Party & Programme > Bolshevism
Fur flies over Lenin
22 Mar 2012
What has the debate over 1912 got to do with current communist practice? James Turley answers the philistines
Not a bright idea
29 May 2025
An unwillingness - or inability - to deal with the root causes of the climate crisis has resulted in a frantic search for technological fixes. However, argues Jack Conrad, that comes with all manner of dangers
They come with thorns
08 May 2025
Demands for ‘civility’, avoiding ‘name-calling’ and approaching others ‘in a comradely way’ are phrases that come straight from the dominant culture of opportunism. Mike Macnair defends the CPGB’s good culture of open criticism and robust polemics
Moshé and Nick
20 Feb 2025
Question, question, question, that is Marxism. Carla Roberts reports on the latest session in the ‘Building a Communist Party’ series organised by Why Marx?, which addressed the question of sects and sectarianism
Speech controls yet again
20 Feb 2025
There are those who want to keep differences polite, internal and under tight control. That is the approach of the opportunist right. Mike Macnair takes issue with those complaining about the CPGB’s ‘bad culture’
What sort of Partyism?
12 Dec 2024
Ideas that party building can be skipped, that programmatic differences ought to be avoided, that there should be bureaucratic restrictions on polemics - all are roads to nowhere. In the second part of his discussion Mike Macnair focuses on a group of RS21 members and Joe Todd’s recent contributions
Formulations, fetishes and failures
10 Oct 2024
Steve Bloom dogmatically clings to ‘new left Trotskyist’ orthodoxy, says Mike Macnair, and this leads him and his co-thinkers to strategic unrealism and abandoning working class political independence
Analysis of historical causes
03 Oct 2024
We must ruthlessly criticise all past attempts. As Mike Macnair once again demonstrates, Steve Bloom’s arguments on method and history only give support to dogmatism and personality cults
Fetishising revolutionary crisis
26 Sep 2024
Clinging to the general strike, and to the idea of taking the tide at the flood, is at the core of present failures. Mike Macnair argues that Steve Bloom’s call for ‘synthesis’ is badly misconceived
Amy Leather vanishes
19 Sep 2024
What lies behind the mid-term changes at the top? The central committee limits itself to a single gnomic pronouncement. Meanwhile, Paul Demarty investigates
Historical and methodological differences
29 Aug 2024
Because revolutions have failed, that does not mean they were bound to fail. Steve Bloom continues his exploration of revolutionary strategy and history
Primary task set
18 Jul 2024
Theory and programme are treated seriously, but there are leftist and anarchistic carryovers. Martin Greenfield reports on the Revolutionary Communist Organisation conference in Australia and the next steps that are needed in what will doubtless be a long journey
Programme makers
13 Jun 2024
Without the working class organising itself into a political party there can be no chance of socialism. But, argues Jack Conrad, without a comprehensive, fully worked-out programme, that party has no chance of taking coherent form, guarding against opportunism or navigating the road to socialism
Muddleheaded Labourism
30 May 2024
Vincent David of the Spartacist League central committee says any Labour vote is “crossing the class line” - even in the absence of an alternative left candidate. Instead he urges everyone to join Tusc’s dead-end Labour Party mark two project
Another sect is rebranded
09 May 2024
Carl Collins looks at the factors behind the shift from clause four Fabianism to the Madison Avenue ‘communist turn’
Debating with Oehlerites
09 May 2024
With the general election fast approaching, Eddie Ford reports on the Online Communist Forum debate. While the Spartacist League fetishises opposition to the person of Sir Keir Starmer and throws in its lot with the Tusc opportunist lash-up, the CPGB emphasises communist unity as the only serious route towards mass work