21.08.2025

Fighting spirit renewed

This year was dominated by the themes of communist unity and the likely opportunities following the launch of Corbyn’s Your Party. Ian Spencer reports

Planning for CU 2025 took place against the background of the fusion talks between the CPGB, Talking About Socialism and the pro-party faction of the online journal, Prometheus. Coverage of this process in the Weekly Worker had stimulated a lot of interest from comrades in the UK and beyond.

A sizable delegation from the Communist Platform of the Netherlands attended. Some Prometheus comrades were also members of Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, which split from the SWP after the comrade Delta scandal in 2013. However, not all the RS21 comrades had been through the SWP mill. Those who attended CU were comparatively young, not veterans. Politically they seemed to be on our wavelength. There were interesting contributions from the Spartacist League, which nowadays is far more open to actual discussion with other groups. Contributions were streamed online from the Marxist Unity Group in the USA and the Revolutionary Communist Organisation in Australia.

On the face of it, one would have expected a CU suffused with optimism - a herald of a growing, unified organisation that could take on the challenge of present times with vitality and fresh ideas. This was marred, somewhat, by the pre-CU decision of the leadership of TAS to withdraw from unity talks, in favour of looking for alliances with other groups and the opportunities offered by the new Corbyn party.

Valuable

At an online meeting before CU, some TAS members expressed their disagreement with the idea of withdrawing from the Forging Communist Unity process prior to CU. Generally, the FCU discussions had taken place between the leaderships of the respective groups and CU would have been the first real opportunity for members of all three groups to get together and have their say.

Nevertheless, comrades Cat Rylance and Jack Conrad led a valuable discussion about the FCU process and why it appears to have failed on this occasion. One of the sub-themes of the week was the question of the ‘culture’ of the organisations in question. While this was typically directed at the CPGB, comrade Rylance made the point that this should not stand in the way of unity. After all, people had left TAS, and in at least one case been expelled, owing to its own internal culture. Comrade Conrad reiterated the point: forthright debate is an essential part of a healthy organisational culture. In contrast, those who were critical of the CPGB were apt to stress that the problem was not about ‘politeness’, but being politically smart about how discourse was framed, considering the relative inexperience of comrades new to the left.

Other sub-themes included the attitude that should be taken by communists to the ‘middle classes’, which entailed disentangling the Marxist understanding of class, compared to that of bourgeois sociology, which often portrays class in subjective terms.

CU was, of course, taking place against the background of the genocide in Palestine, an increasingly bellicose USA and a drive to war across the world, which will mean only austerity and slaughter for the working class in the death agonies of declining capitalism.

The second session of the first day was a highly pertinent discussion of ‘War, peace and communist strategy’, led by comrade Rida Vaquas, who gave a presentation of the importance of the demand for a popular militia - something which is included in the CPGB’s Draft programme, but is often derided or dismissed as crazy by many opportunist left groups.

The evening - and indeed every day - saw a very welcome addition to CU: a cultural programme led by Tam Dean Burn. There were, throughout CU, readings from Bertolt Brecht’s epic poetic rendition of the Marx-Engels Communist Manifesto.¹ Along with play readings and cultural discussion, the programme was as illuminating as it was entertaining. Highly memorable contributions to our cultural programme were made by Esther Leslie, Finn Iunker and Bill Maguire.

One of the great strengths of CU is the quality of the contributions, from experts in their fields, which help to aid understanding and contribute to the development of Marxist theory. One such discourse was from Michael Roberts, who looked at the world economy and the impact of the Trump presidency. This was followed by Marc Mulholland’s analysis of class relations in 19th century Ireland and the problem od “reactionary democracy”.

Debate

Debate is, of course, central to CU and this year included the ‘right of nations to self-determination’. Opening speakers were Ed Potts (TAS), Archie Woodrow (RS21) and Yassamine Mather (CPGB). Comrade Potts thought that the national struggle had exhausted itself nowadays and that countries were essentially “homogenous”. Comrade Woodrow sharply disagreed. Comrade Mather pointed out, the national question must be placed in concrete historical circumstances, such as attempts to appeal to the ‘national question’ to dismember Iran. What followed was an excellent debate - most comrades thought that comrade Potts was badly mistaken.

On Saturday, returning to the theme of class, David Broder of Jacobin gave an illuminating account of the far-right use of ‘workerist’ identity politics and its roots in Labourism. This was followed by Nick Wrack’s ‘Envisioning the communist future’. This was, in part, comrade Wrack’s account of TAS withdrawing from FCU, but also included differences between TAS and the CPGB. This included the question of the transition from the lower to the higher form of communism and whether that would entail having to make alliances with the middle classes. Comrade Wrack, arguing that Marx and Engels used the terms ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’ interchangeably, said that we should not make concessions to petty bourgeois exploiters of labour.

In the debate, CPGB members argued that this is precisely the wrong time to pull out of the FCU process, as we might conceivably be working together in the newly constituted Corbyn party. Speaking as someone who had worked with comrade Wrack on the ‘Why Marx?’ project, I stated that his contribution was an attempt to recruit to a future grouping in Your Party, led by himself.

The continuity from the discussion around the transition from different phases in the move from capitalism to communism was taken up by an innovative presentation by comrade Ted Reese, who examined the transition to fully automated communism along with the concept of abundance.

Palestine

Moshé Machover and Yassamine Mather analysed the continuing horror in Palestine, plus the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, Syria, Yemen and beyond. Comrade Machover made the crucial point that, while the pro-Israel lobby is undeniably powerful in the US, it is a mistake to assert that it is a case of the ‘tail wagging the dog’. A central part of the pro-Israel lobby is the evangelical Christian right and, while Israel has its own interests, it is largely carrying out its policy at the behest of the US, without which it would be brought to a standstill. The US has effectively been the sponsor of Israel, especially since the 1967 Six Day War.

Comrade Mather observed that any aim of regime change in Iran can only take place if there is a potential alternative to the theocracy. While the current regime is undeniably unpopular, given the choice between being dismembered by US imperialism and Iranian national identity, people will and do choose the latter, despite the fact that the regime is dictatorial and resolutely pro-capitalist.

Both comrades Mather and Machover stressed both the struggle against imperialism and an internationalist perspective for the workers of the Middle East as essential to bring an end to the genocide in Palestine. The fundamental aim must be the defeat of US imperialism, Israel’s principal sponsor.

Internationalism

On the question of communist unity, I do not think there was any dissent at CU on the need for a mass, internationalist communist party. The question of how we get there was another of our sub-themes. To this end, comrades Rylance of Prometheus and Joe Carman of the Marxist Unity Caucus (MUC) in RS21 took up the theme of how to take the project of a communist party forward. Comrade Conrad pointed out that the MUC has modelled itself on the Marxist Unity Group in the Democratic Socialists of America, but the difficulty we face in the UK is that there is as yet no equivalent organisation to the DSA.

This session was followed by a debate between Archie Woodrow, Mike Macnair and Cat Rylance on how to build a healthy communist culture. The debate featured many comrades sharing their perspectives and insights into how best to ensure a healthy environment in a communist organisation, facilitating growth and open discussion without losing sight of the aim of revolution.

Peter Kennedy of TAS presented a discussion on the distinction between socialism and capitalism (a theme that would be taken up again the next day). This was followed by another discussion on communists and the Corbyn party with Archie Woodrow and Tina Becker. There were valuable insights from both comrades into the likely working of this new formation and a keen understanding of the likely pitfalls it will face. It is our duty as communists to influence what may be one of the most significant political events of the next few years. We know that the Weekly Worker is widely read on the left and this puts us in an important position when it comes to giving a lead. We need to promote the struggle for an open, democratic movement that can develop into a mass Communist Party.

Lawrence Parker gave a well-researched talk about whether or not we can distance ourselves from Stalinism. The CPGB has distinguished itself by an analysis of why the Russian Revolution was defeated and the impact that has had on world politics since.

We also must understand the present, particularly the global rightwing surge. This discussion was led by Lydia Apolinar of MUG and Kaspar van der Burgh of the Communist Platform of the Netherlands. The formal presentations of the day were concluded by an old friend of CU, Chris Knight, who with Camilla Power of the Radical Anthropology Group highlighted the communistic nature of early human society.

The penultimate day, featured a discussion on trans rights, this time with Roxy Hall of the RCO in Australia and Mike Macnair. The CPGB rightly defends the trans community in the face of rightwing attempts to create wedge issues..

Ian Wright, drawing on Marx’s own profound interest in mathematics, provided a computer generated illustration of how the law of value works. His aim was not to prove that Marx was right. Rather that we need to critically take forward the 19th century science he used in Capital. This was followed by the climate scientist, Bill Maguire, and a grim warning that climate change was now irreversible. Things will be bad, but how bad is the question we face. Large parts of the world are in danger of becoming uninhabitable.

My turn

I began the final day with a discussion of the challenges faced by one of the biggest groups of workers in the UK. NHS and adult social care workers constitute nearly three million workers, and this will be a key battleground for the working class in defending the gains of the post-war period, in an era where more and more resources are poured into the arms industry.

Jack Conrad concluded what had been an exhilarating CU with a roundup of the essential demands of a mass Communist Party from a Marxist perspective. This included not just a critique of other groups, but an important understanding of the nature of the gains of the working class in the post-war period and the nature of highly contested proto-socialist forms. Ours is an epoch of transition to socialism, where what the working class needs is democracy.

CU began with what might seem like the disappointing failure of the FCU process. But I came away without pessimism or disappointment. Discussion was generally informed by Marxism at its most scientific, amongst comrades determined to forge communist unity - a project too important to be deflected by this or that group. FCU is dead! Long live communist unity!

1. This is available in translation by Darko Suvin here: darkosuvin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ds-manifesto-transl.-1-19.pdf.↩︎