Attachments:

File	Description	File size
What We Stand For	The aim of the Communist Party is to achieve a socialist Britain	631 Kb

INTRODUCTION

Communism did not start with Karl Marx, or with the Russian Revolution of 1917. In Britain, a rich historical seam of communist ideas dates back to the Middle Ages and beyond. The desire for a future based on peace, cooperation, community and common, wealth has long inspired the peoples of England, Scotland and Wales.

At times of great crisis, such as the Peasants' Revolt (1381), the English Revolution (1640), and the Chartist uprisings of the 1830s and 1840s, communist ideas have come to the fore, voicing the hopes of working people.

The Communist Party continues that living, revolutionary tradition. It is a product, first and foremost, of the British labour movement. Its roots lie deep in Britain's trade unions, socialist societies and in other working class organisations.

OUR HISTORY

When founded in 1920, the Party brought together militant socialists and trade unionists who understood the need for a revolutionary change in society. They were inspired by the world's first workers' state, Soviet Russia, led by VI Lenin. But they were also repelled by the mass slaughter of the 1914-1918 Great War. Britain needed a party that would fight capitalism and imperialism, unlike the labour leaders who preferred collaboration and surrender.

Since then, the Communist Party has been in the frontline fighting for the interests of the working class. Despite its small size and the imprisonment of its leadership, it played an outstanding role in the 1926 General Strike.

Throughout the 1930s, it led the unemployed workers movement and the fight against racism and fascism. During the Second World War, it campaigned tirelessly for the opening of a 'second front' to confront Hitler in the west.

In 1951 the first edition of the Party's programme, the British Road to Socialism, was published. This stated that Britain must achieve socialism by its own path, using mass struggle to transform Parliament into a democratic instrument of the will of the vast majority of the people.

The importance of democracy was further underlined by the revelation, at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in 1956, of many crimes and injustices committed during the Stalin era. The Communist Party recognised that, in popularising the achievements of socialism and in combating anti-Soviet hysteria, it had in some cases tried to defend the indefensible.

In the post-war period, the Communist Party took the lead in opposing the Cold War and nuclear weapons. Almost alone in the labour movement, it called for parliaments for the people of Wales and Scotland. Based in the working class movement, it led the light against anti-trade union laws. The Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions, united communist and non-communist militants in mass one-day stoppages in 1968, 1970 and 1971. The last of these moved the TUC to call a one-day General Strike, thereby defeating the legislation. Alongside other left-wingers, communists also gave the lead in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders' work-in, and in the 1972 and 1974 miners' strikes.

These very successes of the Communist Party made it a particular target of the capitalist class. Having failed by 'red scare' techniques to isolate the Party from its roots, the ruling class worked to undermine it from within. Their strategy was clear: destroy the Communist Party, and the working class movement will be rudderless and disarmed.

Unfortunately, the old Communist Party leadership failed to recognise and withstand this attack. It succumbed to reformist ideas, drifting away from its class basis, even attacking the leadership of the 1984-85 miners' strike and expelling many of the Party's finest militants.

Before this final tragedy could run its full course, the communist core of the Party had recognised the danger. In 1988, these comrades came together to re-establish the Party as the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), on the basis of the rules, principles and programme that the previous leadership had abandoned. Since then, the CPB has worked tirelessly to rebuild membership and industrial organisation, carrying on the finest traditions of the Party.