09.01.1997

Communist Party Perspectives 1997

At its last national aggregate of 1996, the perspectives document for this year was passed unanimously by our organisation. Mark Fischer highlights some of its key points

The debate around this perspectives document produced little or no controversy in the Party. This reflects three things.

First, the absence of the Party’s not-very-loyal opposition - the comrades of Open Polemic. The debate over Perspectives ’96 was sharper and more controversial precisely because of the resistance of this openly organised faction to the general political orientation of the Party majority. Of course, the faction’s objections were profoundly silly. For example, comrades may remember that the OPers recommended an “even-handed” approach to the Socialist Labour Party and the Red Action-initiated Independent Working Class Association - remember them? Nevertheless, the mere fact of having an opposition kept us on all on our toes and sparked a better debate.

Second, the practice of the Party over the past year or so - crucially, around the SLP question of course - has forged a relatively high degree of unanimity on the nature of the tasks facing us. The broad correctness of our orientation has been confirmed by the day-to-day practice of comrades - nagging doubts have thus been overcome.

Third, while the SLP is an important new development - a “small ... glimmer of light” as the perspectives document puts it - the general political context in which we operate remains broadly consistent.

Internationally, the period of reaction ushered in by the collapse of bureaucratic socialism does not simply continue, but actually deepens. We see a reflection of this in the continued disintegration and implosion of a number of revolutionary groups whose defining world views were compromised by the collapse of the USSR and eastern Europe: paraphrasing Trotsky, we might say that while groups like the Workers Revolutionary Party (Workers Press) did not recognise the period of reaction, the period of reaction certainly recognised it.

In domestic politics, the Tories as a government are clearly on their last legs. In the absence of something very odd happening, Blair’s Labour Party will win the next election. However, given the historically low level of working class struggle - politically and industrially - we should not comfort ourselves that “within six months” our class will inevitably be in large-scale confrontation with the new government as a result of some crisis of expectation.

Thus, we judge that the Socialist Labour Party and the Scottish Socialist Alliance will remain central to our work for the coming period.

Socialist Labour

Relative to our numerical strength and resources, we have conducted a very effective struggle around the establishment of the SLP. This was a development that was only just beginning to stir when Perspectives ’96 was ratified and thus was given a little bit of a ‘down-beat’ assessment in the document.

As the year progressed, its growth and our effective intervention overwhelmed many of the more detailed plans we made for the development of our organisational structures. However, what we have gained in terms of a new audience for our politics and breaking our comrades out of isolation far outweighs the losses.

Yet we must certainly maintain a sense of proportion about the SLP. As Workers Power has perceptively noted, it is not a product of 1984-85 in a direct and positive sense: it is far more the product of 1992. The upsurge around the miners in the early 90s was frittered away by Scargill and the NUM leadership. Like the Great Strike, it ended in defeat - but was far more of a whimper rather than a roar.

As a product of defeat - and a quite ignominious one at that - the mood in the SLP is not characterised by bullish confidence about the future. There is a mood of quiet desperation about the whole affair. We have colloquially described this as people drinking in the ‘last chance saloon’ - if the SLP project fails, what else is there?

Thus the SLP is not a confident organisation. This has made our intervention more difficult. Even comrades who would sympathise with us on democracy in the new organisation or opposition to the witchhunt have ‘sat on their hands’ when it has come to practically defending victims of the purge.

In 1997, we could see the left in the organisation further marginalised. The SLP organisational ‘machine’ is now in place and starting to operate reasonably effectively. The next conference of the organisation will be far less of an ‘unknown quality’ for the leadership. They are now well aware of who’s who and have in place structures that could ensure that the left has a real fight on its hands to even be represented at the conference, let alone win it. Similarly, the possible adherence of even a single substantial union branch - and SLP lawyers are currently poring over various union constitutions - would potentially swamp the revolutionaries in the party.

Nevertheless, the SLP remains a vital arena of intervention for us. Its strength is in its organic relationship to the crisis of Labourism. Our role must be to politically position ourselves at the end of the same process that will swell the ranks of the SLP. What creates the SLP can - as a result of political struggle and development - create a reforged Communist Party also. The SLP is certainly not the ‘last chance saloon’, in other words.

Scotland

At the moment, the most important arena of our work in Scotland is obviously the Scottish Socialist Alliance. It is an achievement that we have made ourselves part of this important movement of the class in Scotland. Our comrades are respected politically and our organisation has a hearing. In the coming year, we must strive to differentiate a far more clearly defined communist pole of attraction, however.

This must take an organisational form as soon as possible. Others have already started to organise the left of the SSA under their hegemony. As soon as practically possible, we must start to cohere SSA revolutionaries around communist politics. In the aftermath of the general election, the fight for a boycott of the referendum on Labour’s limp proposals for a toothless Scottish parliament will provide our politics with a cutting edge. This campaign is potentially very strong as:

Our call for a parliament with full powers - centrally the right to secede - will undercut the arguments of nationalists that we are unconcerned with the rights of the Scottish ‘nation’.

It provides a potential mass audience for our call for revolutionary unity between the working class of Scotland, England and Wales.

The boycott campaign in Scotland provides us with important opportunities for mass work. This contrasts with the narrow focus of many other groups on the “inevitable fightback” in the trade unions. As an organisation we will direct resources to this campaign as a springboard for real potential growth in Scotland.

The SLP is presently almost non-existent in Scotland, although this could change dramatically. This has created a certain tension in our ranks nationally as comrades in Scotland have been intervening in a very different arena and encountering very different problems to the majority of the organisation.

This was recognised by the Party aggregate, and Perspectives ’97 underlines we must constantly be looking to “find bridges between our fight in Scotland and the rest of the country”.

Conclusion

Finally, our organisation identified four important areas of Party work that must be given detailed attention.

The Weekly Worker must be kept under constant practical review by the entire organisation. It is an incredibly effective weapon - as various opportunists in the SLP can testify. The Party as a whole must be thinking how it is wielded. The Weekly Worker must be an item on the agenda of all cell meetings and feedback relayed to the production team via cell secretaries where appropriate.

The paper receives large amounts of copy from a wide variety of sources. This has produced a certain passivity in our journalism. The organisation as a whole - with the Worker’s journalist team giving a lead - must become far more proactive in seeking out stories and information for the paper.

Early in the new year, a concerted drive must be launched to build the circulation of the paper. We have had a pleasing growth in numbers being sold this year, but with serious effort this could at least double.

Then, there is recruitment. We have built a reputation that can translate into organisational growth. We are unlikely to see huge numbers come towards us in the short term. Nevertheless, we can grow substantially. Our approach to recruitment has become very stale over the last few years or so. Detailed, patient work can reinvigorate it and produce appreciable results.

On finance, we must end the constant financial crisis that plagues our organisation and periodically threatens to paralyse us. This entails the radical re-structuring of the finances of the Party, removing painful debts and freeing sources of credit for the future.

Lastly, there is the continuity of our cadre. We will ensure that the core of comrades that currently constitute the Party are not engulfed. Clearly, judging from the problems others on the revolutionary left are facing, an achievement of this period will be to survive, let alone grow.

We are very confident we can do both.