communist party of great britain

[reddevil]

this party would appear to take a more moderate line than others. until 1991 it was the "official" communist party with soviet sponsorship. they supported the good friday agreement, were neutral during the sino-soviet split and still maintain relations with vietnam and china despite the market reforms. alot of you are going to hate me for saying this but i'm increasingly sympathetic to their platform. rather than stressing ideological purity then focus on short term gains and the issues of most importance. i suppose i may be growing pessimistic about the struggle but i can't see anybody within the british socialist movement who is actualky in touch with reality. most groups are either liberal-lite like the awl or stark raving lonny like the swp and blundred by egotistic infighting

[DecDoom]

Which Communist Party of Britain do you mean? There are several, and the CPGB broke up in 1991.

[reddevil]

is it about time we learned to compromise? the japanese, moldovan, greek, south african etc communist parties did and they became mightily successful. or do you think doing so would make us whores?

[reddevil]

Which Communist Party of Britain do you mean? There are several, and the CPGB broke up in 1991.
http://www.communist-party.org.uk/
this one

[Red October]

Selling out isn't success. It doesn't even get you votes and whatnot. Take the Communist Party USA. Assuming they hadn't already sold out like crazy, after the collapse of the USSR they definitely did (or "compromised", whatever you want to call it). Now they're completely irrelevant to anyone on the left, not to say anything about regular people. But they do have a brand new million dollar office building, how they hell did they swing that?

[Pogue]

The CPGB are tiny and I honestly don't see them growing. I don't see why anyone would want to get involved with them.

[reddevil]

The CPGB are tiny and I honestly don't see them growing. I don't see why anyone would want to get involved with them.
the SWP aren't much bigger and they're the only communist party that's larger

[DecDoom]

But they do have a brand new million dollar office building, how they hell did they swing that?

I was wondering that myself. Maybe they're being funded by the Democrats? ;)

[Pogue]

the SWP aren't much bigger and they're the only communist party that's larger

Well I don't see much in the SWP either, but trust me, they are more significant and bigger and dare I sya better organised than the CPGB.

[Revy]

Are you sure you are not referring to the Communist Party of Britain? I doubt CPGB maintains relations with China and Vietnam's ruling parties.

[Mansfield Red]

From what I have seen all the minor parties such as the CPB, the CPGB, the CPGB-ML all squabble amongst each other. If I'm not mistaken I think the ML was founded by ex-CPB members.

Surely the logical thing to do is co-operate with one another and look past differences to build a strong Left wing in Britain?

[Pogue]

haha yes that would make sense, but...

welcome to the british left :p

[Mansfield Red]

:laugh: Good point.


....:(

[teenagebricks]

CPGB (M-L) was formed by ex-SLP members, CPB, which is the party the OP was referring to and the party to which that website belongs, are actually quite significant, they have around 1000 members which I suppose makes them the biggest Marxist group in the country. They were part of No2EU with SP.

There is no such thing as the CPGB at the moment.

[Bitter Ashes]

From what I have seen all the minor parties such as the CPB, the CPGB, the CPGB-ML all squabble amongst each other. If I'm not mistaken I think the ML was founded by ex-CPB members.

Surely the logical thing to do is co-operate with one another and look past differences to build a strong Left wing in Britain?
"Are you the People's Front of Judea?"
"NO! Fuck off! People's Front of Judea indeed! *snorts* We're the Judean People's Front!"
:lol:

Anyway, while I see these parties as capable of pushing progressive reforms that would give revolution a helpful nudge, I dont see them as communist themselves as thier goals dont directly bring us any closer to a communist world. Sure, vote for them, but if any other party's making similar manifesto promises and stands a better chance of winning, vote for them to get those reforms pushed. As far as reforms go (not very far), you dont need the word "Communist" before it to further our agenda. Certainly dont think that any political reforms are going to do the job by themselves though and continue to look at how the reforms can help implement revolution, rather than seeing them as an alternative.

For these reasons, it would be better if they merged, yes. Dare I say it, even merged back into a more mainstream party. So long as the goal remains clear that they're attempting to get reforms through to facilitate, not replace a revolution.

[Asoka89]

CPGB is very good on theory if I'm thinking of the right one, the one with Mike McNair and the left-Kautskyians. They are a group of solid intellectuals and activists, but small... the SWP are relatively a far bigger force.

[h0m0revolutionary]

You're on about the Communist Party of Britain. NOT the CPGB.

:)

CPGB are Kautskyites and do not defend Vietnam or China. CPB on the other hand are stalinists and do. Moreover http://www.communist-party.org.uk/ (http://www.anonym.to/?http://www.communist-party.org.uk/) is the website of the CPB.

[Q]

You're on about the Communist Party of Britain. NOT the CPGB.

:)

CPGB are Kautskyites and do not defend Vietnam or China. CPB on the other hand are stalinists and do. Moreover http://www.communist-party.org.uk/ (http://www.anonym.to/?http://www.communist-party.org.uk/) is the website of the CPB.
Exactly. The CPGB's website is http://www.cpgb.org.uk/ and are "Kautskyists" as far as I understand.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Although some comrades have mused here about the CPGB-PCC, there is already another thread on that organization. I believe this thread is about the CPB, so could a mod please rename the thread accordingly?

[scarletghoul]

Anyway in regards to the OP I agree, the CPB do seem pretty cool. I want to join them once I get my shit together

[The Ungovernable Farce]

CPGB (M-L) was formed by ex-SLP members, CPB, which is the party the OP was referring to and the party to which that website belongs, are actually quite significant, they have around 1000 members which I suppose makes them the biggest Marxist group in the country.
I think the SWP are bigger, at least on paper. They're definitely more active. Anyway, back to the OP

they... still maintain relations with vietnam and china. alot of you are going to hate me for saying this but i'm increasingly sympathetic to their platform. rather than stressing ideological purity then focus on short term gains and the issues of most importance. i suppose i may be growing pessimistic about the struggle but i can't see anybody within the british socialist movement who is actualky in touch with reality.
I tend to agree with you about that, but I think that anyone who is actually in touch with reality can see that Vietnam and China are terrible terrible places to live, and would rightly want nothing to do with anyone who defends the dictatorship of either country. Stressing short-term gains and important issues is good, defending dictatorships makes you look insane.

[redarmyfaction38]

The CPGB are tiny and I honestly don't see them growing. I don't see why anyone would want to get involved with them.
"cat amongst the pigeons"
the "socialist party", part of the cwi, seems to be moving closer to them, there seems to be much closer co operation and understanding, articles in support or articles in critical support published in both parties papers, there are obviously "political" and "organisational" differences, but, there seems to be a "desire" (for want of a better word) for unity and common purpose between the sp and cpb.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Despite its recent nationalistic campaign, the "Stalinist" CPB is qualitatively superior to the blatantly opportunist, middle-class SWP for its refusal to collaborate with "Green" elements of either the bourgeois pseudo-environmentalist variety or the businessmen-bankrolled "Islamic" variety. I fully understand the potential for rapproachment between the CPB and the SPEW. :)