Dear Viktor,
First, welcome to Britain I hope you are finding your stay here
useful. You certainly seem to be learning a lot about Left groups
here which I hope may be useful to comrades over in Russia.
I don't think I did have any illusions in the new CPGB but the Left
in Britain is very small and M-L are even fewer and any group which
even claims to be ML cannot be ignored even if one doesn't agree or
like them. But it is becoming clear that they are no longer ML
themselves (though of course they may contain M-Ls within thier ranks
and supporters).
In relation to the piece on the CPB (Morning Star) I equally have no
illusions in them and their general auto-Labourism is still evident
even if they are revising BRS. Although they stood candidates in the
London election and backed the Labourite Ken Livingstone Also, if I
remember rightly they still called for a vote for the Labour Party in
seats where they didn;t have candidates. They rejected the Socialist
Labour Party (which includes many ML's like Harpal Brar), the
Campaign Against Tube Privatization and the broad left Socialist
Alliance.
> It is not a custom to talk in numbers in politics, but
> reasonable people would be embarrassed to call themselves a party
> with the membership they have.Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG)
> ( HTTP://www.RCGFRFI.easynet.co.uk/ ), for example, is a small
> Marxist-Leninist organisation, whose members have a tremendous
> record of struggle against British imperialism and the pseudoleft.
> They are actually bigger than CPGB, but prefer not to call
> themselves a party. They do not deserve to have a reference to their
> material next to that of CPGB, comrade Walker. Although they do not
> agree with most of comrade Stalin’s actions, their position is
> definitely for the Soviet Union. They support the Cuban revolution
> unconditionally and admire at comrade Fidel Castro. Any critique
> they may have over the past of the socialist countries hence does
> not originate from the imperialist sources, which is the case for
> trotskyites like CPGB. Their view should therefore be recognised by
> Marxists-Leninists internationally.
Yes I was a member of the RCG and am still a very solid supporter. In
fact I am not sure that they have ever actually criticised Stalin's
policy in public (though they did appear to come close to condemning
the killings in Tianamon Square - but even then they still gave
support for China and attacked the demonstrators). But clearly the
issue of the history of the USSR is an important debate and Ted
Talbot's discussion paper is more critical than some
Marxist-Leninists might like. On the question of Party it is the
RCG's view that no organisation in Britain should call itself a Party
in the Marxist sense.
> CPGB makes a big fuss about CPB being pro-Labour. As a comrade
> from the RCG explained to me, when SWP and CPGB formed the London
> Socialist Alliance to stand in the London Assembly elections in May
> 2000, they were promising to provide an _alternative_ but not
> _opposition_ to the Labour party. He also added that by trying to
> provide that alternative to the _New Labour_ or to _Labour government_,
> they were effectively against just the right wing of the Labour
> party and hence did not attack the _Labour party_ as a whole.
I am opposed to the LSA and I agree with you that it is directed at
New Labour - as if this was some modern aboration of the true Labour
Party which can be won back!!! But there again the CPB (Morning Star)
and NCP constant backing of the Labour Party seems to me to be a much
worse position than the CPGB . And the LSA is attracting some people
to it and getting a higher vote than the CPB (Morning Star) or the
SLP (in fact in the last by-election they got over 5% of the vote in
an area with a large black population).
I agree with your assessment about the SWP who were the most rabidly
anti-USSR party on the Left in Britain. But if we are ever to build
any movement here in Britain we are (and we have in the past) going
to have to work with other Left groups with whom we have deep
disagreement and hope that a truely working class movement from which
a vangaurd party will arise can see through their reactionary and
hypocritical position. But that is a battle we are still waiting
for.
Comradely regards,
John Walker
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