Joining a party?

[Red_Morg98]

Has anyone here joined the Communist Party of Britain?

[blake 3:17]

I'm can't think of anyone on this board who is member of the CPB, there probably is, though there might be some who read the the Morning Star : http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/

If I were in your part of the world I'd be pretty keen on Left Unity : http://leftunity.org/

There's also often confusion between the CPB and the CPGB.

[Brutus]

The CPB are some weird Brezhnevite, limping corpse that are struggling on after the collapse of the USSR. They run in elections on an anti-EU vote, proclaiming national sovereignty and a "British road to socialism". Personally, I'd advise not joining the bastards.

[Q]

Whatever floats your boat: If you like joining a group of aging Stalinists, whose greatest asset is their daily paper around which the organisation seems to revolve; if you subscribe to the vision that you can found socialism in Britain by 'going through the institutions', then go for it.

[Left Voice]

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) are the most sensible and credible of the communist parties in the UK, in my opinion. Their programme has a much stronger theoretical basis, they've done a decent job of shedding historical baggage (i.e. they're not tankies), they're active within Left Unity as the Communist Platform, and reject the anti-EU nationalist tripe that plagues so many parties.

Unfortunately, the CPB are the better known party.

[Q]

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) are the most sensible and credible of the communist parties in the UK, in my opinion. Their programme has a much stronger theoretical basis, they've done a decent job of shedding historical baggage (i.e. they're not tankies), they're active within Left Unity as the Communist Platform, and reject the anti-EU nationalist tripe that plagues so many parties.

Unfortunately, the CPB are the better known party.
Now that this is becoming yet another let's-all-advertise-our-group thread: I agree with this recommendation. If you think the far left is too splintered, ridden with sect politics and want to refound it on the basis of a communist programmatic document and want to base your communist politics around the principles of democracy, internationalism and the independent political position of our class... Then this is the place to be (http://cpgb.org.uk/).

Their Weekly Worker (http://weeklyworker.co.uk/) is widely read on the far left as it is one of the very few publications on the far left of open polemic, where actual indepth debates happen that is actually interesting to read. Of course many others are frightened by such open debates and portray this publication as a 'gossip rag' and this group as 'wreckers', which just indicates how sick the far left has become and how thoroughly we need to revolutionise it.

Our Dutch group (http://communisme.nu/), which has only recently been founded, takes a lot of inspiration from the work of the CPGB and others like it.

For a more complete list of UK groups and organisations, here is the place to go (http://eng.anarchopedia.org/List_of_Left-Wing_Parties_in_the_United_Kingdom).

[Red_Morg98]

What's the difference between the CPGB and CPB? I know the CPB was formed when they splintered away from the CPGB.

[Q]

What's the difference between the CPGB and CPB? I know the CPB was formed when they splintered away from the CPGB.
The old CPGB dissolved in 1991, it no longer exists.

The CPB was founded in 1988 as a split from the CPGB as it was quite clear that the Eurocommunists that controlled the organisation were out to dissolve it. The "Marxists-Leninists", which had control over the Morning Star decided to jump ship before that happened.

What is now known as the CPGB originated as The Leninist, a small faction that started in 1981 publishing under that name. As the CPGB was dissolved, they claimed the name in order to "refound it". That is essentially what the CPGB: A campaign to lay the foundations for a new communist party. You can watch this video that elaborates on its history (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/videos/30-years-since-the-launch-of-the-leninist-faction).

The politics between the groups differ wildly. Where the CPB is an old style "Marxist-Leninist" organisation, which adopted the programme of the old CPGB (the "British road to socialism"), slightly adapted but essentially identical. The CPGB, has diverged rather strongly from its original 'left Stalinist' outset towards something I described in my previous post.

[The Idler]

How many members has the CPB got? I believe their summer school is in East London at the Marx Memorial Library on July 26-27 (http://www.communist-party.org.uk/events/21cm.html). I agree that their politics is garbage.

[Brotto Rühle]

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) are the most sensible and credible of the communist parties in the UK, in my opinion. Their programme has a much stronger theoretical basis, they've done a decent job of shedding historical baggage (i.e. they're not tankies), they're active within Left Unity as the Communist Platform, and reject the anti-EU nationalist tripe that plagues so many parties.

Unfortunately, the CPB are the better known party.

Shit that's lost its scent is still shit. I'll give the neo-kauts props for being less smelly than most, but again they're riddled with their own problems. They need to she's their 2nd internationalism and often sexist and transphobic views.

My advice? Don't join any party.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Left Unity as an organisation is going through some odd growing pains, with the people currently pretty much running it essentially a broad group of middle class liberals with some dedicated socialists trying to keep it as a positive organisation. I know there's one or two people who claim to be members in my neck of the woods but I think they're pretty centred on London.

I would suggest that you don't just arbitrarily join an organisation. First attend some meetings, read some of their literature, get to meet some of the rank and file members to judge their class conciousness etc. It took me nearly six months to decide to join the organisation I'm currently a part of because I didn't want to jump into something I didn't fully understand and then get burned out through disappointment.

[Brutus]

...and often sexist and transphobic views.

Do you have anything to back that up or are you just pulling things out of your arse?