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Political Programme of the COMMUNIST WORKERS MOVEMENT

PROGRAMME OF THE COMMUNIST WORKERS' MOVEMENT A GENERAL PRINCIPLES The Communist Workers' Movement is an organization dedicated to building the revolution- ary party of the working class. It is a part of the international communist movement and is therefore part of the international movement of the vast majority of the world's people to overthrow the oppressive system of capitalism and imperialism. The capitalist class is no longer fit to run society. Capitalism is the main obstacle preventing progress towards a new society in which there will be a good living standard and a rich political and cultural life for all working people and their families; the basic problem of present-day society can only be solved by a revolution by which the working class makes itself the ruling class. This revolution necessarily involves the smashing, by rev- olutionary violence, of the bourgeois state machine, upon which the continued rule of the capitalist class depends. This apparatus will be replaced by the workers' state, which has new, genuinely democratic institutions, through which working people will have real con- trol at every level, from the centre to the locality. The period of the dictatorship of the pro- letariat, when the working class is organized as ruling class, is necessary for the transition to the classless, communist society of the future, in which the state will no longer be need- ed and will cease to exist. It is essential to build a revolutionary party which will exercise leadership in the working class on all fronts, including in the struggle for a revolutionary line in the labour movement, strikes, demonstrations, elections, the fight against racism, fascism, the oppress- ion of women, and super-power aggression, etc. and solidarity work with peoples fighting British imperialism. This party will lead the working class in making socialist revolution. B. THE NEED FOR A PARTY The Communist movement is dedicated to struggle. The path to the conquest of power by the working class will lead through many complex situations. The movement needs not only militancy and a spirit of self-sacrifice, but also the ability to steer a steady course in the most difficult circumstances, being flexible in its tactics without becoming opportunist. Strikes and trade union activity in themselves will not lead to the conquest of power. The task of the Communist Party will be to raise the struggles of the working class to a higher, consciously political level, and concentrate them into one great struggle for the seizure of state power. Firstly, though, the Communist Party must be built. This means that the central task at the present time is one of laying the foundations for the building of the revolutionary party by winning the most advanced proletarian elements to Communist politics and struggling for unity with other genuine Marxist-Leninist organizations. To this task, the Communist Workers' Movement dedicates its main energies. C. THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT The founders of the international Communist movement, Marx and Engels, studied the laws governing the inner workings of human society, and scientifically showed that the future belongs to the working class, with the industrial proletariat as its backbone. Marxism shows that classes came into existence historically in connection with the development of the means of producing wealth, and the rise of certain systems of production correspon- ding to the development of the technical productive forces; it shows that the capitalist

system must inevitably be overthrown and replaced by the socialist system under the dic- tatorship of the proletariat and that this, in turn, is but a prelude to the abolition of class divisions generally. The spontaneous development of the working class movement (trade unionism, etc.) does not give rise to communist consciousness, but tends to give rise to a political line which does not help it to make revolution, but in fact accomodates it to the interests of the cap- italist class. The scientific, revolutionary, Marxist line has developed and grown strong in the course of the struggle against this bourgeois line in the labour movement. Today, this bourgeois line against which we have to fight exists mainly under the forms of social-dem- ocracy and modern revisionism. At the time of the First World War, nearly all the workers' parties in the world be- trayed the interests of the working class. These organizations were the social-democratic parties (one of which today is the British Labour Party) which form an integral part of the capitalist system, and help to keep the proletariat enslaved to capital. Lenin began the struggle against revisionism and social-democracy, developed Marxism to a new stage and successfully led the Russian revolution, which established the world's first socialist state. At that time, new revolutionary parties were founded in many countries. These were the Communist Parties of the Third (Communist) International. These parties led many revolutionary struggles throughout the world, but many, particularly in the developed countries, fell prey to right opportunist, social-democratic ideas and their politics degenerated. This process speeded up following the death of Stalin, when control over the Soviet party and state was taken by a new bureaucratic capitalist class; many parties became thoroughly revisionist. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was one of these parties. The main aspect of its revisionist line (which it shared with other modern revisionist parties) was its view that socialism could be won by a peace- ful transition from capitalism, largely by parliamentary means. Today, the CPGB and its offspring, the "New Communist Party", have become dangerous agents of Soviet social- imperialists, and are both class and national traitors. The Communist Party of China (CPC), under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung, supp- orted by a number of genuine Marxist-Leninist parties (including, at that time, the Party of Labour of Albania), began a great international movement to criticize revisionism. Mao pointed out that the bureaucratic leadership of the Soviet Union was the headquarters of present-day revisionism, and, after the restoration of capitalism in the USSR, he showed the Soviet state had become social-fascist (socialist in words, fascist in deeds) and social- imperialist (socialist in words, imperialist in deeds). The USSR had in fact become a state monopoly capitalist system where everything is run for the benefit of a small privileged ruling class. The CPC showed how to prevent the restoration of capitalism in a Socialist country by launching the Cultural Revolution in the mid-60s; this gave a powerful impetus to the regeneration of the international communist movement. Since Mao Tse Tung's death in 1976, the CPC, under the leadership of Hua Kuo Fong, has smashed the counter- revolutionary "Gang of Four" and has creatively developed Mao's line of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. This ensured that China has remained a relaible bastion of world revolution. D. THE RESURGENCE OF COMMUNISM All around the world, now, genuinely revolutionary Communist Parties are being built in opposition to the decaying old revisionist parties, which are communist only in name. There have been false starts and set-backs, particularly in Britain, but the process is irresistable. The Communist Workers' Movement is determined to rely firmly on the working class, integrate Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought with the concrete conditions of the British socialist revolution, fight against imperialism, unite with working and oppressed peoples the world over, and struggle against revisionism. It will work alongside and seek unity with other organizations working for the same cause, and strive to build the revol- utionary communist party - the working class' own party. The CWM will struggle against the remnants of the old revisionist party and against the various brands of phoney "leftism" which serve the interests of the ruling class, particularly against trotskyism, which is in

C- SS tc.) which ap- n is m- - C the d e. e in, In ce- S - pp- ao of F - te tus er- a ed n There . of sed st sm" essence a mixture of revisionism and social-democracy. However, we recognize that because of the weakness of real communist leadership at present, many sincere people have been attracted to these "leftist" groups and we must struggle hard to win them over. The party we are working to build will inherit and carry forward the great tradition of struggle of the British labouring people, a tradition of fighting class against class which has run through the Peasants' Revolt, the Levellers, the Diggers, "Rebecca", the Chartists, the Communist movement of the 20s and 30s and the rest of our history. Any Marxist-Leninist party can degenerate, but this can be prevented if the party forges the closest ties with the working people, particularly the poorest and most oppressed, and in its internal life, practices democratic centralism, gives the fullest scope to discussion and initiative, seeks unity of will through struggle, carries out criticism and self-criticism, and persists in the struggle against revisionism in all its forms, including the specific forms it takes within the Marxist-Leninist movement. As a party-building organization, we will strive to do this. E. THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM Historically, capitalism broke down the old individual forms of production and replaced them with co-operative labour; it developed the productive forces to a tremendous extent, but those processes only took place along with the concentration of ownership of means of producing wealth into the hands of a small number of individuals and the conversion of peasants, artisans and others into a propertyless proletariat, only able to exist by selling its labour power to the capitalist class. Capitalists buy workers' labour power at its value (that is, the bare minimum necessary for workers to live and bring up a new generation of workers to take their places), for wages. Proletarians are then obliged to work not only to produce enough to cover the price of their labour power (which includes the value of their labour power), but also produces surplus value, which is the source of the capitalists' profit. Capitalists realize their profit by selling the commodities produced by the workers, although at times the products cannot be sold, in fact, and periodic crises of over-production are the result. Thus, the capitalist system is a parasite on society and is maintained entirely by the labour of working people. This can only happen because capitalists possess a monopoly of the means of production, and their control is backed up by the powers of the state. In gen- eral, the state has the character of the class which is dominant in the prevailing mode of production, and thus all the actions it takes will serve that class. This means, in our time, that any attempt to destroy the capitalist system must include as a first priority the des- truction of the capitalist state, if it is to succeed. Capitalism has imposed great suffering upon working people, but its development of the forces of producion was progressive. Reformists have claimed that it is possible to do away with the "bad side" of capitalism and preserve its "good side", but this has always been impossible. The motive force of the capitalist system, independent of the wishes of individual capitalists, is the drive for profit, which can only be obtained by the exploitation of the working class. The very best that the working class can win under the capitalist order and then only by unceasing struggles is to be expected on slightly better terms, and even this becomes less and less possible during periods of crisis! F. IMPERIALISM The ruling classes of the capitalist powers of Western Europe and those of the USA and Japan grew rich not only by exploiting their own working classes, but also by the particul- arly intense, ruthless exploitation of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The super-profits derived from this international exploitation enabled the imperialist ruling classes to develop industry and buy over small sections of the working class into their service; these sections helped them fend off socialist revolution. Ideologically, these devel- opments provided a basis for many British workers to be taken in by ideas about "our empire" no matter how oppressed they were; they also provided a basis for the spread of illusions about peaceful reform of capitalism.

Now that Britain no longer has an empire on the old scale, outright "buying off" has become more important: hundreds of trade union leaders have become enmeshed in the state and financial system to an unprecedented extent. To membership of the House of Lords have been added the inducements of capitalist directorships, membership of govern- ment boards and every opportunity to share the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie. Under imperialism, the free competition which used to exist between capitalist firms is replaced by monopoly; the weaker firms go to the wall, particularly during crises, and productive capacity is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer giant companies. Under imperialism too, particularly since the First World War, the state has come to play an increasingly important part in the economy. In Britain there is a large nationalised sector, while in addition to this, the state, through instruments such as the National Enter- prise Board, has bought up stakes in other companies, and by manipulating government contracts, it is able to influence many firms which remain wholly under the control of private capital. This state activity is sometimes presented as "socialism" but it is nothing of the sort. It is a further development of the imperialist tendency to monopoly, and shows how the state acts as representative of the capitalist class collectively. With the expansion of the state's role has gone a vast growth of the state bureaucracy; the state machine has become more and more parasitic. The era of imperialism is the final stage of capitalism, when the latter loses any pro- gressive character it once had, and its days approach their end. G. INTERNATIONAL STRUGGLE The major imperialist powers struggle with one another constantly for markets, sources of raw materials, spheres of influence, etc. As their relative strengths change, they contend for a redivision of the world, resorting to war eventually. There have been two world wars this century launched by the imperialist powers; both brought great suffering to the world's peoples, but both weakened the capitalist system and provided opportunities for revolution. The Russian Revolution came out of the First World War, and the revolutions in China (to a large extent) and several other countries came out of the Second. War can only be abol- ished by socialist revolution. In order to understand the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution today, we must see that the globe is divided into three main forces - three worlds. The First World consists of the two super-powers, the USA and the USSR, which are the foremost representatives of the imperialist system of exploitation. Today, these are the only two imperialist powers capable of contending for hegemony on a world scale. After the last war, the USA definitely displaced the old imperialist powers such as Britain from their leading position in the imperialist league table. But the US has declined in recent years itself; it has been opposed by the anti-imperialist people of the world, re- ceived its first major defeat in the Korean War, and its decline was accelerated by its defeat at the hands of the peoples of Kampuchea (Cambodia), Vietnam and Laos. Now a new rival has arisen. The Soviet Union, which became an imperialist super-power as a result of the restor- ation of capitalism there, is now working throughout the world to push out the US from its old positions and take over itself. It is now more dangerous than the US, more cunning and deceptive and more expansionist, because it is a young imperialist power, with a highly centralised state monopoly economy, a fascist political system and serious internal polit- ical, economic and social problems. The strategic objective of Soviet social-imperialism's expansionism is western Europe, with its concentration of heavy industry and skilled work- force; its current moves in Africa and other parts of the Third World are for the purpose of gaining control of sources of raw materials (e.g. in Southern Africa) and routes of comm- unication and trade (e.g. in the Horn of Africa) in order to enslave Europe, whose economy depends upon these resources and routes, and prepare for world war. The other imperialist and developed capitalist countries make up the Second World. Britain is part of the Second World. Its ruling class still draws great profits from exploiting the countries of the Third World, mainly in collusion with US imperialism. The British

Working Class is exploited by US imperialism, as well as by its "own" bourgeoisie. The ruling class of Britain and those of other west European countries would like to go on ex- ploiting the Third World, but they lack the political, military and economic strength to compete effectively with the super-powers and to dominate the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The British ruling class may try to do the latter by tagging along at the coat-tails of one of the super-powers, some favouring collaboration with US imperialism, and some, represented by the Labour "lefts" in particular, with Soviet social-imperialism. The dominant trend among the bourgeoisie of western Europe is to strive for some degree of independence from the super-powers, but this trend is weaker among the British bour- geoisie than among its European counterparts. Much of it is still tied to US imperialism and opposes Soviet social-imperialism while allowing US domination. The bourgeoisie of Western Europe have grouped themselves together in the European Economic Community. The tendency towards solidarity among them, expressed in the EEC, has a positive role politically insofar as it promotes independence from the USA (which is quite prepared to see Western Europe turned into a battleground, quite happy to fight to the last European against the USSR) and counters the Soviet strategy of dividing the targets of its aggression and swallowing them one by one. Because superpower domin- ation over the Third World would inevitably bring with it superpower domination over Eurpoe, there is a certain tendency among Second World bourgeoisies to accept more equal relations with the Third World than they would have at an earlier period. But this is a very weak and indecisive tendency, and only exists at all because the Third World has won re- peated trials of strength with imperialist countries. The Third World (Asia -excluding Japan - Africa, Latin America and countries in some other regions) consists of those parts of the world whose development has been stifled by imperialist exploitation. It is where the contradictions of the world are focussed. Since the disappearance of the Socialist Camp (which used to exist when the Soviet Union and East European countries were still socialist), the Third World has become the strongest force for change and progress. This is because it contains the overwhelming majority of the world's population and those who have suffered and suffer the intensest exploitation and oppression. It includes China, which is guided by a firm proletarian line in international affairs, as well as the other genuine socialist countries. Apart from China and other socialist countries, most of the states of the Third World are headed by bourgeois or even feudal regimes. These, in general, want to develop their own countries independently, and take a larger cut of the fruits of their people's labour than imperialism allows them. For this reason, and because of the demands and struggles of their peoples, these regimes are in general, standing up (to different degrees) to the im- perialist powers and fighting for a more equal relationship with them, but they wish to go further and eliminate all forms of capitalist and feudal oppression. They are the most res- olute opponents of imperialism, and are giving a hammering to the ruling classes of the USA and the western imperialist countries, and, increasingly, to Soviet social-imperialism. The Third World peoples are a reliable ally of the proletariat in the imperialist coun- tries, including Second World countries like Britain. The imperialist system is the common enemy of the peoples of the Third World and the workers of the imperialist countries. In the international fight to overthrow imperialism, the international proletariat is the leading force and the Third World is the main force. H. CAPITALIST STRATEGY IN BRITAIN Class struggle develops in complicated ways. Communists must analyse every situation concretely, distinguishing between their main features and the less important ones, between those trends which are growing and developing, and those which are declining; they must assess the various class forces at different stages so as to formulate correct tactics for wag- ing the class struggle and building the revolutionalry Communist Party into a reliable head- quarters for the proletarian forces in their fight for socialism. In the early 1970s there was an acute conflict between labour and capital in the form of strikes. The strike movement in itself could not endanger the capitalist system, but class

conflict was acute and the bourgeoisie was driven into a corner by the miners, following the working class' defeat of the Tories' Industrial Relations Act. Since the advent of the Labour government in 1974, there have been definite set- backs. Workers have been forced (mainly by the social-democrats in the trade union leader- ship) to accept the "Social Contract" and other forms of wage control, while prices have gone on rising faster than pay, and an effective fall in living standards has resulted. Labour has achieved by ideological means what the Conservatives failed to do by direct state re- pression. This was possible because of the low political level of the working people in the absence of a leading Communist core, and the collaboration of the trade union leaders with their class brothers in the state bureaucratic section of the bourgeoisie. To bring down the real value of wages is a strategic objective of the ruling class, as Marxist political economy shows. Capitalists always seek to improve their competitiveness and increase their profits by introducing more sophisticated machinery, thus increasing the productivity of labour, cutting production costs and often reducing the labour force. This increases unemployment. It also means that out of the total invested in the production process, an ever-increasing proportion is represented by machinery, and a decreasing pro- portion by wages paid to workers. But since only labour can be a source of surplus value, this means that the rate of profit (the return on capital invested) will tend to fall. The total profit of capital could only be maintained by increasing production, but this comes up against the contradiction that the working class is too poor to buy the goods it itself pro- duces. Nevertheless, despite this contradiction, the capitalist class and its state are bound to try to drive down workers' living standards, and no amount of social-democratic soft-soap can hide that fact. This tendency can only be resisted by the working class mobilizing and hitting back; a key object for attack at the present time must be the latest version of the "social contract", which in one form or another has played a central role in capitalist strategy since 1974. In order to drive down the real value of wages, the Labour government elected in 1974 worked for the destruction of the unions as independent working class organs; this represents a major step towards a fascist corporate state. At the end of the Second World War, the working class had no intention of returning to pre-war conditions; under its pressure, the post-war Labour government brought in the Welfare State. But, as is the way with all gains made by the working class under capitalism the ruling class has tended to turn it into a weapon for use against it. The Welfare State system means that workers receive a considerable portion of the value of their labour power in the form of "social benefits". These are paid for by taxation and other deductions; they do not appear in the net sum received in the pay packet. This gives the capitalists an effective means of pushing down workers' living standards, since they are able to make cuts in the social services, and it is very difficult for workers to use traditional methods of struggle (such as strikes) in fighting back against this particular form of attack. New ways of countering this are evolving, and these need to be summed up well so that they will be developed more effectively in the future. Together with capitalism's attacks on the living standards of the working people goes its offensive against hard-won democratic rights a move towards fascism. The main dan- ger of fascism comes from the trend towards a corporate state, backed by the threat of using the type of measures which the British government is using in Northern Ireland in response to the mass struggles - including armed struggle - of the nationalist population. The introduction of the Prevention of Terrorism Act is one indication that these methods are now being put into effect here. This is not to underestimate the threat posed by open Nazis like the National Front. A very important aspect of the trend towards fascism, which it is essential for work- ing people to resist, is the promotion of racism. The latter is encouraged by the immigrat- ion policies of both the major parties of the bourgeoisie. Racism has gained a certain influ- ence in a situation where people are extremely disillusioned with the major parties of cap- italism, and Labour has lost a great deal of credibility with most working people. Racist