09.11.2006

Members vote to redraft CPGB 'Draft programme'. Campaign for a Marxist Party agrees fusion talks

Mary Godwin reports on the November aggregate of CPGB members

CPGB members are to redraft their Draft programme, first published in 1992. This important process will involve the whole membership of the organisation, and will run in parallel with programmatic discussions conducted with the Campaign for a Marxist Party. The conference to found the CMP, which met in London on November 4, agreed to enter into fusion talks with the CPGB.

The decision to redraft the Draft programme was confirmed by an aggregate of CPGB members which took place the following day. Preparation for the work has already begun, and in the new year monthly seminars will begin at which CPGB members, comrades involved in the CMP and others interested in uniting the Marxist left will be invited to debate what should be in the redrafted Draft programme.

Comrade John Bridge opened the November 5 aggregate by explaining why the Provisional Central Committee was recommending this process. Since the Draft programme was drawn up the CPGB has extensively developed its theory in several areas - most notably on Europe - but this is not reflected in the document. Nor does the current version deal in any depth with the key question of the environment and climate change, and it is also deficient in areas like health and education. In other words, some sections will need to be changed, while original work will be required in order to draft additional sections.

The redrafting process will also provide the opportunity for debate on issues where comrades have disagreements with the existing version. Individual comrades or small groups may be commissioned by the leadership to draft sections, but these will have to be debated and voted on by the entire membership, and every comrade or group of comrades has the right to put forward an alternative draft.

Comrade Bridge spoke about the nature of Communist Party programmes, which are designed to guide the party to the point of making revolution, and are not intended to cover short-term political issues. Despite the gaps mentioned, our current Draft programme has stood the test of time remarkably well - unlike, for example, the Socialist Alliance's 2001 programme, People before profit, which reads like a left Labourite election manifesto (because it is). He also compared our current Draft programme with the various 'official communist' programmes of the CPGB in the 20th century, all of which had to be junked or hidden away after a short period to fit in with the latest twists and turns.

We refer to our programme as a draft because at the moment there is no Communist Party in Britain, said comrade Bridge, despite the name of our organisation. The draft is the work of the small group which has the aim of uniting and organising Marxists in order to create one. We would present our Draft programme to its founding congress.

Turning to the structure of Communist Party programmes, comrade Bridge stressed that they ought to contain a minimum and maximum section - even though most Trotskyists wrongly consider this an anathema. Our model is the Erfurt programme of German Marxism agreed in 1891 and the programme of the Bolsheviks in Russia. The minimum programme contains the demands needed to equip our class to make revolution and locate what allies need to be gained. The maximum programme relates to the period after the working class has taken power, describing the process of the withering away of the state and the beginning of general human freedom.

The final section of the Draft programme discusses the Communist Party itself, the sort of democratic centralist formation needed to make revolution. One aspect of this is its emphasis on democracy, enabling the membership to hold the leadership to account.

As usual there was a full debate on the opening. All comrades who spoke welcomed the proposal. Comrade Cameron Richards said debate on this matter should figure in future aggregates and dominate Communist University 2007. He urged all comrades to fully participate in the process of redrafting, which will be useful in developing the future leadership of the CPGB. Comrade Mike Macnair said the redrafting can also be part of the process of engaging with serious Marxist forces outside the CPGB - not least the Campaign for a Marxist Party. The failure of the Respect project has made people ask, 'What strategy?' - which is answered by the question, 'What programme?'

A number of comrades addressed arguments our opponents on the left make against our Draft programme. Comrade Peter Manson spoke about the Trotskyist claim that the minimum and maximum parts of such a programme are not connected, the minimum programme allegedly containing little more than reformist demands. In fact for most such comrades this is actually a description of what they call the 'transitional method' - the Trotskyists can give any piece of reformist nonsense a revolutionary gloss by dressing it up as a transitional demand.

Comrade Macnair referred to the fact that the Socialist Workers Party takes pride in not having a programme. The fact that the SWP, like the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, has no programme leads to the situation where the members know little about their own history and there is no check on the opportunism of the leadership.

Comrade Nick Rogers suggested that our weekly seminars should include more discussion of the debates taking place in the Weekly Worker about what sort of party is needed and what sort of programme it should have. He welcomed the idea of making discussion of the draft programme a part of the monthly joint meeting with the Campaign for a Marxist Party, and hoped CPGB members would feel free to raise disagreements they may have with the leadership at such open meetings. In his reply to the debate comrade Bridge stressed that it is not only the right, but also the duty of members to voice their disagreements openly at such forums.

Marxist party

In the second part of the aggregate, comrade Macnair gave an account of the Campaign for a Marxist Party conference. Although the attendance was lower than the organisers hoped for, and consisted in part of what comrade Macnair described as "sects of one", the conference was a success in that it brought together people who at least recognised the need for a Marxist party rather than some halfway house. Any move towards principled unity should be supported. CPGB comrades who attended had argued sharply for our ideas and succeeded in getting our basic political arguments across. Monthly joint London seminars will be a way to draw comrades in the campaign closer to the CPGB and aid the merger process.

Comrades welcomed the successful CMP launch, but several urged caution. Comrade Phil Kent predicted that there will be more disagreement when discussions start in earnest, and that some of the "sects of one" may fall away. He said any progress towards unity will be slow and difficult. Comrade Rogers warned against putting all our energy and resources into a project which may come to nothing. He suggested that what really matters is our discussion with the Critique group, and our previous discussions with them have revealed significant differences. For example, Critique comrades think it is possible to win the support of the masses through a direct appeal to the class, and do not agree with the CPGB analysis that it is necessary to go through the existing left groups.

Tom May, in contrast, said comrades were being too pessimistic: there is a leftward movement in society bigger than at any time since before the end of the cold war and this could be receptive to Marxism. We should be open to having our minds changed by discussion with other forces, including in the CMP, and this would enable us to clarify our own position.

Replying to the debate, comrade Macnair said that in his opinion when groups, however small, manage to fuse this can produce a momentum which pulls in others. In the past, however, the uniting of Trotskyist groups has frequently resulted in a shower of splits later on, usually because of the shunning of openness and genuine democracy. But a modest fusion can lead to rapid growth if guided by a principled approach to the party regime. Comrade Macnair concluded by stating that the "dynamic of unprincipled unity" represented by the Socialist Alliance phase has given way after 9/11 to a "dynamic of fragmentation". He believed we may have reached the nadir of this and be in a position to start building a principled unity project.

Communist Students

In the final session of the aggregate, comrade Ben Lewis reported on the activities of the Communist Students, the organisation set up by CPGB members and supporters. Some of the founders of the organisation are in their last year at university and are eager to develop comrades to replace them. Communist Students has signed up several hundred people, but is attempting to overcome the low political level on campuses, exemplified by the poor turnout for the October 29 NUS demonstration against fees.

The work of recruiting to Communist Students at freshers fairs this autumn and setting up meetings on campus has helped cohere CPGB students, but the problem is how to keep the recruits involved and get them along to meetings. Communist Students is still dependent on the CPGB both financially and for technical assistance in producing its publication, but this is not a fundamental problem. The founding conference to formally launch Communist Students, agree a constitution and elect a leadership has been arranged for December 9 in Sheffield.

Much of the discussion following comrade Lewis's opening centred on the content and format of the first issue of Communist Student. Student comrades aim to publish it as frequently as possible and some suggested aiming for more pages. Comrade Emily Bransom disagreed with those who thought it should have longer articles - it should remain short and punchy, she said. Comrade Richards suggested having more articles on broader issues: students do not only want to read about student politics.

There was general agreement that Iran solidarity work - focussing on opposition to both imperialism and political islam - should be a key area of campaigning work, and a leading member of the Organisation of Revolutionary Workers of Iran has been invited to address the founding conference.

PCSU

The aggregate also heard a report from comrade Lee Rock, who spoke about developments in the Public and Commercial Services Union. Socialist Caucus, the leftwing grouping within the PCSU of which he is secretary, has voted to leave the Socialist Party-dominated Left Unity. Comrade Rock played a leading role in this decision, and he warned comrades to expect criticism from groups involved in Left Unity.

Comrades stressed the need to use the Weekly Worker to debate such questions - the paper has in the past been a point of reference for militants in such unions as the FBU and Aslef, as well as the PCSU, and it is essential that we give coverage to disputes on the left in every area, including the trade unions.