The Communist Party and the Labour Movement
All the basic rights and liberties on which this country prides itself have been won over the years by popular action, primarily by the solidarity and militancy of the working class. To these struggles we owe the right to vote and the right to organise, and the consequent improvements in wages and working hours, better living standards, education, health and social security services.
To secure these rights by Act of Parliament has not been enough. They have had to be fought for again and again, and still must be fought for today when they are under attack.
In this process of struggle over many decades millions strong trade unions and co—operatives have been built up; and political parties - the Labour Party and the Communist Party - have been established to advance the interests of the working class.
These organisations together form the organised labour movement which is today a powerful force, capable, if united, of rallying the people for their immediate demands against the monopoly capitalists and for the advance to socialism.
The Communist Party is a Marxist party. It has stood consistently for scientific socialism, and has always formulated its policies in this light. As Marxists we understand that the interests of the capitalist class and the working class are opposed and cannot be reconciled; that capitalism can and must be ended and replaced; that the working people, led by the working class, must win state power and build a socialist society.
The Labour Party has been dominated by reformist ideas, spread by right wing leaders who have controlled it over the years. They reject the need for the working people to win political power to bring about a revolutionary transformation of society. They seek only to maintain the existing capitalist order and administer it more efficiently. The policies of the governments they form do not differ in any fundamental way from those of the Tories and are in no sense socialist,
From this right wing within the labour movement come all the arguments designed to blind people to the realities of political power. They reject the class structure of society and class struggle, or else proclaim that class divisions are withering away. They argue that the state is neutral, above classes; that there is no need to change it, They tell the workers that they should make capitalism work, that employers and workers should co-operate to this end. They say that "managed capitalism" is a step towards socialism; that socialism can be built piecemeal within capitalism; or even that the aim should now be a mixed economy and nothing more. These ideas confuse and disarm people.
The struggle of the labour movement for better living standards, for democracy and socialist policies entails therefore not only opposition to the Tories, but also to the right wing within the movement itself. The potential strength of the movement has never been exerted for socialist aims because, in the Labour Party and mass organisations, dominant positions have been held by right wing leaders.
Reformism - the acceptance of the framework of the capitalist economy and state, the continuing of capitalist foreign policy, the renunciation of socialism - inevitably leads to fiasco. It is reformism that has caused the abject failure of successive Labour Governments.
Why Labour Governments Fail
Labour governments, like Tory governments, have in fact subordinated all their essential policies to the need of the great monopolies. They have left the overwhelming bulk of the basic means of production, distribution and exchange in private hands. They have facilitated the growth of monopoly. Their priority has been the interests of the rich, luxury goods, office buildings not homes or hospitals or schools - all for profit and little against poverty.
They have accepted lock, stock and barrel the existing state machine. They have worked within it, become its prisoner.
Tory and Labour governments alike have strengthened the capitalist state, created new government departments, adapted old ones, formed new public bodies. Such are the Department of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Technology, the Prices and Incomes Board, the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation, the NEDC, the Land Commission, the Boards that supervise the shipbuilding and aircraft industries? On all of them the representatives of the great firms play the decisive role and advise the government on policies and practice.
Labour governments have developed nationalisation in such a way that it strengthens capitalism, helps it to work.
Like Tory governments, they have "managed" capitalism. They have introduced reforms, often material and important, but never taken decisive steps to end the power of the monopolies and the private exploitation of the country's resources and transform the state.
Attempting to work within the framework of capitalism, to make capitalism work, they have ended by leading the attacks on the working class. All those who really attempt to fight against capitalism are seen as enemies, come under attack, and the capitalist state is used against them, and against the working class.
The so-called prices and incomes policy aims to freeze or restrict wages while prices and capitalist income rise, and operates to limit or abolish collective bargaining, weaken organisation in the workshops and undermine the right to strike. But when powerful sections of the working class, the trade unions and co-operatives strongly resist this, it is represented as a disservice to the country, by Tories, industrialists and right wing Labour leaders.
If Labour governments and Labour leaders accept the role of managers of capitalism, if they content themselves with restricted nationalisation controlled by a state loyal to capitalism, then inevitably monopoly is strengthened and Labour governments end in fiasco.
Working Class Unity
To strengthen the immediate struggle, to clarify socialist aims, to enable the labour movement to exert its full power working class unity is essential.
The struggle for the unity of the working class is no mere tactical question. It is a matter of principle. Without such unity the numerical strength of the working class will never be used to defeat capitalism. Without such unity the advance to socialism is not possible in Britain or anywhere else.
But unity has to be fought for, has to be won, in many diFferent ways and at many different levels.
Unity begins wherever there is common action on the immediate issues that face the working class and the working people. Of key importance is unity in the factories and the trade unions, where working class strength is concentrated and organised, and the tradition of struggle and solidarity is strongest. The daily battle conducted by the trade unions for the defence of living standards and workers' rights is a decisive part of the opposition to capitalism, and must be seen and openly conducted as such.
Unity demands common action, without reservations, between the various sections of the labour movement - trade unions, co-operatives, the left in the Labour Party and the Communist Party. It demands consistent effort to end every type of prohibition and ban within each sector of the labour movement.
To work for the unity of the labour movement it is necessary to combat the reformist ideas spread by right wing leaders. Nothing has weakened or split the Labour Party more effectively than the attack mounted against militants, the constant moves to isolate and neutralise the left. Nothing could so much strengthen and inspire it as a decisive rejection of the idea that the task of the labour movement is confined to winning reforms within the confines of capitalism or helping capitalism to work better.
The stronger the unity of the working class the greater will be the possibility of uniting around it all other sections of the working people, of building a broad popular alliance of the people against monopoly capitalism. For unity is needed not just against the present attacks of capitalism, on immediate issues, for improved conditions, but also for a common strategy of struggle against monopoly and for advance in the direction of socialism.
The Role of the Communist Party
Socialism has never been won in any country except under the democratic, disciplined, organised leadership of parties with a clear aim and a clear understanding of the means to attain it.
The Communist Party is such a party, firmly based on a Marxist, socialist ideology and outlook. It is an organised force which has continuously challenged and combated right wing ideas in the labour movement.
As a Marxist party it understands that the capitalist ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange means the exploitation of the great majority by a small minority; that monopoly capitalism restricts progressive development on every side, brings recurring threat of war and increasingly undermines democracy. Therefore the aim of the Communist Party is the ending of capitalism and the building of a new socialist society.
Since its foundation in 1920, from Britain's existing Marxist organisations, the Communist Party has been in the forefront of the class struggle, and has a record of activity on every question of importance to the British people. As a party with national, district and local organisations, press and publications, it combines campaigning on immediate issues with the fight for political power and socialism. Its industrial branches provide an important means for mobilising and exerting the political strength of the working class.
Its features are distinctive, not possessed by any other section of the labour movement. They enable it to make an essential contribution to the growth of socialist understanding, to the ability of the left to win majority support.
Thus the outcome of the struggle between left and right in the labour movement is bound up with increasing the strength and influence of the Communist Party. So is the outcome of the struggle of the labour movement against monopoly capital. All who desire working class unity and advance to socialism will gain from the increased public activity of the Communist Party, from increases in its membership, branches, and influence and improvements in its organisation, and from bigger votes for Communist candidates and the election ofCommunists to local councils and to Parliament.
The Communist Party is an integral part of the labour movement, and has always worked for the most widely based popular action, for working class unity. Disunity, official barriers between the Communist Party and other organisations of the labour movement have been brought about by bans and proscriptions enforced by right wing Labour Party and trade union leaders.
Any such division in the movement weakens the struggle against monopoly capitalism and for revolutionary social change. It is precisely because they do not want radical social change that right wing labour leaders proscribe Communists, seek to isolate the Communist Party and divide the labour movement.
Contrary to the ideas spread by some Labour leaders it is not the aim of the Communist Party to undermine, weaken or split the Labour Party. From the first foundation of the Labour Party there has been a struggle within it between left and right wing trends. The left trends have been of many types and organised in different ways, at different levels of political clarity. Sometimes they have been weakened by anti-communism. As Communists we sincerely desire the strengthening of the left trends within the Labour Party. We believe that the struggle of the socialist forces to make it a party of action and socialism will grow, and that the growth of the Communist Party will help this development. When the Labour Party rejects reformism, moves into the attack on capitalism, ends the bans and prescriptions against the left, it will ensure itself a vital role in the building of socialism.
The Young Communist League plays a special role in the general movement of British youth. It works consistently to explain socialist ideas, to help young people move from radical rebellion against the capitalist Establishment to positive socialist ideals. It works for the unity of progressive youth in action for peace, democracy, international solidarity, against colonialism, racialism and oppression. It works side by side with the Communist Party in the fight for socialism.
To win working class unity and build a broad popular alliance against the monopolies, the people must be informed from day to day of what is happening, be won for struggle, inspired. They must have their own forums of discussion and the freedom to express their views, now almost completely denied them by the daily press, which is overwhelmingly in the hands of a small group of millionaires. An ever widening campaign to support and co-ordinate the people's protests and advance their interests is needed. In this The Morning Star, the only daily newspaper free of the press lords, plays a unique part, providing a daily news service and a platform for every section of the anti-monopoly struggle and campaigning for socialism.
The Communist Party is dedicated to the defeat of the deeply entrenched monopoly forces, to the winning of political power by the working people, and on this basis, the advance to socialism. This is the aim too of many socialists in the labour movement. Labour-Communist unity for this end is the key to advance on the road to socialism.
For United Action
In many fields today close co-operation between Communists and Socialists is growing. It is time now to strengthen these links, to overcome the disillusionment brought about by right wing leadership. It is time to develop working class unity in every way.
Resistance to the right wing domination of the Labour Party, both on the political wing and in the trade unions, is developing. The protest of the Labour left deepens against policies which betray socialist principles. Former automatic votes from trade unions for right wing policies are being broken. The interest in Marxism is increasing. This in turn reflects growing understanding in wider fields of the need to take a new road. Here is the basis to move beyond protests against right wing policies, towards the formulation of a positive alternative policy and the waging of an effective political struggle in its support.
The balance of opinion in workplaces and constituencies and in popular organisations will only be swung to a socialist solution through action in sustained campaigns. The aim must be an end to right wing domination, to open the way to effective united action by the working class.
United action in the trade unions and the factories, where working class strength is concentrated and organised and the tradition of struggle and solidarity is strongest, is vital.
The white collar workers - office workers, scientists, technologists, teachers and other professional workers whose interests are bound up with those of the working class and the labour movement as a whole, are increasingly important. They have developed powerful organisations to protect and advance their interests.
The youth and students have been active in every form of radical protest against the Establishment. They have developed new and militant forms of struggle for peace, joined in every action against colonialism and racialism, for freedom and democracy. Their protests and demonstrations, their radical and socialist organisations are of special importance in the anti-monopoly front. This energy needs to be brought fully into the labour movement which should seek to draw the youth and students towards it.
Above all it is essential that the labour movement should clearly understand the relation between its immediate objectives and the longer term aim of socialism. Without the struggles in the work place, without the struggles now on wages and hours and rents, on peace and liberty there will be no advance to socialism. Conversely without clear socialist aims the immediate struggles will lose their strength and significance. In the process of launching and developing activity to Win the labour movement to the pursuit of socialist aims, isolating and defeating the right wing, the left will clarify its own thinking as well as that of others. The experience of struggle will help towards clarity of ideas, just as clarity of perspective helps the immediate struggle.
As the working class movement grows in unity and strength it can become the core of a broad popular alliance drawing on all those whose interests are threatened by state monopoly capitalism the overwhelming majority of the population.