21st Century Marxism 2011

A Revolutionary Politics presentation & workshop, recorded at 21 Century Marxism in London 2011.

Professor John Foster, International Secretary

Chair Robert Griffiths, General Secretary Communist Party of Britain

Main Presentation

Further Discussion

Suddenly we are in the middle of a constitutional crisis.

On Monday (9 Jan) David Cameron demanded that Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond hold a snap referendum on Scottish independence.

The following day Con-Dem Scottish Secretary Michael Moore announced that the referendum would be under UK jurisdiction, legally binding and solely for and against independence.

At first sight these challenges to the SNP government may appear both strange and provocative. They are certainly fateful.

But there is an explanation. It can be found in a little-noticed event which occurred in a committee room of the Scottish Parliament just 10 days before Christmas.

Professor John Foster writes.

When it comes to the limited additional powers enshrined in the Scotland Bill and the alternative SNP proposal that would grant full fiscal powers to the country, the bigger picture is important.

Financial overexpansion is being resolved across the world by the concentration of capital on an unprecedented scale and a political drive to shift the balance of power decisively against labour.

The biggest potential loser in this struggle is democracy - in its proper sense of rule by the people - and the ability to exercise some form of collective control over the power of capital and its market forces.

This attack on democracy can be seen today across the EU and in Britain, and this is the context within which to judge current pressure for constitutional change in Scotland.

It is important to recall that the modern movement for a Scottish parliament was initiated to assert precisely such a class understanding of democracy.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
DECLARATION OF THE 19 COMMUNIST YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS IN EUROPE	20 YEARS AFTER THE COUNTER REVOLUTION IN EASTERN EUROPE & THE USSR	4584 Kb

The Communist Youth Organizations that sign the following announcement call upon the youth of Europe, and of the whole world, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR and the overthrow of socialism.
This anniversary, from the scope of the bourgeois governments and parties, from the scope of the forces of capital, is a chance to slander socialism and its contribution, to project the capitalist “eternity” and “welfare”. These are the ones that with their applied politics have taken back all the youth’s rights; they have made dozens of imperialist wars and are planning even more; they have condemned us in poverty and unemployment; they penalize communist ideology.
From our scope, the scope of the workers, of the peoples and the youth of the world, this anniversary is a chance to remember and highlight the achievements of socialism, its contribution to humanity; a chance to draw significant conclusions of the defeat in the years 1989-1991.
We address to the young people, to learn and know the truth about socialism; To tell them that our future is the new world, Socialism-Communism.

If David Cameron is sincere in his protestations of not wanting to see Scotland leave the UK, he should abandon efforts to meddle in a question proper to Scottish voters.

Alex Salmond has previously noted that interference in the consultation process by Westminster would prove a boon for those seeking independence, which seems self-evident.

Tories are deservedly an endangered species in Scotland, so the suggestion that Scottish voters may need protecting from themselves by Cameron stretches credibility.

The demand for a referendum on independence is a Scottish National Party policy. None of the unionist parties at Westminster or Holyrood projected such an initiative.

So proposals from them to order a vote earlier than planned by the Scottish government or to impose the terms of the question(s) to be put before the electorate would be seen clearly for what they are - an attempt to scupper the democratic process.

When Cameron offers a "fair, legal and decisive" solution to this or any other political issue, hackles rise.

Far from fairness, what the Tory leader is about is attempting to take control of a process in order to deliver an outcome acceptable to his party or to its corporate backers.

Cameron's spokesman blew the gaff in saying that "business" was worried about whether Scotland would remain in the UK, affecting its readiness to invest.

"That uncertainty can have a detrimental impact on the economy and that is why he is saying that he thinks we need to get on with this sooner rather than later," he added.

The Westminster-based parties have to accept that they lost the Scottish parliamentary elections. The SNP has an overall majority and democracy dictates that it should decide when its proposal should be put before the Scottish electorate.

If and when that time comes and there is one question facing voters - a straight Yes or No to Scotland leaving the UK - the Morning Star will advocate a No vote.

This is based on our paper's traditional position of backing devolution within Britain rather than secession, supporting socialism and the essential role of working-class unity throughout Britain to achieve this.

England, Wales and Scotland do not have separate ruling classes. The British ruling class is united and powerful. Combating it requires similar unity and strength on the part of working people.

The SNP parliamentary majority at Holyrood confers on the nationalist party the right to govern, but its leadership knows that not every vote it received can be translated into a firm declaration for national independence.

Many of its votes, especially from working people, were cast in response to a feeling of having been let down by the pro-banker policies of new Labour at Westminster, echoed by its Scottish franchise.

This process was enhanced by the confident and accomplished nature of its leadership, which contrasted with the shambles that was Scottish Labour.

However, Salmond's advocacy of a northern European "arc of prosperity" looks far less attractive now, as does his intention of slashing corporation tax and offering other sweeteners to lure overseas "investors."

The Morning Star believes that Scotland's working people have more to gain from standing alongside their Welsh and English brothers and sisters to defeat the Con-Dem coalition and fight for socialist change rather than from embracing the SNP strategy of a Scottish tax haven at the service of capitalist speculators.

Editorial Comment 10 Jan http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/113956

Communists and many on the left have long fought for equality for women in society and in the work place.

Although we still have a distance to go today towards achieving these aims, it is inspiring to hear of the huge struggles of women in the past against massive obstacles in,  what was then, highly patriarchal society.

Marion Munro described her experiences as an engineering worker in the 1940s and 50s and the struggles on pay and equal conditions.  John Foster looked at the lives of Margaret Irwin, first secretary of the STUC, Helen Crawfurd, the Suffragette and Red Clydesider who met Lenin and became a leading Communist and Agnes Dollan, Red Clydesider and housing campaigner who went on to become a leading figure in the Labour Party.

Part of the Morning Star newspaper's "Our Class Our Culture" series from throughout Scotland.

Recorded December 2011 in Paisley Town Hall.

Professor John Foster

Marion Munro (to whom we give thanks for stepping in at short notice).

Never before has the Morning Star launched a more urgent appeal. Never before has the response been so overwhelming.

It was at a sombre November 15 meeting of the paper's business committee that editor Bill Benfield distributed a document that would become crucial to our survival.

Weeks of alarm about a worsening cash flow crunch had finally come to a head. Something drastic had to be done.

Within hours the full scale of the immediate financial crisis had been made public in the next day's edition. Bill's appeal article set out in stark terms the list of challenges that our £1.4 million-a-year operation faces. Financially crippling distribution problems created by our reliance on road, a Fighting Fund shortfall running into the thousands, and an effective advertising boycott.

The cash flow problem was so serious this time that Bill set a six-week expiry date for the paper after 82 years ploughing an often lonely furrow as a daily dose of political sanity. Our aim was to raise £50,000 on top of the £25,000 remaining Fund shortfall to year's end - a whopping £75,000 in all.

In truth in those first hours few believed that we could meet this massive Lifeline Appeal target in time for such a cruel deadline.

On that evening William Rust House fell silent as the last of the workers headed out into the darkness full of fear about the paper's future.

Little did they know that the scene had been set for one of the most triumphant chapters in our daily miracle's history.

In a new year message, CP general secretary Robert Griffiths has written to members and supporters calling for 2012 to be turned into a year of sustained struggle to block job loss and the destruction of industry, the shedding and privatisation of public services and broad opposition to EU austerity and attacks on the sovereignty of Britain. Griffiths asserts that the key is for the Labour Movement to illuminate the many struggles now breaking out with an alternative economic and political strategy based around the People's Charter.

"Please accept my New Year greetings on behalf of the Communist Party, and my thanks for your efforts to build the labour movement and our party in the fightback against Britain's unelected government of the bankers.

We have seen mass action in England, Scotland and Wales. First came March 26 followed by June 30. There was the commemorative march in Cable Street on October 4. Then came the mighty display of working class and popular anger on November 30, which the government found impossible to shrug off. The active participation of millions in every village, town and city of Britain did the government damage. Everywhere workers are asking 'What now, where next?'

Such a level of political consciousness does not come easily or readily. It results from the struggle of ideas, through street campaigning and through propaganda by word and deed. We have launched the new edition of our party's programme, Britain's Road to Socialism (buy it click here), and at our recent successful Festival for 21st Century Marxism, we set out the ideas that make workers better organised and stronger. In 2012 we have even bolder plans, with new publications, events and initiatives. We will be launching new commissions and advisories to create arenas for debate and action within and by the party. We will be inviting you to take an active part in them.

Together with our national women's organiser Liz Payne, I have recently returned from representing our party at the 13th international meeting of communist and workers parties, held this year in Athens. The Greek people have been a courageous example to us all. We met the Russian communists who recently gained 13 million votes and who are battling to rescue their society  from oligarchs and thieves. Other parties present in Athens - for example Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, South Africa, Brazil - are in government while others struggle against bans and imprisonment. The Communist Party of Britain proudly takes its place in a movement that fights all the time and everywhere for a better world for working people.

"What is to be done - where now after November 30th Strike?" Named after a popular Lenin pamplet on tactics, this was a Communist Party meeting with other Left forces, building on the success of the united trade union movement action in November 2011, which saw 20,000 march in Glasgow City centre.

Across the UK, millions of people struck and marched in dozens of towns and cities.

That action, co-ordinated with 30 other unions, was a powerful display of united trade union opposition to unfair and unnecessary cuts in pensions and of the depth of support for the alternative to the government's damaging economic policies.

The action has won growing public support and Ministers have undoubtedly been pushed further onto the defensive. Their wild claims about the strike and their misleading comments on public sector pensions have been exposed for what they are: desperate attempts to deflect attention from their unjust cuts in hard working public servants’ pensions to pay for a deficit caused by the greed of the banks.

Davie Brockett, NEC of Unite the Union

Tommy Morrison, Secretary of Clydebank Trades Council

Over 10,000 private soldiers - mercenaries, still remain, and the largest "embassy" in the world.

The Iraq War and subsequent occupation was one of the defining events of the past decade. When it came to Iraqis slaughtered, the Americans and their allies blithely pointed out "we don't do body counts". The Lancet estimated 654,965 excess deaths related to the war, or 2.5% of the population, through the end of June 2006.

As of April 29, 2008, the UNHCR estimated that over 4.7 million Iraqis have been displaced, with 2.7 million within Iraq and 2 million outside.

The Iraqi Communist Party was one of the fiercest opponents of Saddam Hussein while he was still a western-backed dictator. This meeting was recorded in 2007 with one of these comrades. The recording of this fine meeting was thought to be lost but was recently rediscovered. It is newly uploaded here.

2011 - The Iraqi Communist Party is still technically legal but has faced many obstacles - from vote rigging against it in elections to the assassination of its militants.  There were many arrests earlier in 2011 when it, as part of a wider alliance, it organised mass demonstrations in central Baghdad  against corruption and the erosion of living standards and welfare.  The trade union movement where it has many members has also faced legal bans over the past year.