Party & Programme
End the cycle of splits
24 May 2012
If the left is to build a serious political organisation it will have to facilitate internal dissent, writes Mike Macnair. And that will require both majorities and minorities to act responsibly
Corbyn is coming
15 May 2025
Hints are being dropped here, there and everywhere. But exactly what is going on remains a closely guarded secret. As for programme, everything tells us it is going to be on the soft end of the soft left. Carla Roberts provides an update
Programme ’n’ chips
08 May 2025
Differences are inevitable. Unity can, however, be forged around a democratically agreed programme and the commitment to building a mass party. Jack Conrad reports … and considers organisational cultures, good and bad
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
What’s the point?
24 Apr 2025
It was going to be the left electoral alternative. But the SWP soon found itself with no takers. Then the back peddling began, leaving We Demand Change as a completely pointless exercise, says Carla Roberts
Squaring the circle
10 Apr 2025
SWP tops flip-flop between left syndicalism and electoral opportunism, says Paul Demarty - sometimes too quickly for hapless editors to keep up
Rediscovering our words
10 Apr 2025
Communist unity needs solid programmatic foundations if it is going to succeed. Towards that end, Jack Conrad says that we need to return to our common language to overcome common misunderstandings
Unity in three parts
10 Apr 2025
When it comes to Forging Communist Unity, acceptance is vital, agreement is not. Thomas West reports on Mike Macnair’s opening to the April 6 CPGB aggregate of members, candidate members and invited visitors
They just stopped
03 Apr 2025
Just Stop Oil is shutting up shop, and declaring victory - but the truth is that it has been thoroughly and predictably defeated by the state, argues Paul Demarty
Minimum demands are maximal
03 Apr 2025
Let us not understate our radicalism or drive ourselves into sterile propagandism. Mike Macnair reports on the latest meeting of Forging Communist Unity
Bigger and better
20 Mar 2025
Tina Becker looks forward to comradely debate and discussion, not least around the communist fusion process. Book now
Getting down to details
13 Mar 2025
Our first face-to-face meeting took place on March 8. The aim was to find out where we agreed and where we disagreed. Mike Macnair reports on Forging Communist Unity
What’s in a name?
13 Mar 2025
Toby Abse reports on Rifondazione Comunista’s desperate attempts to re-enter parliament and the illusions it is fostering in the Bric countries as a source of peace
A very English possibilist
06 Mar 2025
Steve Freeman of the Republican Labour Education Forum dismisses the idea of a mass Communist Party as utterly utopian. Instead he proposes a Commonwealth Party
Very essence of Marxism
06 Mar 2025
Mike Macnair reviews Bruno Leipold Citizen Marx: republicanism and the formation of Karl Marx’s social and political thought Princeton University Press, 2024, pp418, £32
Operating on a hunch
06 Mar 2025
The International Socialist tradition is nowadays characterised by an almost pathological fear of adopting a programme. Yet without a comprehensive, fully worked-out programme there is every chance of falling into opportunist incoherence, argues Jack Conrad