27.02.2025
CPGB perspectives for 2025
1. We live in the epoch of the transition from global capitalism to global communism. However, nowhere is the working class in a position to take power. That has produced and continues to produce all manner of futile attempts at short cuts, negative anticipations, strange dead-ends and self-defeating accommodations with the politics of capitalism. Such is our present-day tragedy.
2. Because of a string of political and economic defeats, because of the left’s systematic failures, because of a now cemented bourgeois triumphalism over the collapse of bureaucratic socialism in the USSR and eastern Europe, class consciousness, that is the class consciousness of the working class, is at a very low ebb in Britain and throughout Europe, the Middle East and North America.
3. Overall, politics continues to move to the right. The evidence, sadly, is all too abundant: (1) a left that easily collapses into social imperialism over Ukraine, a left that seeks solutions in broad leftism and popular frontism, a left that is increasingly mired in economism and tailism; a left that flips over into the far right; (2) the rise of parties such as National Rally, AfD, Austria’s FPÖ, Canada’s Conservatives and Reform UK and their very real governmental aspirations; (3) governments in India, Russia, Argentina, Ukraine, Iran, Turkey, the Philippines, Italy, Israel and Hungary.
4. Most importantly there is the US and the election of Donald Trump to a second term. Frankly, this was something to be expected. Already, in our 2022 perspectives, we wrote about the failure of the Joe Biden administration and how “the Republican Party looks well placed for the 2022 and 2024 elections”. Nonetheless, not least considering the Democrats and their campaign of lawfare, Trump’s comeback is remarkable and will doubtless result in all manner of revenge measures domestically along with a general rollback of civil rights era concessions. Something that will be facilitated by the Supreme Court and Republican control over Congress.
5. It is fundamentally mistaken, of course, to equate the Trump presidency and Magaism with fascism. Fascism is first and foremost about smashing the organised working class and negatively resolving a revolutionary situation. To state the obvious, there is no revolutionary situation in the US and the organised working class poses no threat to the capitalist class. Nonetheless, as with January 6 2021, Trump has mobilised fascist forces, eg, the Proud Boys and various other boogaloos.
6. Trump 2.0 will have a global impact. Leave aside the Panama canal, Canada and Greenland, doubtless there will be trade wars and the threats of trade wars in the attempt to utterly subordinate both friends and foes alike to the US. We should also expect associated ‘culture wars’ and the promotion of a far right agenda by the US state machine itself. Those on the left who look to the Democrats for salvation - a straightforward capitalist party - betray the elementary interests of the working class and the cause of socialism. Lesser evilism has nothing to do with the politics of Marxism.
7. True, there are exceptions to the general shift to the right, eg, Sri Lanka, but most notably in parts of Latin America. However, the ‘pink tide’ represents little more than tepid reformism. The US tolerates it for the moment, but continues to treat Venezuela and Cuba as rogue states. Naturally, we demand the end of sanctions, while giving no political endorsement to the regimes in Caracas and Havana.
8. The July 4 2024 general election in the UK also represents what might be considered a partial exception when it comes to the general shift to the right. Labour won a huge parliamentary majority; however, this was the result of the peculiarities of the first-past-the-post system. Labour secured 411 MPs with just 33.7% of the vote. If the Tory and Reform vote was combined it would have given them a clear victory. We note the talk of Reform targeting Labour voters and some sort of Tory-Reform electoral pact. We also note that the election of Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader is another step to the right. Historically, of course, the Tories are a party of the far right.
9. Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer presides over the most rightwing Labour government ever. The only thing positively recommending Labour in the 2024 general election was that they were not the Tories. Hardly inspiring. Not that it was wrong to vote Labour. However, the correct approach was ‘vote left where you can, vote Labour where you must’. This slogan posed the necessity of breaking with auto-Labourism.
10. The Labour left has, for the moment, been completely marginalised. In part this is due to the ‘anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism’ big lie. In part, however, it is due to the self-inflicted political failure of the Labour left in general and the Corbyn movement in particular. We should expect nothing worthwhile coming from this quarter. The rebellion and suspension of seven Socialist Campaign Group MPs over the two-child cap in July 2024 has not been followed by anything in terms of popular mobilisation. Nor has the Independent Alliance of five pro-Palestine MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn of course, proved to be in any way effective.
11. The Labour Party has returned to its position as the largest party in Scotland and it is probable that the Scottish National Party will remain weak and the unionist vote in Holyrood will become even more fragmented, with Reform launching in Scotland earlier this year. Yet support for independence remains steady, and there is scant evidence of the left in Scotland breaking from pinning its tail on the backside of independence, which amounts to little more than a militantly posed leftish gloss on a narrow nationalist political horizon. We remain committed to supporting the closest democratic union circumstances allow and to that end stand for a federal republic of England, Scotland and Wales.
12. While Trump talks about bringing about peace in Ukraine, there is the distinct danger of Israel being given the green light to ‘finish the job’ with the Palestinians, ie, a second nakba, and, combined with that, making war on Iran - in particular, striking its nuclear facilities. We oppose imperialist sanctions on Iran along with the extraordinary dangers represented by US plans for regime change from above. Along with Hopi we stand for regime change from below. We note the very considerable audience for our ideas in Iran and the Iranian diaspora. Collaboration with comrades such as Torab and Moshé should be continued and deepened, not least with more Zoom talks. We would welcome the launch of an online version of Khamsin and should consider merging the Hopi and VOR websites.
13. Following the audacious Hamas-led October 7 2023 Gaza prison break there has been a huge global movement in solidarity with the Palestinian masses. That is more than welcome and can pressurise this or that government in this or that direction. However, without communist organisation protest politics always meets definite limits. What is needed is the politics of power.
14. While the CPGB rightly recognises the reactionary nature of Hamas, we have correctly defended the BDS campaign, opposed the erosion of civil liberties and highlighted the particular settler-colonial political economy that lies behind ethnic cleansing and the danger of genocide. We emphatically reject the idea of putting an equals sign between Hamas and the Zionist state and calling for defeatism on both sides. If we had forces on the ground in Palestine we would definitely be part of the resistance. Above all though we have provided a clear strategic perspective. We uphold an immediate programme of equal national rights within Israel, oppose Zionist colonisation of the West Bank and Gaza and yet recognise that the only genuine, the only viable, solution comes from the working class taking the lead in bringing about Arab national unification that also fights for the voluntary affiliation/merger of the Jewish/Hebrew nation with an Arab Socialist Republic. Calls for a one-state or a two-state solution within Mandate Palestine are illusory.
15. It is vital not to be naive about Ukraine. The Kyiv government might refuse to accept Trump’s compromise deal because of internal opposition or revolt. Eg, the Azov movement. So too might Moscow. Note, Trump has threatened to unleash all hell against Russian forces in Ukraine if he does not get a satisfactory deal. The risk of shifting from a proxy war to Nato direct involvement and even escalating to the point of an exchange of nuclear weapons is all too real.
16. We have therefore been correct to place great emphasis on Ukraine. From the beginning of the ‘special military operation’ we have consistently upheld revolutionary defeatism. We have also correctly denounced the outright treachery of social imperialism, the illusions peddled by social pacifism and the particular dangers of centrist conciliationism. Revolutionary defeatism is more than a moral stance. It is not a call for merely upping the politics of protest, no, once again, it is a call for the politics of power, ie, replacing the rule of capital with the rule of the working class.
17. When it comes to global hegemony, the US has only one serious rival and that is China: the world’s second largest economy and a proto-imperialist power. The EU is hopelessly divided and militarily weak. Russia has actually proved itself militarily weak too with the Ukraine quagmire. Though Russia possesses an awesome nuclear arsenal - increasingly vulnerable to ABM defences - it is no economic rival. Japan is held in military subordination and the UK is little more than a useful minion. China alone is a full-spectrum challenger - economic, military, diplomatic, technological and ideological. Hence the well-financed propaganda over freedom of navigation opportunities (FONOPs) in the South China Sea, Taiwan, Tibet, human rights, Hong Kong democracy and the so-called Uyghur genocide. All carefully crafted to cover for the push to surround, strangle and subordinate China. The left must adopt a clear defeatist line in relation to the bellicose policy being pursued by the US and its allies, without in any way prettifying the Beijing regime.
18. The US is without doubt in relative decline, but we would be foolish in the extreme to declare that the American century is over and done for. Firstly, the dollar remains the global reserve currency. Secondly, the US possesses unequalled economic, military, technological, diplomatic and ideological power. Thirdly, there is the US-dominated system of alliances: Nato, the Five Eyes, the Quad and Aukus.
19. While it is clear that China will not be a viable alternative hegemon any time soon, over the last three decades the country has seen massive, historically unprecedented, economic growth, especially since 2001 and WTO membership. Modern China’s revolutionary origins, state-controlled capitalist development, successful integration into the world market and Mao-Deng-Xi ‘official communism’ has made it something of a model. Not only is there Vietnam, Cuba and various former ‘socialist-orientated’ regimes elsewhere in the third world. ‘Official communist’ parties have started to take their lead from China, eg, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In the UK too there is the Morning Star’s CPB and former Trotskyite sects such as Socialist Action. Surely there will be many more leftwing Sinophiles. Marxists - ie, genuine communists - need to develop a concrete analysis of China in all its contradictory complexity, not content themselves with either bestowing trite labels or echoing the nonsense of ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’.
20. Humanity not only faces the increased risk of nuclear war. There is the climate crisis. The hottest year on record was 2024: 1.6°C above pre-industrial levels. That followed a decade of hottest years. There is now no hope whatsoever of keeping to the Paris 1.5°C limit. The danger is of a 2°C, a 2.5°C, a 3°C, even a 4°C temperature rise during the 21st century. That means melting ice caps, devastating rises in sea levels, the inundation of many big cities, extreme fires and the degrading of existing agricultural land and wildlife habitats. Civilizational breakdown is a real possibility.
21. Market forces cannot deal with the climate crisis. That is to state the obvious. Indeed, with the climate crisis capitalism approaches its absolute limits. We must seek to give the climate crisis movement a clear, strategic perspective. Demonstrations, petitions, road sit-downs, sabotage, stunts, media stardom - none of that can bring about the fundamental system change that is needed. Hence the dominant mood at the moment seems to be one of resignation brought about by the failure of protest politics. Stiff prison sentences and draconian legislation have served to cow protesters too.
22. Regular articles in the Weekly Worker and our pamphlet The little red climate book have provided a clear Marxist approach and warned about the danger of elitist terrorist actions or even some sort of climate socialism - imposed by, or agreed in close collaboration with, the capitalist state. Something, which is at the moment, a mere theoretical possibility. What is noticeable at this juncture is the refusal, the inability, of mainstream politicians, therefore the capitalist class, to do anything remotely serious about the climate crisis. They remain in thrall to ‘production for the sake of production’.
23. Socialism - that is, the rule of the working class and the transition to communism - is the only rational solution. What that poses is not the necessity of “rebuilding British industry” - a delusional nationalist perspective upheld not only by George Galloway’s Workers Party, but also by much wider sections of the left, including self-identified Trotskyists. No, what is posed is independent working class politics and building a mass Communist Party. Obviously, alien territory for an existing left which remains trapped in broad frontism or/and the false perspectives of the confessional sects.
24. Once, great hopes were placed in so-called parties of recomposition. In practice, as we consistently argued, they have proved to be merely reformist and easily slotted into the politics of bourgeois coalitionism: Syriza, Podemos, the Workers Party of Brazil, Communist Refoundation. That or they proved to be dead-ends: Die Linke, New Anticapitalist Party, Respect, Left Unity, Scottish Socialist Party, etc. Despite that sorry record there are still those who hanker after yet another broad left party.
25. Not that we stand for the politics of isolation. Eg, from the beginning we argued with American comrades that the Bernie Sanders movement was of real significance. To have stood aloof would have been criminal. For the first time in a hundred years masses of Americans have begun to describe themselves as socialists. Of course, what is meant by socialism owes more to universal healthcare than the rule of the working class. Nonetheless, that, and the very considerable growth of the Democratic Socialists of America, gives Marxists in the US a real chance of building themselves into a real force.
26. In Britain there was the Corbyn movement. Once again, to have stood aloof would have been criminal. Note that is exactly what the SWP and SPEW did. The Morning Star’s CPB even asked Labour’s witch-hunters for names so that they could be expelled. The election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and the mass influx into the Labour Party radically changed the political landscape. True, the level of political consciousness of Labour’s existing and newly acquired mass membership was never high. Indeed there was widespread desperation and therefore a willingness to believe that a Corbyn-led government was just about to usher in an era of equality, prosperity and peace.
27. There were various, often competing, broad-left projects. All failed: Momentum, CLPD, LRC, Red Labour and the Labour Left Alliance. Vague, indistinct, woolly politics went hand in hand with ‘tick box’ democracy and conferences that were top-table-dominated rallies, with little or no time allotted for serious debate. The common assumption of all such broad-left initiatives is that political strength derives not from developing a definite programme and firmly upholding principle, but from compromise, from agreementism, from selling out, from marginalising, even silencing, awkward leftwing voices and ideas, in order to be acceptable to the politically naive (and, therefore, to the right, and ultimately the capitalist class).
28. Indeed, that is what the grand strategy of the Corbyn leadership, including the Straight Leftist advisors, amounted to. Hence the tailing of the ‘remain’ wing of the establishment during the 2016 referendum campaign, the never-ending attempts to conciliate with the Parliamentary Labour Party and the willingness to actually participate in, even to urge on, the ‘Anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism’ witch-hunt. Allies, friends, good comrades, were thrown to the wolves in ever-increasing numbers, but, inevitably, Jeremy Corbyn himself became a victim. Profound demoralisation and widespread disorientation had to follow.
29. The ‘Anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism’ witch-hunt was the form taken by the countertransformation. But left illusions disarmed not the few but the many. There were those, for example, who insisted that Sir Keir thought he had no hope of becoming prime minister, that he lived in dread of the left, that his sole purpose was to purge the left, that Labour relied on the left to do the donkey work in election campaigns - stupid ideas all.
30. Nonetheless, because of the hard casing provided by Labour’s organisational structures, there was the outside possibility of channelling mass discontent into transforming the Labour Party. That is why we supported the launch of Labour Party Marxists well before the Corbyn moment. We continue to fight for the transformation of the Labour Party into a united front of a special kind. Towards that end, we shall, if and when appropriate, renew our engagement with the Labour Party and organisations of the Labour left. Labour remains, of course, a bourgeois workers’ party. It is not, and has never been, a British version of the US Democratic Party.
31. CPGB members played leading roles in opposing the witch-hunt and fighting for principled politics in the Labour Party via Labour Against the Witch-hunt and Labour Party Marxists. However, that we had comrades within our ranks who fell in with the Corbynites, who wanted to downplay the importance of the witch-hunt, who joined the witch-hunters or who embraced the politics of broad leftism testifies to political fragility. We freely admit that our organisation is far from perfect. The lesson that must be learnt is that short termism leads nowhere worthwhile, that strategic vision is vital and that uncompromisingly upholding the communist programme is central to anything serious.
32. We also had important differences over the women question, free speech and Ukraine. Once again this testifies to political fragility. We shall continue to encourage members, supporters and party organisations to study and debate, including, of course, through Online Communist Forum, the talks organised by Why Marx? and in the pages of the Weekly Worker.
33. All new recruits need to have a basic grasp of our Draft programme and towards that end a reading list of useful books, chapters and articles will be produced. Each new recruit ought to be provided with a suitable mentor.
34. Our organisation remains pitifully small and we should not expect any dramatic change in the immediate term. We live in an extended period of reaction. Blame culture, demoralisation, attempts to conciliate with those to our right, all are manifest dangers. We need to be brutally honest about that. There are no easy answers. As the society has moved to the right, the broad-leftist, people’s-frontist and ‘transitional method’-ist left has been dragged right with it: Both Respect and Left Unity were to the right of the Socialist Alliance, the Corbyn movement was a long way to the right of the last mass Labour left, George Galloway’s Workers’ Party of Britain is far to the right of Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party. In the far left, the drag to the right has in the last few years taken the form of demands for diplomatic agreements and silences, and for ‘safe spaces’ against offensive forms of speech. In this political situation, it is essential to undeviatingly defend our culture of robust open polemic, our programme and our political ideas, so that they can be handed on to future generations.
35. The beginning of fusion talks between the CPGB, Talking About Socialism and the Prometheus editorial board is a very welcome development. If successful it would send out a vitally important message to the rest of the left. There has to be a break with the dual curse of sectism and broad frontism. Unity around firm principle, unity around a clear communist programme, unity around building a mass Communist Party is what is needed. Depending on the success of fusion talks we should consider appropriately expanding the Provisional Central Committee.
36. Communist University has long been a highlight of our year. In person attendance is far too low and that dampens discussion and debate. We should not only seek the active involvement of overseas comrades in 2025. We should transform CU into a joint school organised by the CPGB, TAS and the Prometheus editorial board.
37. While a proto-Communist Party might well be built through recruiting the ones, the twos … even the hundreds, our strategic expectation is that the initial breakthrough will come through a series of splits in the existing left groups - including those inside the Labour Party - and from that fusions. In terms of going through the existing left, there is every reason for optimism. What the Weekly Worker says matters and is increasingly influential. In the interests of unity, clarification and educating the wider left we should in particular encourage comrades from TAS, Prometheus editorial board and RS21 to contribute articles to the paper. We do not want to limit these articles to a specific size: we have no problem with publishing single pages … or supplements. OCFs would too be a useful forum for rapprochement and clarification.
38. Whatever various leaderships say, the existing left is either stagnant or shrinking. Something that applies more or less across the board. Claims of soaraway success for this or that group invariably prove to be fleeting or chimeric. No less to the point. There has been a general decline in the culture of the left. Entirely secondary questions are elevated to prime importance, class politics downgraded to the level of narrow trade unionism and a commitment to elementary principles is too often replaced by abject tailism. That or dead-headed dogmatism rules. Hence everywhere there is the miseducation of new recruits.
39. As a general approach we are against comrades in existing left groups simply resigning. That is unfortunately an all too common occurrence. Instead we say: ‘stay, organise and openly fight’. This way lessons can be learnt for the entire left and comrades can develop themselves.
40. Given its ‘slow burn’ success we really need a second, updated, edition of Mike Macnair’s 2008 Revolutionary strategy. It has already been translated into a number of languages by sympathetic comrades. Putting together and editing up his articles on imperialism, identity politics and partyism would be more than a good idea too. In terms of our publication list we should also add that the first book of Jack Conrad’s USSR: a Marxist autopsy has been completed and its being readied for proofing, suggestions and final launch. The first book is subtitled: Achievements, contradictions, laws and origins. Three other books are envisaged.
41. To maintain and boost our healthy financial situation we commit to a Summer Offensive target of £25,000.