06.06.2007

Humpty Dumpty programmers

The London debate over programme put on by the Campaign for a Marxist Party on June 3 was reasonably well attended - there were some 20 comrades present, though none of them were new faces. Phil Kent reports

The main speakers were Jack Conrad of the CPGB and Phil Sharpe, a member of the Democratic Socialist Alliance. The debate saw a clear divide over the role and function of programme, but there was thankfully some clarification too. The whole thing was conducted in a very friendly and inclusive spirit. Of course, there are disagreements. But for the life of me I cannot see the "witch-hunt" being talked about by some of comrade Sharpe's rather more hysterical devotees. However, there are those within his Democratic Socialist Alliance who seem to consider the CMP as their own private property and who therefore want to sabotage fusion talks with the CPGB.

Jack Conrad spoke first. The comrade outlined what a Marxist programme is and what it is not. The programme has to be based on historical experience and the best theory available. Only then can it serve as a reliable compass in the struggle for human liberation. The programme we need today must be committed as a matter of principle to internationalism and working class unity. The programme examines the various allies that the working class can win, what classes and strata need to be neutralised and who and what constitutes our main enemy. Particular emphasis must be given to the political struggle for state power. While detailed tactics have no place in the programme, it is correct to touch upon some key tactical questions, such as the utilisation of parliamentary methods.

However, the programme needs to be as short and concise as possible. Everything repetitive needs to be cut out. Nor should there be argument or explanation. Though vital, none of that belongs in the programme. Crucially the programme should require acceptance from party members. Not agreement as the basis of the unity of communists. A vital distinction. Disagreement is inevitable and often healthy, even disagreement with aspects of the programme. The aim of the CPGB is not yet another confessional sect built around some infallible guru. On the contrary, our aim in a country like Britain is a party of many millions.

Comrade Sharpe stressed correct theoretical understanding. The world has changed since Lenin's Imperialism in 1916. Inter-imperialist contradictions have been replaced by globalisation. There was an ecological crisis too. Resources are running out. The limits represented by oil, minerals, water, etc mean that the old concept of abundance upheld by the likes of Hillel Ticktin are wrongheaded and anachronistic. Comrade Sharpe also criticised the idea of a minimum-maximum programme of the type around which German socialist democracy and the Bolsheviks were built. Comrade Sharpe singled out Trotsky's Transitional programme for particular praise.

Several speakers from the floor suggested that the two comrades seemed to be speaking past one another and comrade Moshe Machover claimed that he agreed with both speakers - on the one hand, we need, as comrade Conrad had argued, a short, readily understood programme and, on the other hand, comrade Sharpe's view that we must develop theory.

But this is rather to miss the point. The role of the party programme is not to elaborate upon theoretical questions, let alone to meander off into entirely secondary polemics or speculate about why some halfway house party is to be immediately expected.

Comrade Sharpe himself later said that, while the Bolshevik programme of 1917 contained three points (land, bread and peace), it reflected the deep theoretical understanding of the Bolsheviks. Exactly - the programme should reflect the highest level of theory we can produce, but contain the most exact crystallisation of that thought in a document which lays out the main aims and overarching strategy of the Marxists.

On balance comrades agreed that Phil Sharpe simply fails to understand what a programme is. This was put to him time and again - especially by CPGB comrades. He is like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Through the looking glass, quipped comrade Conrad: "'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'"

As was forcibly pointed out by Mark Fischer and more than a handful of other speakers from the floor, the word 'programme' comes with a long history, has a widely accepted meaning and comrade Sharpe's 93 pages of musings, curiosities and latest 'discoveries' do not fall within that category. Leave aside his ambiguous attitude towards a Marxist party, his toying with halfway houses past and present - his draft programme (sic) provides the basis for nothing in the real world. Except for a tiny sect.

Comrade Conrad emphasised that, when it came to the necessity of theory, our friend Phil Sharpe was pushing against an open door. Not only have CPGB comrades recognised the obvious - British global hegemony was definitively replaced by US hegemony in 1945. We have also developed the bare bones of the global strategy needed for communism under these circumstances. That is why we put Europe and the need for a Communist Party of the European Union at the centre of our plans. Only by winning in Europe is it possible to win in North America.

Not that we rest on our laurels. Many pages of the Weekly Worker have been used to address issues such as the present stage of global capitalism, the ecological crisis, and drawing correct lessons from the October revolution and the failed attempt to build 'Leninist' parties in the 20th century.

The most pressing question now is whether Marxists can unite as Marxists in a single Marxist organisation. There is nothing objectively stopping us. It is only a matter of will. Comrade Macnair touches on some examples of the elementary principles that we can and surely must unite around in his article 'What sort of programme?' in issue No2 of the CMP journal, Marxist Voice - eg, the free movement of workers and opposition to our own country's imperialist wars.

We urgently need to start the process by uniting those who say they are for a Marxist party - that is, if we are not to go round and round in ever diminishing circles.

The Sunday June 10 London communist forum is continuing the debate over the redrafting of the CPGB's own Draft programme. We have reached the section on 'The unemployed' under 'Immediate demands'. Everyone is welcome to attend and to test out in practice whether our theoretical differences do or do not divide us.