15.01.1998

Party schools

Party notes

As outlined in our Perspectives ’98 document, we are attempting to institute a far more systematic approach to Party education. In this spirit, we are organising three important schools in the first eight months of this year.

The first, in Scotland over the weekend of February 21-22, examines our approach to the federal republic slogan. The school is divided into four sessions - the national question and the tradition of Leninism; is there a British nation?; Blairism and the ‘rebranding’ of Britain; and finally, on the federal republic itself.

Clearly, the ruling class does not merely retain the initiative on constitutional reform: it is simply unchallenged by any form of independent working class voice at all. Variants of narrow economism dominate practically all sections of the left in Britain. In practice, this leads to tailing the bourgeoisie in the sphere of ‘high’ politics. There are a plethora of examples to chose from to illustrate this opportunism in the contemporary literature of the left, but I think Arthur Trusscott, writing in New Interventions (winter 1997-8) exemplifies the problem beautifully. He is a model example of what communists have to fight against to win working class hegemony over all the basic democratic questions facing contemporary society.

Starting from the correct proposition that revolutionaries should support “the fullest democratisation of society”, he suggests that this would lead us “not [to] have opposed a ‘yes’ vote in the devolution referenda”. However, as playing with nationalism is a dangerous game, “socialists must emphasise what unites the working class in Britain - the fight for jobs, better wages and conditions, improved education and welfare, etc - and condemn those who seek to divide the working class along national lines”.

Thus, Arthur advocates the workers’ movement supports anti-democratic sops proposed by the establishment - the insulting concessions of the talking shop Scottish parliament and Welsh Assembly. Having got that uncomfortable issue safely out of the way, we can get on with real working class politics - the fight for better wages, jobs and social services.

Sadly, the narrow approach of comrade Trusscott is typical of the method of the left and stands in stark contrast to the real traditions of our movement. The essence of working class politics is not to concentrate on what simply unites “the working class” alone (and the idea that in and of itself, any particular question automatically unites the class is very foolish - wage claims and the fight for jobs are normally fought sectionally). Proletarian politics consist in making the working class the champion of all democratic demands in society, no matter what class or section is affected.

Our school in Scotland will attempt to provide our comrades with the theoretical equipment to fight this degenerate understanding of ‘class politics’.

The second school is in London over the weekend of April 4-5 and is on the USSR.           

It is an unfortunate fact that the vast majority of the left have viewed the collapse of the USSR and the bureaucratic socialist regimes of Eastern Europe simply as bland confirmations of their own particular theoretical shibboleths, whatever the facts were telling them. We believe that it is perhaps the key theoretical task of Marxists to account for the horror that the first attempt to build a workers’ state produced. Almost all theoretical models that have attempted to explain this unique social formation - including our own - have proved to be either one-sided, or simply wrong.

The April school will be a chance for comrades both to discuss work-in-progress on the Soviet question and - crucially - to examine in some detail the method that is informing our research. Again, the school is divided into four openings over the two days. We start with ‘historical materialism and the Soviet question’; then an important session on ‘the method of Capital’. The second day opens with a critique of other theories of bureaucratic socialism and we finish the school with ‘towards a general theory of bureaucratic socialism’, a discussion using the Marxist method, as applied in the internal discussion material already produced.

This school is one of the more important we have organised for a number of years. Until we have accounted adequately for the phenomenon that was the USSR, the workers’ movement is theoretically blind.

Then, in the first week of August, we have Communist University ’98, this year in a London venue. As most comrades will know, this consists of an intensive week of debate and argument. As in previous years, we are planning for the involvement of individuals and organisations from outside our ranks, something that always greatly enriches discussion.

The London Book Club - book service of the Communist Party - will be producing a catalogue this week that will contain recommended readings for the first two schools at least and, as soon as the syllabus for this year’s CU is finalised, it will be featured in the paper. I warn comrades that places at all three events are limited. If you intend coming, please let Party Centre know as soon as possible.

Mark Fischer
national organiser