27.02.2025

Sober realities and future prospects

Mainstream politics continues to move to the right, and that has dragged the opportunist left ever further to the right too. However there are some positive developments. Paul Cooper reports

CPGB members and supporters met on February 23 for our annual general meeting, where we discussed political perspectives and elected our Provisional Central Committee. There was general agreement on the perspectives document produced by the PCC, with a number of amendments leading to a useful discussion. An additional motion exploring proposals to develop our weekly Online Communist Forum was welcomed, though not voted upon.

Jack Conrad opened on behalf of the PCC and began with a note of caution, questioning those expecting a massive swing to the left around the (small) buzz over the communist fusion process, Forging Communist Unity. He suggested that the protracted global shift to the right will be having its impact on the general left ecosystem. The perspectives document opens by noting that although “we live in the epoch of the transition from global capitalism to global communism”, we remain in a prolonged period of reaction.

The neoliberal era of capitalist triumphalism of Blair and Clinton has now definitely finished but the rise of the far right has caused confusion across the left. Noting an obsessive preoccupation with the 1930s and Nazi Germany, he discussed how Alex Callinicos of the Socialist Workers’ Party rightly refuses to label Trump as a fascist, thinks little more is going on than a going back to the “imperial presidency” of Richard Nixon. In fact, the victory of Trump takes us “well beyond this”, comrade Conrad said. The sacking of government employees, outlandish dictats and policies scapegoating the transgender community all point in a more serious direction. The comrade thought this was “not fascism necessarily”, given the absence of working class forces threatening the status quo - the historic conditions for fascism. “Trump clearly does not have to turn to fascism, there is no need.”

Later in the aggregate, Marek Orlowski questioned if the historic definition of fascism is enough to analyse today’s developments. Yes, Trump and co are not fascists. But they are not just traditional right-wingers either. The comrade admitted that his amendment on this issue was “somewhat underdeveloped” and withdrew it. Nevertheless, the meeting agreed entirely with comrade Orlowski’s sentiment that the organisation must develop a deeper analysis of the rise of the populist right - ideally leading to a series of articles in future editions of the Weekly Worker.

Comrade Conrad discussed Trump’s rapprochement with Vladimir Putin, that could possibly lead to Russia rejoining what will again be the G8. Meanwhile, a radically changed policy on Ukraine means a stagnating Europe will find it difficult to move towards closer unity, as nationalist routes are sought by its component parts.

The US as global hegemon continues to exploit the world, and this now means that the ‘diplomatic arrangements’ with Europe, in place since World War II, are breaking down. This should provoke the development of a combative left at some point; however, we live in an era when the capitalist barbarisms of war and climate breakdown are intensifying. Given the collapse of the USSR, the working class no longer has a world centre, which - no matter how deformed - tempered international relations in the post World War II period. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we witnessed the collapse of much of the ‘official communist’ movement, including its mass parties.

How the US will emerge from this process is hard to say and we cannot write off some form of short term spurt of the US economy, although this would undoubtedly be at the expense of the rest of the world, which is likely to have profound political consequences.

Moving on from this, some time was spent exploring development around the Forging Communist Unity process, which involves comrades from Talking About Socialism and the Marxist Unity faction in Prometheus. Events have quickly moved beyond initial plans for a joint educational series to a focus on fusion, which “took us by surprise”, comrade Conrad reminded the meeting. He warned that we “need to be realistic” with regards to what this means numerically. However, as a serious example of what is possible, “this process sends a powerful message to the rest of the left”.

A number of amendments were accepted by the PCC, including one covering developments in Scotland. CPGB supporter Anne McShane introduced two amendments, suggesting that we should replace the word “UK” with “Britain”. Following a useful exchange on the national question in Ireland and the impact of tailing republicanism on the Irish left, these amendments were defeated.

A further amendment by comrade McShane, which was passed, explored the important role played by CPGB members in opposing the witch-hunt and fighting for principled politics in the Labour Party via Labour Against the Witch-hunt and Labour Party Marxists. This was followed by a useful discussion on the potential dangers that come with the necessity to intervene in movements and organisations like the Labour Party. There will always be a pull to the right in such work and we have to be aware of that danger.

An amendment by Farzad Kamangar and Mike Macnair (which was later also supported by comrade Conrad) contextualised this by identifying the various pulls to the right on the ostensibly Marxist left, which finds reflection in continuing calls for broad left parties. These parties of recomposition are usually conceived as a pool for recruitment by the left, which stands in stark contrast to the Marxist strategy of winning the majority for revolution - a strategy which requires organisation in a mass communist party.

Farzad Kamangar, Mike Macnair and Jack Conrad were re-elected to the PCC. It was accepted that this body is getting older and we need to prepare for a generational replacement. Looking ahead though, the fusion process certainly opens up new possibilities for progress. We are in a period where opportunities exist and applications to join the CPGB have noticeably grown. However, we should be sober about present realities.