22.02.2001

CPGB aggregate

Unity in conflict

With only weeks left before the expected date of the general election, it is natural for CPGB members to focus attention on the Socialist Alliance and its electoral challenge. In the words of Marcus Larsen, we need to get the right balance between being the best partisans of the SA project, and fighting for principled communist politics within it.

So when CPGB members from Wales, Scotland and various regions in England - Greater Manchester, Notts, Tyneside - joined those from London and the south east at our February 18 aggregate, the main theme linking the agenda was one of unity in conflict.

Proceedings began with a report from John Bridge on the Liaison Committee meeting held the previous day. Socialist Alliance candidates, treasurers, and election agents had been present to hear briefings on various technical and political questions around the general election. As a result, preparation for the March 10 policy conference was confined to the last hour. Although 15 or 16 submissions had already been made to the policy sub-committee, it was agreed that the executive committee should instead draft a policy statement and submit it to local alliances and affiliated organisations for amendment. Mark Hoskisson of Workers Power has already circulated the draft (see pp4-5). One majority and one minority amendment will be allowed from each affiliate. A healthy innovation.

The aggregate agreed that CPGB representatives should consult with other groups on the SA left and propose cooperation in submitting amendments to avoid duplication.

Several comrades described experiences in their local alliances in which Socialist Workers Party members had steered clear of principled positions - for example on asylum-seekers - in a deliberate attempt to get votes for the sake of votes. Having for years opposed standing candidates on the grounds that it would inevitably lead to 'electoralism', the SWP now seems more interested in winning votes that in telling the truth to the working class. Our task as communists is primarily to use elections to make revolutionary propaganda and try to win advanced workers to revolutionary politics.

Replying to the debate, comrade Bridge said the question of localism will form a key section of the CPGB's forthcoming pamphlet on the way forward for the Socialist Alliance. It is important to develop an understanding of what localism is and the dangers it poses to the fight for working class liberation. Obviously we want to play a full part in local campaigns, but we must use them to raise sights. SWP comrades and others who want to minimise political arguments and get on with the job of handing out leaflets have to be won to the understanding that there is no local or national road to socialism, and also to see that so-called ordinary people who become interested in politics seek answers to global questions.

Our class needs a Socialist Alliance and a culture in which people think for themselves and make informed choices. Summing up, the comrade reiterated the point that democracy, debate and controversy is the best way to ensure that the most advanced ideas win the day.

In the second session comrades discussed the draft perspectives document presented by national organiser Mark Fischer. Introducing his draft, comrade Fischer emphasised that moving from a phase of preservation and maintenance to one of rapid growth presented opportunities and challenges to the CPGB. Since emerging 20 years ago in a period of defeat for the working class, our wing of the Party has existed as a powerful and coherent trend of thought on the revolutionary left, but now we have to evolve into an organisation functioning throughout the country.

Although we are still in a period of reaction, the left itself has changed. We have called for communist rapprochement for many years, and tenaciously fought to build the Socialist Alliance. Now the SA is becoming a real force, thanks in no small part to the participation of the SWP. Because we have theorised the steps to unity through action, the best militants working in the Socialist Alliance are being attracted to our ideas, and will, we are confident, be won to our fight to forge a single, democratic and centralist Socialist Alliance Party.

In analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the CPGB, comrade Fischer highlighted the Weekly Worker as one of our great assets. It is required reading on the left, especially for all those who want to know what is happening in the Socialist Alliance. Other left papers consistently fail here. Comrade Fischer called on comrades to submit more reports to the paper.

In discussion some comrades called for the style of the paper to be changed and useful suggestions were made for the upgrading of our website.

Comrade Fischer proposed that the CPGB's annual fundraising effort - up to this year known as the Summer Offensive - be moved to March and April. The 2001 Spring Offensive will coincide with hard political campaigning for the general election. A minority of comrades disagreed with this proposal, arguing that as many comrades traditionally raise money by overtime and extra jobs, this would clash with the need to do political work during the next two months. But the majority agreed that the coming period provides an excellent opportunity to fuse political and fundraising activity so as to raise both to a higher level. Raising cash for the SA election effort - obviously the most pressing financial need this year - is a job that cannot wait until after May 3.

The final part of the aggregate was devoted to a debate on the situation in the Scottish Socialist Party. Comrade Sarah McDonald reported the overt nationalism that dominated its February 10-11conference. Although the left made modest gains in terms of the number of votes cast for its motions, the SSP as a whole is lurching rapidly into separatism, refusing, for example, to wholeheartedly cooperate with the Socialist Alliance in England and Wales.

Comrade McDonald stressed that communists in England, in order to make working class unity a reality in practice, must push for self-determination for Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, while opposing the disastrous national divisions in our movement fostered by separatism and little England guilt. Many of our SA allies are extremely weak on the national question.

There was some discussion in the aggregate about how much effort the Party should put into supporting the Republican Communist Network. The RCN is the main left grouping within the SSP, but contains both principled anti-nationalists and revolutionary nationalists, leaving it a blunt weapon.

The aggregate played a useful role in preparing comrades for the intensive period of work ahead.

Mary Godwin