WeeklyWorker

20.06.1996

For a Communist-Labour Party

Dave Craig of the Revolutionary Democratic Group (faction of the SWP) debates the way forward for the SLP

After a recent meeting, a heated discussion broke out involving some SLP members and trade union activists over the nature of the party. One comrade, who had been in the Labour Party, felt that the SLP was exactly what she had always wanted - a leftwing Labour party really committed to socialist policies. Another comrade, a Marxist and would-be revolutionary, agreed. This was the reason why he would not join. Marxists and communists should give no support to a left social democratic party. What was even worse, it was a party with a residential qualification. What we needed was a Communist Party.

Two other comrades strongly disagreed. This was not the SLP they had joined. Yes, there were recruits from the Labour Party. A number of Labour councillors had already come over to the SLP. But in their branch, there were a number of Marxists or communists from a variety of groups - including old CPers, an ex-Militant Labour, some refugees from Socialist Outlook and somebody who had been in the SWP. Apparently a quick head count revealed more Marxists than labourites.

This is not only true at rank and file level. The leadership of the SLP is basically an alliance of some with an NUM and Labour background, including Scargill and Brenda Nixon, and the Fourth International supporters, such as Brian Heron and the Sikorskis.

Contradiction

At the heart of the SLP is a contradiction. The party is officially a left Labour party. But the membership comes from both Labourite and communist/Marxist traditions. It is the responsibility of all Marxists in the SLP to ensure that communists politics are recognised as a legitimate partner with Labourism. It is the class struggle, including the ideological battle within the SLP, that will decide what type of party this is - a left social democratic party which allows communists to do the leg work? Or a party in which communism has a legitimate role.

A Communist Party?

There is of course a third option, that the SLP could be a new communist party. We have to kick this idea into touch. The SLP is not a communist party and has no immediate prospect of becoming one. Of course such a statement depends on what we mean by a communist party. If we mean a repeat of the old Euro-Stalinist CPGB with a ‘British road to socialism’ and an ‘alternative economic strategy’ then perhaps the SLP is not too far away. But if we mean a genuine revolutionary democratic Communist Party, we are miles away.

In this sense promoting the idea that the SLP is a communist party, or is about to become one, is wishful thinking, not reality. It means spreading illusions in the SLP. To raise the slogan of a Communist Party specifically in relation to the SLP is a piece of ultra-leftism. It amounts to misleading the advanced workers about reality and the real tasks in hand.

Do we say to advanced workers that we need a Communist Party and the SLP might soon become one? Or do we say we need a Communist Party and the SLP is not it. The first statement is illusion-mongering. The second means looking reality in the face. We have to base our attitude on what the SLP is and is becoming.

The real question for communists is whether the SLP is a step towards a Communist Party or whether it is a new barrier. If it is a step forward, we must give it critical support. If it is a new barrier, we must fight against it tooth and nail. We reject the SWP’s attitude of ignoring the SLP, sitting on the fence.

If the SLP is or can become a Communist-Labour Party, it would represent one of many steps towards a Communist Party. Other steps include rapprochement and the fight against the Cliff faction and the fight for communist unity. There should be no question of putting all our eggs in one basket.

Communist-Labour

What is a Communist-Labour Party? In Britain it is a party of a new type. It brings together socialists from the two main traditions - left reformist and communist/Marxist. These two traditions must form an open alliance.

The German Social Democratic Party, at the end of the 19th century, could be considered an example. It was considered a Marxist party with Kautsky rather than Scargill as its pope. Yet it was divided into two wings. The reformists were associated with Bernstein. The revolutionary wing looked to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. German social democracy was strongly influenced by Marxism.

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party grew up in harsher pre-revolutionary soil. It also had two wings, both formally Marxist and revolutionary. As the party evolved, the Menshevik wing moved towards reformism and labourism. The Bolsheviks were communists. This is not an exact parallel. Russia in 1900 is not the same as the UK in 1996. But it does show that at some moments there can be political co-operation between reformist/centrists and communists in a single party.

The British Labour Party was a different ideological mix to German and Russian parties. British Labour combined liberalism and left reformism. Marxism did play a minor role. If the SLP is a left Labour party, it is Scargill minus Blair, but also minus Benn and Skinner. Those who hark back to the failed Labour leftism of the early 1980s will have to decide whether to follow Scargill or Benn and co.

But a Communist-Labour Party is Scargill minus Blair plus Marx. If you see a role for this type of party, there is only one place for all labourites and communists to be - in the SLP.

Parliamentary road

A Communist-Labour Party can unite around the need to stand parliamentary candidates against the Tories and New Labour. We fight elections to win. Where we disagree is over the role that parliament can play in the struggle for socialism. Labourites see parliament as a means to legislate for socialism. Communists want to abolish parliament by replacing it with more democratic bodies based on workers’ councils.

At present we do not have to split over this question as long as there is freedom for the different views to have expression. Despite fundamental differences we can still unite in the fight against Major and Blair and their pro-capitalist policies.

A step forward?

A Communist-Labour Party would be a step forward for the working class movement. First, it means working class labourites are prepared to stand openly against the Labour Party in the community, in the workplace and in the trade unions.

Second, it would permit a more effective challenge to be mounted against the Tories and New Labour. It is important that there is a left alternative to Labour, especially if we face a Labour government. Third, it can be a rallying point for a fragmented communist movement. It would help break the isolation of communists from the broader mass movement.

Fourth, it could be the place for advancing and developing a new working class politics for the future. We have suffered many defeats and we need to learn those lessons and reapply ourselves for the future. By uniting labourites and communists we can win more influence in the working class movement and especially among the youth.

The slogan of a Communist-Labour Party is about uniting the activists. No doubt Arthur Scargill can ride into town and pull a working class audience of a few hundred people. But when he rides out again, there are probably only 20 activists left. It is these 20 who are the key to building. The SLP will only grow effectively in size and influence in so far as the activists get a clear understanding of what kind of party they are building and what kind of programme and tactics they are advocating for the class struggle.

Communist/Marxists in the SLP must campaign for:

Building a Communist-Labour Party

Communists must argue that in the present circumstances the best way to build the SLP is as a Communist-Labour Party. Our message is simple: we are building a party in which all left labourites and all communists can work together for a common cause - political struggle against the Tories and New Labour. Despite our differences, comrades from the Labour Party and communist (Marxist) traditions can and should make common cause. In effect we have a united front. This political united front will serve the general interests of the working class by bringing communists and labourites into a new relationship with the most class conscious and advanced sections of the working class.

A democratic SLP

We need a party in which both labourites and communists can express openly their political ideas and criticisms. The way towards greater unity and a more united party is through open debate and the clarification of political and ideological differences. The alternative is internecine warfare between cliques and secret factions with all the damaging affects of splits and witch hunts.

We must have open expression and debate between the different tendencies. We need a party publication and we need members to have the right to freely and openly publish their views.

A democratic republican programme

A democratic programme is necessary in order to relate correctly to the crisis of democracy in the UK. So-called ‘British democracy’ has been undermined by the Tories and is now an empty shell. Fascism would provide one ‘solution’ to a bankrupt democracy. The liberals have their answer. The working class movement must have its own solutions.  A democratic and republican programme provides an answer which advances the interests of the working class. A minimum democratic programme can unite a Communist-Labour Party. Both a labourite wing and a communist wing can find common cause in the struggle for democracy.

The united front

In the fight against the Tories and New Labour we need a united front of the left. This includes the Labour left, the SLP, Militant Labour, SWP and other communist and anarchist fragments. A united front is not something we can just declare: it is something we must fight for. It needs to be developed in campaigning work and around industrial action. But we should equally use the general election as an opportunity to promote and develop the united front in practice.

Prepare for the general election

The next general election will be the most important political battle the SLP has fought in so far. Preparing ourselves is obviously an organisational and financial task. But without a correct programme and tactical line we will end up wasting our opportunities. We need as a matter of urgency to debate inside the SLP what policies we need to fight the election correctly

Opposition to any witch hunt

The RDG and the CPGB were discussed at the first meeting of the SLP National Executive and virtually made into proscribed organisations. Apparently the first ‘search and destroy’ missions failed to come up with any scapegoats.

Would-be witch hunters have backed off, wondering what to do next. They at least ought to consider the unintended consequences of their action. Once started, attacks on Marxists have a logic of their own. It will shape the nature of the party. An attack on a few individuals would soon cause many more Marxists to turn against the SLP. It would arm the opponents of the SLP, like ML and the SWP. It might even create a civil war atmosphere inside the organisation.

A witch hunt would do massive damage to the SLP and probably kill it stone dead in the water. Nobody should underestimate the communist movement. Our weaknesses and divisions have been analysed time without number. But miners will remember that the Marxist organisations gave unstinting support to the miners and other workers’ struggles, whilst the Labour Party under Kinnock stabbed the miners in the back. After all Kim Howells is a Labour MP.

As communists, this is the last thing we need. We do not need a left Labour party. We need the SLP to become a Communist-Labour Party. We need to win the argument that what is now needed is a party within which all communists and all Labour lefts can unite to fight the Tories, Lib Dems and New Labour.