08.02.1996
Manifesto of the Communist Party
From 'The Workers’ Weekly', paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, February 5 1926
BEFORE parliament adjourned, one of its last acts was to debate the imprisonment of the 12 communists sentenced at the Old Bailey in November last ... To the communist prisoners have been added some 60 Welsh miners sentenced for various terms on a charge based upon the incidents inevitable in a bitterly fought industrial struggle.
... Following these convictions, industrial and political events have led rapidly to the point of crisis ...
Truly the employers in mass have gone out of their way to underline the premier’s threat (last July) that “The wages of every worker must come down.” Not content with this, the government - as pliant a tool as a brutal capitalist class ever had - has commenced an assault upon the unemployed ...
In face of these attacks the Communist Party holds that the only possible defence for the workers is vigorous counterattack. The whole working class and its organisations, political and industrial, must cooperate in a sustained and determined demand for safeguards to our rights ...
The parliamentary leaders of Labour must voice this demand immediately parliament opens. The rank and file must compel them to take this lead. The TUC general council should take up the work of organising the necessary backing.
- Demand the release of the communist prisoners
- Demand the release of the Welsh miners ...
- Demand work or maintenance for the unemployed ...
- Demand a guaranteed minimum living wage ...
- Form workers’ defence corps ...
All together for a general advance.
The Executive Committee
Communist Party of Great Britain