10.10.2013

Communist Platform

Statement of aims and principles:

1 The [Left Unity] party is a socialist party. It seeks to bring about the end of capitalism and its replacement by the rule of the working class. Our ultimate aim is a society based on the principle of ‘From each according to their abilities; to each according to their needs’. A moneyless, classless, stateless society within which each individual can develop their fullest individuality.

2. Under capitalism, production is predominantly carried out in order to make a profit for the few, regardless of the needs of society or damage to the environment. Neither capitalism nor its state apparatus can be made to work in the interests of the mass of the population. The rule of the working class requires a state to defend itself , but a state that is withering away, a semi-state.

3. Socialism means the fullest political, social and economic democracy. It means a society in which the wealth and the means of production are no longer in private hands, but are owned in common. Everyone will have the right to participate in deciding how the wealth of society is used and how production is planned to meet the needs of all and to protect the natural world on which we depend. We reject the idea that the undemocratic regimes that existed in the former Soviet Union and other countries were socialist, or represented either the political rule of the working class or some kind of step on the road to socialism.

4. The [Left Unity] party opposes all oppression and discrimination, whether on the basis of gender, nationality, ethnicity, disability, religion or sexual orientation and aims to create a society in which such oppression and discrimination no longer exist.

5. Socialism has to be international. The interests of the working class are basically the same everywhere The [Left Unity] party opposes all imperialist wars and military interventions. The [Left Unity] party rejects the idea that there is a national solution to the problems of capitalism. It stands for the maximum solidarity and cooperation between the working class in Britain and elsewhere. It will work with others across Europe for the overthrow of the constitution of the European Union and the creation of a united socialist Europe under democratic working class rule.

6. The [Left Unity] party aims to win support from the working class and all those who want to bring about the socialist transformation of society, which can only be accomplished by the working class itself acting democratically as the majority in society. This means that the organisations of the working class must be democratically, not bureaucratically, organised.

7. The [Left Unity] Party aims to win political power to end capitalism, not to manage it. It will not participate in governmental coalitions with capitalist parties at national or local level.

8. As long as the working class is not able to win political power for itself the [Left Unity] party will participate in and seek to lead campaigns to defend and radically extend all past gains: eg, living standards and democratic rights. But it recognises that all gains can only be partial and temporary so long as capitalism survives.

9. The [Left Unity] party will use both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary means to build support for its goals of sweeping away the capitalist state and the socialist transformation of society.

10. All elected representatives will be accountable to the party membership and will receive no payment above the average wage of a skilled worker (the exact level to be determined by the party conference), plus legitimate expenses.

11. All members of the party must accept that these aims and principles form the basis of agreed common actions, though they might have disagreements with particular points.

Tina Becker, Ian Donovan, Moshé Machover, Mike Macnair, Peter Manson, Yassamine Mather, Sarah McDonald, Emily Orford, Lee Rock, James Turley.