Third draft programme of the CPGB

[Benjamin Hill]

The CPGB published its third draft programme in issue 804 of the Weekly Worker (11 February). Somewhere in the year they'll have a special conference on the matter and the Communist University will be dedicated to discussing it. The CPGB expressed an openness to comments, suggestions and criticisms. So I'm opening a thread to kick off that very discussion.


The Communist Party of Great Britain was founded on July 31 1920. Our CPGB was the British section of the Communist International and resulted from a process of communist rapprochement directly inspired by the October 1917 revolution in Russia and the example of Lenin’s Bolsheviks.

Despite its early limitations and later failures, as an organisation the CPGB is undoubtedly the highest achievement of the workers’ movement in Britain. The history of the CPGB has been the history of the attempt to form the workers in Britain into a consciously revolutionary class.

The CPGB is the advanced part of the working class in Britain. It is not a confessional sect. Nor is it a pseudo-socialist extension of trade unionism.

This is the draft third programme. The first programme, For Soviet Britain, was adopted in February 1935 at the CPGB’s 13th Congress. Within the year, this left sectarian mishmash was officially deemed outdated. In 1939 a Draft programme was produced. Suffice to say, the outbreak of inter-imperialist war that year made it irrelevant.

The British road to socialism, the second programme, was published in draft form in 1951 and was officially adopted at the 22nd Congress in April 1952. Its underlying claim was that socialism would be achieved through transforming parliament and via a series of Labour governments. In 1958, 1968 and 1977 this programme was ‘updated’.

Both previous programmes and their various revisions and editions marked successive shifts to the right by the opportunist factions then dominating the leadership of the CPGB. As a result Marxism was effectively replaced by Fabianism. The conclusion of this process of liquidationism was reached when between 1988 and 1991 the opportunists organisationally liquidated the Communist Party.

In 1981 the Leninists of the CPGB publicly announced their open, disciplined and principled struggle to reforge the Party. By its very nature a rebellion bound up with equipping the working class with a revolutionary programme. Informed by this understanding, the 4th Conference of the Leninists of the CPGB, meeting in December 1989, agreed to prepare a draft programme for the consideration of all workers, all left activists and all communists, which in due course would be presented to the refoundation congress of the CPGB.

Genuine communists never accepted the right of opportunists to deprive them of their Party membership nor their Party duties. The wrecking activity of the opportunists actually greatly increased the responsibilities of the revolutionary wing. Hence the 5th Conference of the Leninists of the CPGB, meeting in 1991, elected the Provisional Central Committee in order to revive Party work and rally new, healthy forces. A draft third programme was published in 1995. Subsequently, meeting in [date to be inserted], the CPGB’s Special Conference agreed this amended draft third programme - another milestone in the struggle to reforge the CPGB.

The CPGB’s draft third programme is made up of six distinct, but logically connected, sections.

The first section outlines the main features of the epoch, the epoch of the transition from capitalism to communism. Then comes the nature of capitalism in Britain and the consequences of its development. Following on from here are the immediate political, social and economic measures required for winning the battle for democracy and ensuring that the market and the principle of capitalist profit is subordinated to the principle of human need. Such a minimum programme is, admittedly, technically feasible under capitalism. However, it can only be fully realised through the working class taking power - not only in Britain, but on a continental European scale.

From these radical foundations the character of the revolution and the position of the various classes and strata are presented. Next, again logically, comes the tasks of the CPGB in terms of the worldwide transition to communism. Here is the maximum programme. Finally the inescapable need for all partisans of the working class to unite in the Communist Party itself is dealt with. Our essential organisational principles are presented and show in no uncertain terms why the Communist Party is the most powerful weapon available to the working class.


1. Our epoch (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002573)

1.1. Global economy
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002573#1.1)
1.2. Capitalist development
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002573#1.2)
1.3. The danger of war
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002573#1.3)
1.4. Nature
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002573#1.4)
1.5. The struggle against opportunism
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002573#1.5)
1.6. World revolution
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002573#1.6)


2. Capitalism in Britain (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002574)

2.1. Social and political consequences of Britain’s imperialist development
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002574#2.1)


3. Immediate demands (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575)

3.1. Democracy (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.1)

3.1.1. Winning the battle for democracy (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.1.1)
3.1.2. Freedom of information (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.1.2)
3.1.3. The national question (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.1.3)
3.1.4. England, Scotland and Wales (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.1.4)
3.1.5. Ireland (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.1.5)
3.1.6. Europe (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.1.6)


3.2. Peace (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.2)
3.3. Environment (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.3)
3.4. Working conditions and wage workers (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.4)
3.5. Migrant workers (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.5)
3.6. The unemployed (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.6)
3.7. Nationalisation (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.7)
3.8. Trade unions (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.8)
3.9. Councils of action (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.9)
3.10. Militia (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.10)
3.11. Women (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.11)
3.12. Youth (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.12)
3.13. Pensioners and the elderly (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.13)
3.14. Sexual freedom (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.14)
3.15. Crime and prison (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.15)
3.16. Religion (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.16)
3.17. Small businesses and farms (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002575#3.17)


4. Character of the revolution (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002576)

4.1. Classes in the revolution
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002576#4.1)
4.2. The working class constitution
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002576#4.2)
4.3. Economic measures
(http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002576#4.3)


5. Transition to communism (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002577)

5.1. The socialist state (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002577#5.1)
5.2. Socialism and democracy (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002577#5.2)
5.3. Communism (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002577#5.3)


6. The Communist Party (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578)

6.1. Party of all workers (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.1)
6.2. The CPGB is internationalist (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.2)
6.3. Principles of organisation (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3)

6.3.1. Central publication (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.1)
6.3.2. The basic unit (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.2)
6.3.3. Criticism and selfcriticism (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.3)
6.3.4. Men and women (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.4)
6.3.5. Legality and illegality (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.5)
6.3.6. Leadership (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.6)
6.3.7. No ready-made blueprints (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.7)
6.3.8. CPGB is democratic centralist (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.8)
6.3.9. Communist discipline (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.3.9)


6.4. Communists and trade unions (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.4)
6.5. Communists and religion (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1002578#6.5)

Draft rules (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1002563)

PDF to the 1995 version of the draft programme. (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/pdf/draft_programme_19950905.pdf)
PDF to the 2010 version of the draft programme. (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/pdf/draft_programme_20100211.pdf)

[Benjamin Hill]

A first response: Sections 1 to 5 give a rounded out view of our epoch, a good action programme and explain the transition towards communism. I have issues though with the introductory text, section 6 and the party rules.

Reading the introductory text is quite frankly hilarious. It basically claims to be the same CPGB as the one established in 1920 and talks in all its grandeur, as if it still has a big membership. This is ludicrous. The current CPGB has at most 60 members and should behave as such. On this note: There is no mention whatsoever in the whole programme on the topic leftist unity, it offers no strategy for unity but acts as if it operates on a "blank sheet". This is sectarian behaviour.

Section 6 and the party rules are quite transparently the legacy of Zinoviev-style top-down organisation, although it must be said it makes explicit mention of the need of open discussion and the right for minorities to organise (in section 6, not in the party rules though).

Another major lacking is a near total absense on the matter of political education of the membership. Yes, there is a mention in the party rules that all members have "a right and a duty to study Marxism and develop the Party’s political positions", but it offers no organisational structures for systematic political education, the offering of "workshops" to educate communists in practical abilities (such as public speaking, organisational skills, accounting, etc.) or the need to form a tendency for all members to become capable theoreticians in their specific interest or at least have the scientific method at heart. Paul Smith made some useful remarks (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/letters.php?issue_id=805) on this and other issues aswell.

[cmdrdeathguts]

A first response: Sections 1 to 5 give a rounded out view of our epoch, a good action programme and explain the transition towards communism. I have issues though with the introductory text, section 6 and the party rules.

Reading the introductory text is quite frankly hilarious. It basically claims to be the same CPGB as the one established in 1920 and talks in all its grandeur, as if it still has a big membership. This is ludicrous. The current CPGB has at most 60 members and should behave as such. On this note: There is no mention whatsoever in the whole programme on the topic leftist unity, it offers no strategy for unity but acts as if it operates on a "blank sheet". This is sectarian behaviour.

There's a fine point you've missed here. The CPGB (presently constituted) is not the Communist Party of Great Britain. We are effectively camping on the name, since forging an organisation that could seriously claim to be a continuation of the CPGB of old, in the sense of objectively organising the vanguard of the class, is our paramount goal.

At our conference, when we adopt this programme, it will still be the draft programme, for the Communist Party as and when we actually have its (re)founding congress. Rest assured, we are not about to spring that one on you anytime soon...


Section 6 and the party rules are quite transparently the legacy of Zinoviev-style top-down organisation, although it must be said it makes explicit mention of the need of open discussion and the right for minorities to organise (in section 6, not in the party rules though).

Not really. Anything relating to discipline here is older than the Zinovievite version of the party, and was (I believe) present in the rules of the SPD. The classic Zinovievisms - the veto of CC members over anything decided by local organisations, public gagging of minorities, etc - are not here. We want a professional rather than a military organisation; but professionalism requires the subordination of minorities to agreed political actions. In fact, so does democracy - if the majority cannot exercise discipline over the minority, then the minority has a veto over the democratic will of the organisation. And if we're not to be holding weekly Congresses, some comrades need to be delegated to lead the party's work, and have sufficient mandate to impose discipline. As long as the CC is recallable (the rules allow for an Extraodinary Congress if a third of the membership want one), that's just how it has to be, no matter how much it sticks in the craw (it's been jammed in mine on more than one occasion).

Additional note: like the programme, these are draft rules. The thought of "a group of cells in an area, city, district or region...establish[ing] area or city committees" is for the most part a tantalising glimpse of the utopian future for the CPGB...let alone district committees! Dare to dream, eh?


Another major lacking is a near total absense on the matter of political education of the membership. Yes, there is a mention in the party rules that all members have "a right and a duty to study Marxism and develop the Party’s political positions", but it offers no organisational structures for systematic political education, the offering of "workshops" to educate communists in practical abilities (such as public speaking, organisational skills, accounting, etc.) or the need to form a tendency for all members to become capable theoreticians in their specific interest or at least have the scientific method at heart. Paul Smith made some useful remarks (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/letters.php?issue_id=805) on this and other issues aswell.

I've put in a reply to Paul Smith for this week's paper, so I'll wait til the edited version appears for simplicity's sake...that'll be Thursday.

[Die Neue Zeit]

As I said elsewhere:

From the looks of what I've read from all sections so far (a glance), the Draft Program hasn't changed much. It added the sections on Democracy and Environment (as mentioned in a past article), but other than that it's wordy in some areas (practically everything before "Immediate Demands") and problematic in others:

1) Their take on corporate personhood is in the "socialist revolution" and not in "immediate demands";
2) Macnair's measure on private property rights (and the recent directional commentary I wrote) is absent (!!!);
3) They demand a 35-hour workweek and not a 32-hour workweek (4-day workweek) or 30-hour workweek (6-hour day).
4) Etc.

There are plenty more areas to critique, but that is because they have no solid basis for determining whether a demand is included or not (Hahnel, Kautsky, etc.).

[S. Zetor]

A glance at the table of contents is enough to tell that it's far too long and detailed. If it was meant to be a functional program (instead of a "comprehensive program" fetish), it would fit on two pages.

A program that long is bound to include so much sectarian baggage.. especially for smaller groups that are united by nothing but ideas it's a recipe for disaster.