mix for electricity generation will require more investment into land and off-shore wind farms, solar power, tidal and wave energy. It may be possible in the near future to collect solar energy from space with large collectors and beam it down to Earth.
    Coal fired power stations could possibly be equipped with carbon entrapment technology. CO2 is then captured at source and transported to an underground storage area. Such power plants or a new generation of much safer nuclear units are required as base stations for those times when the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow.
    Nuclear power remains an option but it is controversial and comes with its own risks including the problems of nuclear waste storage, high decommissioning costs and possible pollution. Current proposals for joint Chinese/French ventures are in jeopardy as the government comes under increasing pressure from the US to cut investment ties with China. Energy from nuclear sources is a risky proposition due to the catastrophic events which may result due to human error, technical failure, cyber-attacks, natural disasters, war or terrorism. Reactors may be of a type that can breed fuel for nuclear weapons or to produce further energy. Future developments may include more advanced types of Reactor such as the Molten Salt unit that uses Thorium as fuel and may have certain advantages from safety and security considerations. Many now consider that Fusion will be the power source of the future.
    The New Communist Party is firmly opposed to fracking technology to extract gas from rock formations; a process which can pollute water tables and cause subsidence. Fracking increases CO2 levels by producing more fossil fuel, that was locked away, now to be burnt. During the operation there is the risk of releasing methane into the air and water systems.
    Many northern British cities still bear the scars of the Industrial Revolution. Blackened stonework on buildings being testament to the grim reality of the environmental destruction that was caused. Moths and butterflies developed into new sub-species to blend with the soot.
    Britain possess the technology to become carbon zero. The NCP calls for all new homes, schools and public sector buildings to be developed in this manner. A combination of solar power, heat pumps to upgrade ground-heat and solar heated water, along with improved levels of thermal insulation can make a big contribution. Tree planting and green spaces are essential to absorb CO2.
    It is not only climate change that causes concern. We live in an age of colossal waste and rampant pollution in which we are consuming our natural resources faster than they can be replenished. A build-up of microscopic plastic particles and nuclear waste dumping by Japan into the Pacific along with oil spills all contribute to the contamination of the seas. Fish and small mammals struggle to cope in our polluted rivers. Greater efforts should be made to make the polluter pay the price.
    One of the more obvious areas of concern is that of packaging. Plastic bags are out but but the problem goes much deeper. Most packaging includes plastic rather than card or paper. In many cases it is totally unnecessary being solely a means of making the product more attractive. It should be made a legal requirement that almost all types of packaging should be capable of being recycled. More domestic appliances are now unrepairable and often it is not possible to even replace batteries. We have become a throw away society. It is less costly to dump in developing countries than to bother with recycling. Inbuilt obsolescence, trendy fashion and dubious marketing gimmicks are the hallmarks of a capitalist market.
    We clearly cannot continue in this manner. A strong political will and the acceptance of a shared responsibility for our actions are required. The NCP calls for new policies and a new way of thinking that puts environmental issues above the greedy pursuit of profits. Communists will respect and live in harmony with the natural world including all the other creatures with which we share a common home.
    In 2019 China manufactured 80 per cent of the world's solar panels. The US instead of applauding this achievement has made attempts to wreck the industry by making unfounded allegations of human rights abuses to curb sales. It is the gas guzzling US itself that is a major cause of world pollution and shows little respect for both its own citizens or others with its permanent aggression to bomb and sanction the world.
    The New Communist Party stands with the Greens in their sincere and noble aims of protecting our planet. We also believe, however, that success involves a greater political dimension that tackles the ideological causes behind the problems. Environmental protection cannot be considered in isolation. It needs to be seen as a part of the larger class struggle.

Defend Ken Loach!

Ken Loach has been expelled from the Labour Party. Loach says he was kicked out after he refused to “disown” other victims of the Starmer purge. “I am proud to stand with the good friends and comrades victimised by the purge. There is indeed a witch hunt,” Loach said last weekend. “Starmer and his clique will never lead a party of the people. We are many, they are few. Solidarity.”
     A life-long socialist, Loach never hid his past support for Trotskyist movements and George Galloway’s Respect Party when returned to the Labour fold in 2017. But his expulsion has nothing to do with what Loach did or did not do in the past. He’s been hounded out because of his high-profile backing of Jeremy Corbyn and his principled support for the Palestinians that includes support for the boycott Israel campaign.
     Twenty MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and John McDonnell, along with five members of the House of Lords, have signed a statement in support of the campaigning film director. Headed by Richard Burgon, the Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, the statement said Loach was an “outstanding socialist” whose expulsion was “shameful”. Now the Zionists are demanding their heads as well. The veteran English film director has become
the latest victim of the Blairite campaign to drive all the prominent Corbynistas out of the Labour Party. He certainly won’t be the last.

 

End of the road in Afghanistan

As the last American troops withdraw from Afghanistan the sectarian Taliban Muslim militia has seized nine provincial capitals in an offensive than now directly threatens what poses as the national government in Kabul. In 2001 an American-led invasion drove the Taliban out of Kabul to install a puppet regime in the “war on terror” that the imperialists launched following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. The invasion of Iraq soon followed along with “regime change” in Libya and a less than covert bid to do the same in Syria that was thwarted by the steadfastness of the Syrian people and the timely intervention of the Russian air force.
     American forces, and those of their NATO allies including Britain, installed a puppet regime in Kabul which they said would bring prosperity and democracy to Afghanistan.
    Twenty years later the Americans and their allies are leaving with their tails between their legs while the Taliban, which is backed by Pakistani intelligence, battles it out with northern and western war-lords who can count on the support of Russia, India and Iran.
    Some 2,300 American soldiers were killed in the Afghan campaign and over 20,600 wounded. Hundreds of mercenaries called “contractors” also died at the hands of the Afghan militias and while no-one in the West bothers to accurately count the Afghan losses most observers believe that about 241,000 people were killed in the Afghan and Pakistan war zone since 2001. More than 71,000 of those killed were civilians.
    Some senior British officers and Tory politicians who really should know better are now bleating on about the “betrayal” of the Afghans, They would be better advised to heed Kipling’s words after the illusionary British victory in the Boer War: “Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should. We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good”.

Another French connection

 by Ben Soton

Baptiste Series 2, currently showing on BBC1, Sundays at 9pm; also available on BBC iPlayer. Created by: Harry Williams, Jack Williams. Written by: Harry Williams, Jack Williams, Kelly Jones, Catherine Moulton. Stars: Tchéky Karyo, Anastasia Hille, Barbara Sarafian.

BBC1 is currently screening the second and final series of Baptiste, a gripping drama in which the retired French police officer Julien Baptiste (played by Tchéky Karyo) tracks down missing persons, those whom the regular police are incapable of locating. The drama emerged from an earlier series, The Missing, originally shown in 2014, in which the main character played a prominent role. The French detective was later revived when the first Baptiste series was launched in 2019.
    In the current series the family of the British Ambassador to Hungary, Emma Chambers (played by Fiona Shaw), goes missing and she uses Baptiste to find them. The search leads them to a Hungarian far-right party and its links to an even more sinister terrorist group known as Gomorrah. In episode three a Hungarian far-right politician uses a children’s story as the basis for a speech she is about to make, showing the simplistic and childlike nature of their arguments. At face value, the programme dismisses the view that the European Union  is an oasis of enlightenment, and that Brexit Island is a bastion of ignorance.
    Episodes so far have been dominated by flash-backs between past and present. The purpose of this technique is to keep the viewer focussed but equally it can also cause confusion.
    The event that separates past and present to us is a massacre by the fascist terror group Gomorrah, in which Chambers is seriously injured and Baptiste has a nervous breakdown. As the series progresses it appears that Gomorrah is the key to the disappearance of Chambers’ family. Meanwhile, the sub-plots based around Baptiste’s chaotic personal life also feature.
    Baptiste raises the issue of why people go missing. An estimated 170,000 go missing every year, an equivalent to one person every 90 seconds. Around 70,000 of these are children, many of whom are in local authority care – known as ‘Looked After Children’.
    Previous series of Baptiste and The Missing have focussed on the global sex industry and the trafficking that accompanies it as a possible reason why many of the people, particularly women and children, disappear.
    A television series set in Hungary, involving the British ambassador with a French police officer, is a reminder that we live in an interconnected world. The Hungarian police are portrayed as incompetent, corrupt and possibly in league with the far-right. Ironically, the British police, who would normally be involved with such a high-level disappearance, are nowhere to be seen. Is this part of the BBC’s Remainer agenda, which views this country as being left isolated after Brexit?
    When it transpired that the British husband of the Hungarian extremist leader is the mastermind behind Gomorrah my fears came to light. The narrative promoted by the series is as follows: Britain has left the EU, whilst the far-right are gaining ground in Hungary. The two events are connected. The British ambassador, left disabled after a shooting, represents Britain isolated and weakened after Brexit. The saviour is a retired Frenchman, acting out of good will.
    The series is soon to reach its climax. I am anticipating a dramatic ending as well as a resolution of Baptiste’s personal problems. When watching the BBC, however, beware false narratives.

Support the Struggle of the Communist Party of Cuba!

Solidarity Resolution by Communist and Workers' Parties in Support of
the Struggle of the Communist Party of Cuba

The imperialists are becoming more blatant in their attempts to topple the socialist system in Cuba.

The recent anti-government protests in Cuba are a product of the relentless maneuvers against the country staged by the US over a long period of time to obliterate the Cuban revolution.

Since the victory of the Cuban revolution, the US has committed ceaseless acts of military intervention, subversion and sabotage as well as economic blockade against Cuba under its scheme to stifle the first socialist country in the Western hemisphere by all means.

Lately, the US, in collusion with a handful of counter-revolutionary elements in Cuba, has been doggedly resorting to psychological conspiracy warfare and tactics of social disruption in order to undermine people's faith in the Communist Party and socialist system, and create and aggravate political instability in the country.

The reality shows that “peaceful co-existence” the US advocates is only a sly trick to find an easy way of fulfilling their aggressive ambition by instilling illusions about capitalism into anti-imperialist and independent countries.

The nature of imperialism never changes.

The lessons of history testify that we can defend the gains of revolution, socialist system and people's dignity only when we do not indulge in any kind of fantasy about imperialism, but constantly intensify the struggle against it.

The US is terribly mistaken about the unyielding faith and will of the Communist Party and people of Cuba who had opened up their way to the socialist cause with their blood and have stood strong and pulled through the protracted sanctions and blockade imposed by the imperialists and all other hardships.

Communist and Workers' Parties greatly appreciate the will of the Communist Party of Cuba to protect the sovereignty and dignity of the country and defend the socialist system to the end, resolutely opposing the vicious attempts of the US to topple its system, and we express strong solidarity with the Communist Party of Cuba.

Communist and Workers' Parties oppose and condemn in the strongest terms the immoral US sanctions and blockade against Cuba and demand that all sanctions and blockade which violate the Cuban people's rights to existence and development be lifted.

Communist and Workers' Parties will consistently and actively support and encourage the struggle of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban government and people to firmly defend and advance the cause of socialism.



SolidNet Parties

1. Communist Party of Argentina
2. Communist Party of Armenia
3. Communist Party of Australia
4. Communist Party of Azerbaidjan
5. Democratic Progressive Tribune, Bahrain
6. Communist Party of Bangladesh
7. Workers' Party of Bangladesh
8. Communist Party of Belarus
9. Brazilian Communist Party
10. Communist Party of Brazil
11. Communist Party of Britain
12. New Communist Party of Britain
13. Communist Party of Bulgaria
14. Party of the Bulgarian Communists
15. Colombian Communist Party
16. People's Vanguard Party, Costa Rica
17. Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia
18. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
19. Communist Party of Denmark
20. Communist Party in Denmark
21. Egyptian Communist Party
22. Unified Communist Party of Georgia
23. German Communist Party
24. Communist Party of Greece
25. Hungarian Workers' Party
26. Communist Party of India (Marxist)
27. Communist Party of India
28. Communist Party of Kurdistan-Iraq
29. Communist Party of Israel
30. Communist Party (Italy)
31. Italian Communist Party
32. Jordanian Communist Party
33. Communist Party of Kazakhstan
34. Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
35. Workers' Party of Korea
36. Lao People's Revolutionary Party
37. Lebanese Communist Party
38. Communist Party of Malta
39. Communist Party of Mexico
40. Popular Socialist Party of Mexico
41. Party of Communists of Republic of Moldova
42. Communist Party of Norway
43. Communist Party of Pakistan
44. Palestinian Communist Party
45. Party of the People, Panama
46. Paraguayan Communist Party
47. Peruvian Communist Party
48. Philippine Communist Party [PKP-1930]
49. Communist Party of Poland
50. Portuguese Communist Party
51. Romanian Socialist Party
52. Communist Party of the Russian Federation
53. Russian Communist Workers' Party
54. Communist Party of Soviet Union
55. Union of Communist Parties-CPSU
56. New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
57. Communists of Serbia
58. Communist Party of Slovakia
59. South African Communist Party
60. Communist Party of Spain
61. Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
62. Communist Party of Sri Lanka
63. Communist Party of Swaziland
64. Communist Party of Sweden
65. Syrian Communist Party
66. Syrian Communist Party (Unified)
67. Communist Party of Tadjikistan
68. Communist Party of Turkey
69. Communist Party of Ukraine
70. Union of Communists of Ukraine
71. Communist Party of Uruguay
72. Communist Party USA
73. Communist Party of Venezuela

Other Parties 

•  Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
• Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
• Communist Revolutionary Party of France
• The Communist League Finland
• Communist Party of Germany
• Communist Party of Mauritius
• National Socialist Party, Romania
• Communist Party (Switzerland)
• Socialist Workers Party, USA

Health is not a commodity!

Secret plans to withdraw hospital care from the over-70s in the case of a catastrophic pandemic have come out this week. According to revelations in the mainstream media elderly people would be denied treatment to prevent the hospitals from being overwhelmed during a health crisis. Instead they would be placed on an “end of life pathway” reminiscent of the euphemisms used by the death doctors of the Third Reich to justify the “mercy killing” of those the Nazis deemed unfit to live.
     The strategy, drawn up in 2017 and 2018, reportedly stipulated that in a “severe” flu pandemic, the health secretary could authorise medics to prioritise some patients over others with people in nursing homes offered “end of life pathways” instead of medical assistance. Under the plan, the triaging process would be based on patients' “probability of survival” rather than clinical need.
    The Government says the proposals related to “hypothetical scenarios” and claim they were never adopted as official policy. But Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams claims that Britain had come “perilously close” to an approach of this sort at the height of the pandemic last year.
    The Johnson government was slow to take action from the very start clearly embracing the crackpot do-nothing “herd immunity” theory that was followed by the Trump administration in the USA and the Bolsonaro regime in Brazil with disastrous consequences for millions of people left defenceless against the coronavirus plague. Though the Government did eventually yield to scientific pressure to bring in the national lockdowns that curbed the plague before the vaccines were developed some 42,000 elderly people died from Covid in care homes -- largely spread by infected arrivals discharged from hospitals to free up beds,
    Dominic Cummings maintains it is “complete nonsense” to say that the government “put a shield around care homes”. According to Johnson’s embittered former guru “the opposite happened” as the NHS “sent people with Covid back to care homes”.
    There’s going to be an independent public inquiry into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s not going to start its proceedings until the spring of next year. We can’t wait that long.
    Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, called for a people’s inquiry into Covid. It’s already begun with the Keep Our NHS Public campaign.
    Chaired by the human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC, the people’s inquiry has held nine sessions gathering evidence from expert witnesses, key workers, patients, and bereaved people. The People’s Covid Inquiry has recently published interim recommendations and it is expected to publish its final report and recommendations in the autumn.
    In the meantime it has concluded that the delay in recognising the gravity of the situation was caused by a failure of leadership and the deaths of 150,000 people, most of whom died needlessly, have been the result of incompetence. Timings of lockdowns and failure to put in place travel restrictions and quarantine contributed significantly to accelerating the spread of Covid.
    We want a health service that is free at the point of need. The service and the morale of its workers must be reinstated to the full, to guarantee the sick, young and elderly, receive the treatment and service needed, including dental, fully supported by our tax system and at no extra cost to the patients and their families. It is the workers who create the wealth by their toil and provide the funding in the form of taxes, not the bourgeoisie, who live off the backs of the workers. We will continue to fight to save our services.
    A national health service, delivered free to all at the time of need, is an essential requirement if people are to play an active part in society. The capitalists view health as a commodity. We do not.

Pay the Nurses, fund the NHS

Nurses are gearing up for a “summer of action” over pay following the Government’s derisory three per cent award that the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said amounts to a cut after inflation is taken into account. The RCN is organising demonstrations across the country and a consultative pay ballot in the run-up to its annual conference in September. Unison and the British Medical Association (BMA) are sounding out their members on future industrial action for higher pay.
    Whilst the Tories bleat that their award is higher than the initial one per cent they offered in March, it is still well short of the 12.5 per cent demand from nursing staff or the similar demands of the GMB and Unite, who also organise workers in the health sector.
    Prime Minister Boris Johnson came under attack this week after he tried to dodge being 'pinged' for self-isolation – a day after announcing that so-called vaccine passports would be required for entry to nightclubs, concerts and other large public events from September.
    Meanwhile the knives are out for Johnson following a Tory dip in the opinion polls, which his rivals say is down to Johnson’s incompetent handling of the lockdown lifting. The latest YouGov poll put the Tories down six points to 38 per cent last week, just four points over Labour, whilst the minor parties – the Liberal Democrats and the Greens – also gained three points at the expense of the Conservatives. On this basis a general election would produce a hung parliament dependent on the whims of the Scottish nationalists and Northern Ireland’s unionist parties.
    Some Tory backbenchers say that momentum is growing to ditch Johnson in favour of his Chancellor, Rishi Sunak. But this may be premature. Sunak is undoubtedly a very ambitious man – but he probably still needs a few more years in high office before reaching out for the premiership and he certainly needs to reach some sort of understanding with the Remainer grandees to secure a seamless succession.
    This should be a golden opportunity for Labour to regain lost ground by backing the health workers to the hilt. The Corbynistas have pledged full support. But all we’ve got from Sir Keir Starmer are some mealy-mouthed words about fair pay for nurses. Starmer said the three per cent offer was “not fair” – but he refuses to endorse the union claims or to say what he thinks would be “fair”.
    Millions of working people are eternally grateful for the dedication and sacrifice of the health service workers who are on the front-line in the battle against the coronavirus plague. Opinion polls show that most of them support the nurses’ demands. But far from heeding the voices on the street, Starmer would rather go down the road of the Blairites and Zionists to pursue pointless vendettas against tiny Trotskyist sects in the mistaken belief that this will give him some street-cred with northern workers and chalk-up some more brownie points with what is perceived to be the dominant wing of the ruling class.
    The entire labour movement needs to close ranks around the NHS workers’ pay campaign to force the Government to respond realistically to their just demands and to provide concrete solidarity if they are forced to take industrial action later in the year.

An anti-vaxxer’s pipedream

by Ben Soton

The Pandemic Plot (Ben Hope, Book 23) by Scott Mariani, HarperCollins, 2021.
Paperback: 400pp, rrp £7.99

The Pandemic Plot is a novel you are just as likely to see in your local Tesco as in Waterstones or WH Smith; it is, after all, in the Sunday Times’ Top Five best seller list. The title is topical in the current climate, which is why I considered it worth reading.
    The novel is one of many based around the former SAS major and theology student Ben Hope. Hope is an emotionally dysfunctional action hero with similarities to Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt. Like Dirk Pitt, Hope discovered he had a son who was conveniently hidden from him until reaching adulthood. In defence of Ben Hope and his creator, Scott Mariani, he is a more believable character as are his stories, being better paced with the plots containing stories from the past.
    Meanwhile, unlike the original action hero James Bond, who works directly for the state, Hope runs his own company based in France, the interestingly named Le Val institute. In other words, a privatised action hero who does not follow orders from anyone else.
    In the novel, Hope discovers a rogue pharmaceutical firm has been selling chemical weapons to terrorists and rogue states. The firm in question, the Galliard Group, has its origins in the First World War with attempts to create mustard gas. At this point I realised the novel was leading the reader down the conspiracy theory path.
    In reality the 1918 influenza pandemic, misleadingly called the “Spanish flu”, started in the USA and spread to Europe via American troop ships whilst Western governments have been less than covertly supporting terrorism against socialist and secular governments for decades – no conspiracy here.
    This plotline, however, is essentially a narrative of the right or even far-right. A shady corporation run by an evil genius, with no reference to capitalism as an economic system. This evil genius, or secretive cabal of individuals, needs to be brought down by a lone, slightly dysfunctional hero. Once this has been achieved the world can go back to normal; in other words, the system is basically fine, it just needs the odd bad apple removed. This narrative has similarities with the Q-Anon conspiracies that form the basis of Donald Trump’s support in the USA.
    I almost laughed aloud when the villains were defeated literally by two men and a dog, in a somewhat anti-climactic ending. Meanwhile, the novel’s epilogue contains a bizarre ‘what if’ scenario about sinister men in white coats unleashing viruses on the population. It continues with mutterings about vaccines not being much better than the actual virus. I would not be surprised if this novel became popular amongst COVID-19 conspiracists, whose actions only serve to undermine public health and function as foot soldiers for the most reactionary sections of capitalism.

Still Looking Good

by Ben Soton

 If you are a fan of EastEnders, you may be wondering what Adam Woodyatt (aka Ian Beale) has been up to then head to the theatre. He has been starring in the stage adaptation of the Peter James novel Looking Good Dead. In the play Woodyatt plays Tom Bryce, a fifty something business man with financial problems; not a million miles from his usual role of Ian Beale. Although many actors are typecast Woodyatt doesn’t do a bad job in either role. Looking Good Dead also features James’ creation Roy Grace, played by Harry Long. Many of James’ novels contain the back story of the search for Grace’s missing wife; although this does not feature in this stage play. In fact, in this stage adaptation the villain takes a more central role.
    Another recurring theme of James’ novels is the anxiety faced by those people referred to as middle-class. In Looking Good Dead Bryce owns a company that in his words provides bespoke services to the wealthy. In other words, he runs errands for rich people they can’t be bothered to do themselves; in a world where rich people can usually employ underlings to do things for them. I almost laughed out loud when a mysterious wealthy American turns up at Bryce’s home asking him to buy a dozen Rolex watches for some of his employees; something that would normally be done by a personal assistant. Meanwhile Bryce has an alcoholic wife, Kelly (played by Gaynor Faye) whose best friend is his credit card. Bryce’ world is caving in upon him until one fateful day when he finds a memory stick on a train.
    The play’s opening scene includes a prostitute in sado-masochistic attire; a reference to the sex industry in Peter James’ home town of Brighton where most of his novels are set. It later transpires that the young woman was in fact a student struggling to pay tuition fees. Meanwhile the play includes imaginative use of stage scenery where the set incorporates a dungeon, Bryce’s living room and a police control room which slides in and out when needed.
    An enjoyable production which manages to combine crime with an element of social commentary. Between now and October Looking Good Dead will be playing at Salford, Nottingham, Glasgow, Dartford, Milton Keynes, Sheffield, Malvern, Leeds, Woking, Swindon, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Brighton and Norwich.

1921 – A vivid panorama of revolution

  by Keith Bennett

The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China has been the occasion for many grand and impressive events throughout July. 1921, which has also been playing in selected cinemas in Britain and Ireland, and doubtless elsewhere, is the film for the centenary.
    A feature film, with special effects worthy of any Hollywood blockbuster, it also features some documentary footage, skilfully heightening the sense of both drama and realism.
    Whilst 1921 is focused on that momentous year, it deploys flashbacks as far as the 1850s, showing China’s degradation to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal ruined nation and then at its conclusion a potted but vivid historical reconstruction of subsequent years, which culminates in Chairman Mao proclaiming the founding of the People’s Republic on October 1st 1949, as well as Young Pioneers visiting the restored site of the first party congress 100 years later.
    A similar historical technique is deployed to depict aspects of some of the key characters, including such pioneering Chinese communists as Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Li Da and, of course, Mao Zedong. Particularly moving is the depiction of the tragic and heroic fates of some of the key early martyrs of Chinese communism, including Yang Kaihui, Mao’s first wife and great love. This provides a raw and poignant contrast to the youthful idealism, frenetic activity and infectious optimism of many of the key characters as they throw themselves into the preparations for the founding of the party whilst simultaneously immersing themselves in the surging movement of the young but extremely militant Chinese working class along with the youth and students. Shanghai, in particular, where the party was founded, is accurately depicted as a playground for wealthy Chinese and above all for foreign overlords, but as a living hell for the masses of Chinese people.
    Whilst the leading characters are presented in a more all-round, nuanced and ‘human’ way than was typical of an earlier period of Chinese revolutionary cinema, the film successfully combines action and romance with skilful expositions of key political questions. Quite lengthy readings from the Communist Manifesto highlight the young revolutionaries’ wholehearted embrace of the need for class struggle leading to the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and their rejection of the reformism of the Second International, whilst the question of whether communists should hold office in a progressive bourgeois government, such as that of Dr Sun Yat Sen, is touched on in the case of Chen Duxiu. And in one short but highly significant scene Mao Zedong raises the importance of the peasant question, to the initial scepticism of his comrades. It was, of course, Chairman Mao’s grasp of the peasant question, and of the role that the peasants could play in the revolution in a country such as China, that created the conditions for victory and secured his eternal place as one of the greatest and most original leaders and theoreticians of the global communist movement.
     Also central to the political thrust of the film is the role played by the Communist International (Comintern). The two representatives from the Comintern who attended the CPC’s founding congress are rightly portrayed as heroic and selfless individuals, with some nail-biting scenes worthy of any genre of action movie. And the need to follow the path of the Russians, of the victorious October Revolution, is consistently highlighted. But there are also some pretty heavy hints of future tensions between the CPC and the Comintern, focused on the Chinese communists’ determination to forge an independent path as something intrinsic to their nation-building project.
    The role of the Comintern representatives in liaising with the fledgling Japanese Communist Party in Shanghai is also featured.
    The panoramic sweep of this film also takes us beyond China – to the Kremlin in Moscow, where we see Lenin addressing a congress of the Communist International, and to Paris, where we see the struggles of the Chinese workers and students to get organised under the banner of Marxism and to build support for China’s struggle among the French public. Here we are introduced to a 17-year-old Deng Xiaoping, with the affectionate name his comrades gave him at the time, Doctor of the Mimeograph, for his skill and diligence in producing revolutionary literature under difficult conditions.
    1921 is a touching, exciting and profound film – both great entertainment and a great education. It needs to be widely viewed, whether in China or around the world: for young Chinese people so that they might better know the struggles and sacrifices of their forebears that have made possible today’s increasingly strong and prosperous socialist China; and for those of us in the non-socialist world, who may sometimes feel daunted by the enormity of attempting to transcend the outmoded system of capitalism, to be reminded that a better world is indeed possible and that even a small number of people, with no resources to speak of, can really help to make it happen, so long as they have the spirit, in Marx’s words, to “storm heaven”.
    Or as Chairman Mao put it in his poem Chingkangshan Revisited: “Nothing is hard in this world if you dare to scale the heights”.

JOINT STATEMENT OF PROPOSALS OF THE
CPC AND WORLD POLITICAL PARTIES SUMMIT

We, the 10,000-plus delegates representing more than 500 political parties and organisations from over 160 countries, attended on 6 July 2021 the CPC and World Political Parties Summit hosted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) via video link. Focusing on the theme of “For the People’s Wellbeing: The Responsibility of Political Parties”, we had in-depth exchange of views at the Summit. As a result, the Summit has been brought to a successful conclusion with broad consensus.

We note that the world today is undergoing complex and profound changes, as the trend of economic globalisation continues to surge ahead, science and technology develop at an amazing speed, and interactions among civilisations become increasingly frequent. The pursuit of wellbeing of people of all countries is getting closely intertwined as never before, coupled with both historic opportunities and risks and challenges. The onslaught of COVID-19 has once again taught us that humanity lives in one and the same global village which is evolving into an inter-linked community with a shared future. The difficulties and challenges confronting humanity can only be resolved through solidarity and cooperation. Political parties, as the fountainhead of national policies and proponent of people’s interests, play an important role in the political life of countries. Under the new historic circumstances, it is the shared responsibility and common objective for political parties to ensure the wellbeing of their own people in a true sense and enable the attainment of wellbeing of all people towards the harmonious vision of prosperity for all.

I. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to building consensus on values. Efforts must be devoted to promoting values shared by all mankind, i.e., peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom. The historical trend towards greater democracy in international relations must be followed and multilateralism must be upheld so that relations are based on common ground, mutual respect and mutual learning. The principle of mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation must be adhered to as a guidance to interactions between and among countries. A common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable approach to security must be pursued. There must be concerted efforts to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity. Hence the international community will move forward in the endeavour to build a shared future and stronger political strength will gather for human development and progress.

II. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to promoting common development. Proactive measures must be taken to implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to dovetail development strategies, coordinate macroeconomic policies, and strengthen global cooperation on technological innovation, and to promote the sharing of knowledge and technologies. The multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation playing a central role must be safeguarded to promote liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment. Infrastructural and industrial cooperation must be deepened to ensure the stability and smooth functioning of industrial chains, supply chains and financing environment, toward higher level of inter-connectivity. Hence economic globalisation will become more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all and global development will be fairer, more efficient and coordinated.

III. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to building our Mother Earth into a hospitable homeland. Political parties must take the realisation of “intergenerational equity” as the aim and mission in achieving the vision of harmony between man and Nature. The principles of prioritising resource conservation, and environmental protection, and letting nature restore itself must be observed. Green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable ways of life and production must be pursued to create an eco-system where all elements coexist in harmony. Active support must be provided to developing countries in the form of, among others, capital, technology and capacity building so that combined strength can be built up to address climate change, marine pollution, biological conservation and other global environmental issues. Hence a global environmental governance system featuring fairness, equity and win-win cooperation will take shape together with a human-Nature community of lives with a shared future.

IV. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to safeguarding people’s life and health. The philosophy of putting the people and their lives first must be applied by placing people’s life and health on top of the development agenda and ensuring full consideration of health factors in policy making. With the objective of life-cycle health services for all, people’s growing need for safe, effective, convenient and affordable health services must be satisfied. Science and cooperation must be identified as the reliable means to defeat the virus and extricate ourselves from diseases. Politicisation of the pandemic and stigmatisation of the virus must be opposed. Developing countries with vulnerable public health systems must get necessary assistance to enhance their response capacity. Hence, the global governance system of public health will get improved together with progress in building a community of health for all.

V. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to facilitating exchanges and mutual learning among civilisations. The principles of equality, respect, openness and inclusiveness must be observed to rise above differences among civilisations and ideologies for the protection of diversity of world civilisations. All civilisations must and can find their rightful place in humanity’s intellectual treasure-house. Inter-civilisational dialogues and exchanges must be promoted through intensive people-to-people interactions and cooperation in the fields of education, science and technology, culture and art, sports, tourism and among think tanks. Interactions among various social groups of all countries must be encouraged to enhance better understanding and appreciation among various civilisations and to draw insight and inspiration. Hence, different civilisations will co-exist in harmony together with innovative development of individual civilisations.

VI. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to improving the wellbeing of their own people. Issues of immediate concern to the people must be responded to effectively by promoting the establishment of institutions and the rule of law in the society, improving social policies and public services, and promoting judicial justice and equality in income distribution. Redoubled efforts must be taken to combat corruption, enhance international anti-corruption cooperation and promote the building of clean and competent governments. Various measures must be adopted to improve conditions for the development of the poor, including fiscal and financial policies, education and training and industry-specific support. Hence, poverty alleviation will become more self-driven, well-targeted and results-oriented. In the meantime, greater attention and input must be devoted to international cooperation on poverty alleviation. More emphasis and support must be directed towards poverty reduction and alleviation in all countries, particularly developing countries.

VII. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to raising their level of governance. Adequate attention must be paid to address challenges for party-building brought about by the wave of digitisation and IT application by enhancing experience sharing and cooperation on governance and constantly exploring effective ways to improve party-building under the new circumstances. The efficacy of social governance must be uplifted to ensure holistic and coordinated performance thereof. Hence, the governance ability from participation, deliberation and delivery perspectives for the wellbeing of the people will improve. A greater contribution will be made to the resolution of development conundrums facing mankind.

VIII. We propose that political parties of all countries be committed to devising better rules for global governance. The philosophy of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits must be upheld. Joint efforts are needed to safeguard the UN-centred international system, preserve the international order underpinned by international law, and to uphold the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. The status and role of international law in the global governance system must be elevated. International rules must be effectively observed and practiced so that the rule of law is exercised in the international domain. Joint efforts must be devoted to exploring the establishment of policy and institution systems that are tailored to the new technological revolution and industrial transformation so that technological innovations can be accessible to, shared and utilised by more countries and their people. Hence, the reform process for the global governance system will become more equitable, open, transparent and inclusive and the sovereignty and people's interests of all countries will be fully guaranteed.

We wish to thank the Communist Party of China for what it has done to make this Summit possible. We undertake to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the CPC and contribute our wisdom and strength to enhancing mutual understanding and common development among people of all countrie