52nd Congress Report

Together for our future!

A world to win!

Build the labour movement for the mass democratic alternative to austerity, privatisation and the EU

Communist Party

52 Congress Report ÂŁ2 nd

Britain’s Road to Socialism The new edition of Britain’s Road to Socialism, the Communist Party’s programme, adopted in July 2011; presents and analysis of capitalism and imperialism in its current form; answers the questions of how a revolutionary transformation might be bought about in 21st Century Britain; and what a socialist and communist society in Britain might look like.

The BRS was first published in 1951 after nearly six years of discussion and debate across the CP, labour movement and working class. Over its 8 editions it has sold more than a million copies in Britain and helped to shape and develop the struggle of the working class for more than half a century. Other previous editions of the BRS have been published in 1952, 1958, 1968, 1977, 1989 and 2000 as well as multiple substantially revised versions.

Published by the Communist Party January 2013.

Copyright © Communist Party 2013.

ISBN 978-1-908315-09-0 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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52nd Congress Report

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Communist Party www.communist-party.org.uk

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Report of the 52 Congress of the Communist Party CONTENTS General Secretary’s Address Domestic Resolutions International Resolutions Elections Credentials

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The Communist Party’s 52nd biennial delegate Congress was held on the 17th & 18th November 2012 at Ruskin House in the London Borough of Croydon. Delegates were elected from local branches and district or nation (in the case of Scotland and Wales) committees and this report brings together the final amended resolutions agreed by them. The Congress amended and endorsed two main strategic resolutions on the domestic and the international situation which are reproduced in their entirety here. Additionally the Congress agreed a number of stand-alone resolutions which have been reproduced in this pamphlet in grey boxes. Where possible they have been placed alongside complementary sections of the strategic resolutions to give the reader a more comprehensive view of the CP’s political and organisational priorities for the next two years and beyond.

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Communist Party General Secretary’s Address

by Robert Griffiths, 17th November 2012

Comrades, honoured guests, delegates to this 52nd congress of the Communist Party. The current military conflict in Gaza, grossly unequal as it is, must not be allowed to conceal the fundamental cause of the conflict in this region, namely the continuing denial of the right of self-determination to the Palestinian people.

In 1948, Israel seized two-thirds of the territory allocated to the Palestinians by the United Nations partition plan, including a substantial strip of land to the north of Gaza where most of the rockets have fallen in recent days. Israel now occupies about 90 per cent of the land set aside for the Palestinian people including, of course, the West Bank.

For as long as this oppression – the greatest unresolved injustice of the 20th century – persists, there will be resistance. The only basis for a just and lasting peace remains the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel in accordance with the pre-1967 borders, with Palestine's capital in East Jerusalem and international guarantees of peace and security.

It says much about the genocidal aims and motives of Israeli ruling circles that they are doing everything possible to destroy the potential viability of such a state, including the continued incarceration of Palestinian leaders such as Marwan Barghouti.

Our party, along with the international communist movement, must redouble its efforts to demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli gaols and to win ever-wider support for recognition of Palestinian statehood.

This is all the more important as we see imperialism's intrigues plunging the Middle East into a fresh pit of conflict and bloodshed.

It is not necessary to endorse any aspect of al-Assad and Ba'ath Party rule in Syria to see the bloody hands of US, French and British imperialism at work in this conflict, in league with some of the reactionary oil states of the Middle East. The mountains of arms supplies to the anti-government forces have not materialised out of thin air. Their passage through NATO member Turkey into Syria is not unknown to the Ankara regime.

Recent Western-sponsored negotiations to unify the opposition are intended to pave the way not for a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis, but for diplomatic recognition as the first step towards open financial and military support for the rebellion. This itself could involve direct NATO military intervention, perhaps under cover of a 'No Fly Zone' as we saw in Libya.

Again, alongside the rest of the international communist movement, Britain's communists oppose these dangerous manoeuvres designed to install a more compliant regime in Damascus. They prolong the suffering of the Syrian people, they weaken the forces of secularism in Syria, they risk strengthening the forces of sectarianism and religious fundamentalism and they further undermine the prospects for launching a genuine peace process.

US imperialism and its allies are lining up their options. A military attack on Iran, especially by proxy through Israel, remains a real possibility. Of course, it will be prefaced by the same kind of lies that prepared public opinion for the invasions of Iraq and Libya.

With our comrades of the Tudeh Party of Iran, we understand how Western threats are utilised by the reactionary Amhadinejad regime to rally domestic support and provide the pretext for repressing democratic and progressive opposition to theocratic dictatorship.

Let us make our position as communists absolutely clear. We opposed Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan when Britain, the US and other imperialist powers were funding and arming Bin Laden and the so-called Mujahedeen 'freedom fighters' who were murdering school teachers and planting bombs in Afghan cinemas and aeroplanes.

In retrospect, it is now clearer than ever that the defeat of the progressive, Soviet-backed Najibullah

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government in Afghanistan was a disaster for the Afghan people. It is all too late in the day for the British government to pose as champions of women's rights and girls' education in that country.

British and US pledges to evacuate military forces from Afghanistan by 2014 are not worth the paper they are not written upon. The establishment there of US and NATO military facilities are part of a grander strategy to exert imperialist control over the resource-rich Asian sub-continent.

They also represent links in the military necklace being drawn around People's China. As communists, we congratulate the Chinese Communist Party on the success of its 18th congress. We salute the progress made to lift more than 600 million people out of absolute poverty in the past three decades – a feat 'on a scale and at a pace unequalled in history', as the World Bank put it.

But while we see China as a force for economic growth, peace and social progress, imperialism sees it primarily as a market to be conquered and a military power to be subdued.

As Marxists, we understand that capitalism's relentless drive for profit leads to monopoly, domination, conflict, militarism and war. The great imperialist slaughter of 1914-18, and the failure of social democracy to fight against it, led to the formation of communist parties in Russia and other countries.

Because imperialism still means domination, militarism and war, communists in Britain have a duty to maintain and strengthen the peace and anti-war movement. Doing this most effectively, alongside our allies, will have to be a top priority for the Communist Party of Britain over the next two years.

At the same time, we will continue our work in solidarity with socialist Cuba – still a beacon of social justice for oppressed peoples around the world – and with the revolutionary movement of Venezuela, including its militant communist party.

The class character of the European Union is being revealed for all to see, as the European Commission and the European Central Bank join with the IMF to spearhead austerity, privatisation and labour market deregulation across the continent. Just because some forces on the far right oppose the EU on nationalistic and xenophobic grounds, we will not flinch from putting the working class, democratic and anti-imperialist case against it, for popular sovereignty, against big business dictatorship.

But we also recognise that, ultimately, international agencies like the IMF, the World Trade Organisation, G8, G10 or those of the European Union rest on the state power of their members. The strongest states struggle for domination, so that – for example – the EU is dominated by the interests of German and French monopoly capital.

The struggle for state power at national level therefore remains the central task for the working class and its allies, including here in Britain.

International solidarity strengthens this fight, but it cannot replace it. We salute the millions of workers in Greece, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and elsewhere who have taken strike action against the policies of their own governments and the troika. We salute the mass protest movements in those countries – and we are proud of the leading role played by our communist sisters and brothers.

The greatest contribution that we can make to international solidarity – whether with the peoples of Europe or those of the Middle East – is to put an end to the unelected, illegitimate government that we have here in Britain. Nobody voted for this Tory-LibDem coalition, cobbled together at the behest of City of London banks and financial institutions.

We should not be surprised, therefore, that the wealth, arrogance, duplicity and corruption that characterise the British ruling class also find their reflection in this ruling coalition.

Our party, together with the Morning Star, has played a significant part in unmasking the chief purpose of this government's austerity programme, namely, the wholesale privatisation of public services. This itself, like the growing attack on trade union and employment rights, is linked to the broader, perpetual objective of reducing the cost of labour and driving up profits.

The great question now is: will the labour movement respond in time, and on the scale necessary?

Will it act to save the National Health Service from Virgin Healthcare and the other privatisation vultures? Will it fight against the super-exploitation of young people? Will it defend the main victims of heartless benefit cuts - women, carers, single parents, migrant workers, low paid workers and the

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unemployed on housing benefits and our sisters and brothers with disabilities?

They cannot afford to wait for the next General Election and hope that a Labour government will not be quite so vicious.

The fight to bring down this government at the earliest opportunity and force a General Election must begin in earnest now. The fight to change Labour's policies must be redoubled.

That means building a popular, democratic, anti-monopoly alliance in action, in our workplaces and local communities, through our trades unions and our trades councils. Four-fifths of the austerity cuts are still to come. That means, perversely, that there is still time to build broad-based local campaigns against them.

Generalised and coordinated strike action by millions of workers can play an invaluable role in the great movement that has to be built. But we must win the argument for such action, drawing inspiration from our comrades in Portugal, Greece, France and elsewhere. We must explain how mass action can shock this government, divide its supporters and bring pressure on it from employers. We must win the argument for a general strike in private as well as public sector workplaces, and in our local communities.

The prospects for winning that case will be hugely enhanced if we can also show that there is an alternative. And there is one. The Trades Union Congress has already adopted the People's Charter, endorsed by the Scottish, Welsh and Women's TUCs. Its policies for progressive taxation, public investment, public ownership, for a massive housebuilding programme, for sustainable energy and against militarism and war, can united millions of people around a real alternative to austerity and privatisation.

The Charter for Women was launched at a previous congress of this Communist Party and now has the support of almost all major trade unions and a reinvigorated National Assembly of Women. It, too, projects the kind of policies that are needed in the workplace, in the labour movement and in society more widely.

The new executive committee elected at this congress must take on the responsibility of projecting the People's Charter and the Charter for Women on an even bigger scale in the year to come, linking them to the economic, social and political battles that lie ahead.

Comrades, We should not under-estimate the dangers that the current crisis poses to black and ethnic minority people and community relations. Unscrupulous forces in political parties and the monopoly mass media, and on the far and fascist right, are already using the austerity agenda to attack immigration and immigrants.

As with benefit claimants and the unemployed, the labour movement must resist these attempts to divide working class people against each other. The Communist Party will have to use what influence it can to help overcome divisions in the anti-racist and anti-fascist movement.

We support all broad-based initiatives against the racists and fascists, including militant action where it reflects the mass mobilisation of local people.

Comrades, We as a party have much to do over the coming period. We have the commitment. We have confidence in working people. We know that our labour movement can be enthused and activated.

We have our programme, Britain's Road to Socialism.

We know that the Morning Star needs to reach many more people, every day, as the voice of peace and socialism.

We know that the working class and peoples of Britain, including their labour movement, would benefit from the growth of our Communist Party.  Long live the working class movement!  Long live the Communist Party!  Long live socialism and communism!

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Page 5 Main Domestic Resolution

Build the labour movement for the mass democratic alternative to austerity, privatisation and the EU Nothing stands still, nor can there be any return to an earlier situation. The current economic and financial crisis will result either in significant advances by the working class, the labour movement and the left, or in very serious setbacks in which the ruling class will reverse many of the gains won in the past 70 years. Rosa Luxemburg's revolutionary challenge in 1918, 'Socialism or Barbarism!', remains the challenge for workers and peoples across the world today, including in Britain.

Since the Communist Party's 51st congress in 2010, the economic and financial crisis has deepened, while the ruling class offensive against workers, their families and the people in general has intensified across most of Europe.

In addition to the arbitrary exercise of power through EU institutions, British bourgeois democracy looks increasingly threadbare as a system and quite willing to sacrifice its own form of democracy. The ruthless drive for privatisation across all sectors of public services, the wholesale destruction of the welfare state, and all manner of assaults on the living standards of the working class reveal a most brutal exercise of class war being propagated by Britain’s ruling elite on its people. The Communist Party needs to draw attention to the fact that the cynical political agenda of most mainstream politics is to remove the working class from the exercise of influence, in contradiction to how capitalist propaganda has always lauded bourgeois democracy. Diminishing the scope, responsibilities and powers of democratic institutions, especially at local levels, through the application of bureaucratic hurdles and USstyle bodies, is a particularly insidious form of promoting the democratic deficit.

As our programme, Britain's Road to Socialism (2011), points out: 'the insoluble contradictions of capitalist production have become combined with, and aggravated by, the deep contradictions of capitalist exchange on a global scale. Together, they constitute the permanent structural crisis in the economic base of society'.

Today's capitalist crisis is one of the over-accumulation of capital, made deeper by the enormous expansion of credit and speculation. Despite the resulting recession in the most developed capitalist countries, commodity production is set to increase very significantly on a world scale with the rapid industrial development of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). This will lay the basis for another international crisis of over-accumulation with its corresponding over-production of commodities. At the same time, nothing has been done to prevent the recurrence of further financial crises arising from a huge expansion of 'fictitious' capital far removed from the creation of real value in the productive economy. The key link between retail and speculative banking has remained. No significant restrictions have been placed on the freedom of the banks and other financial institutions to continue engaging in massive speculation in commodities, currencies and financial instruments of every kind.

This contradiction between the production of real value and the circulation of fictitious value is the cause of a permanent structural crisis in the economic base of our society, revealing itself more starkly in Britain than almost anywhere else in the developed capitalist world.

The contradictions of British state-monopoly capitalism British state-monopoly capitalism represents a highly parasitic form of rule by finance capital, where access to super-profits depends very largely on the manipulation of banking capital and leveraged speculation. Finance capital exercises predominant control over Britain’s productive economy through its investment banks and does so in an increasingly short-term and piratical way. Its principal source of super-profit derives from the international operations of the City of London – operations that are, in

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turn, largely dependent on the major US investment banks which control up to two-thirds of the capital deployed and which utilise London as a base for the control of financial services in Europe.

The parasitic character of British state-monopoly capitalism has led to a long-term decline in the productive economy, severely affecting in one way or another, the great majority of the population:  Capital has been diverted into the areas of financialised super-profit; investment in production and infrastructure has fallen to internationally minimal levels.  The role of sterling as an international banking currency has been put before industrial competitiveness.  Access to European Union financial services through the EU Single Market has been conditional on the loss of democratic rights to exercise public ownership and public investment in the productive economy.

During the period of capitalist boom, these contradictions were largely concealed. The post-2007 financial crisis has both exposed them and made them far more acute. One consequence has been the loss of a further 600,000 manufacturing jobs in Britain, on top of the 6 million lost over Tax policy the past 40 years.

There is a pressing need to review the Communist The financial assets of British-registered Party's policy on taxation to ensure that it reflects banks amount to well over four times current realities, challenges and opportunities in the Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) – light of the failure of significant parts of the left and far higher than in any other major economy. the trade union movement in recent years to make The resulting level of risk has led the Conan effective case for progressive taxation.

Dem coalition to introduce cuts in public Although there are positive statements made on expenditure of unprecedented severity, tax in Britain’s Road to Socialism, there is considerable reflecting the determination of the ruling scope to develop policy further to: class to roll back most if not all of the social Underpin the current opportunity to sharpen gains made by the labour movement since the attack on the ConDem government.

1945. These cuts, in turn, have caused Develop a more targeted approach to the Britain’s economy to contract far more than relative benefits of different types of tax. that of any other G7 economy. Develop more effective mechanisms to tackle The concurrent crisis of the Eurozone has tax avoidance and evasion by transnational also produced a fundamental political companies and wealthy individuals. challenge to British state-monopoly Raise political consciousness about the use of capitalism. The dominant EU powers are progressive taxation to achieve different policy being forced to move towards a banking objectives, such as funding comprehensive, union with common regulation and taxation. good quality public services to the benefit of One consequence will be a drive to all, redistributing wealth and income, and recapture control of EU financial services promoting social justice across Britain. from Anglo-US dominance – in turn The Economic Commission should address the threatening the utility of the City of London matter and issue a report by December 2013. to the US investment banks and hence the City’s wider international viability.

The contradiction between the interests of finance capital and the productive economy, while not new, now has the potential to assume a central role in unmasking the conflict of class interests at the heart of the British political system.

The grass roots base of the Conservative Party lies among small and medium businesses, including farming, that are severely hit by government policies. That of the Liberal Democrats lies among managerial and professional strata who are equally damaged. The political rhetoric of the Conservative Party is traditionally chauvinist. However, its ability to manipulate anti-EU feeling is limited by its need to

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strike a deal with the Eurozone countries that will inevitably entrench the EU regulations that have already been so harmful to the productive economy. The political rhetoric of the Liberal Democrats is pro-EU and based on the bogus internationalism of free trade and ultimately the same City of London interests. Yet the costs of subordination to the interests of finance capital are becoming more and more obvious – while the long-term viability of the City of London is fast diminishing.

These conflicts of class and sectional interest are now assuming an acute character. They provide the material basis for an anti-monopoly alliance, popular and democratic in character, which is based on the organised strength of the working class movement. Small businesses, professions, managerial strata all have a common interest with the trade union movement in rescuing the productive economy, reasserting public control over the banking sector, regaining the democratic powers needed for public ownership and public investment and ending subordination to the EU Single Market.

The EU and popular sovereignty As capitalism's crisis continues and even Public transport deepens, the myth of the 'Social Chapter' The Communist Party will campaign against local and a 'Social Europe' – the reason why so government cuts to the funding of public transport. many trades unionists decided to back the The CP proposes that more clean, cheap and EU – is well and truly shattered. socially owned passenger transport should be Britain’s withdrawal from the EU is a provided as a priority over private transport and prerequisite to winning democratic control that railways be brought back into public ownership over the economy, saving manufacturing, as a matter of urgency. Pedestrians and cyclists restoring employment rights and rescuing should also be able to travel in safety in urban areas. our welfare state. It is impossible to These measures must be taken to curb current separate the austerity programme from the levels of atmospheric pollution. This should be part unelected institutions that crafted it or the of a strategy for an integrated transport system that policies created solely to sustain those same would include freight haulage, air and water institutions. 'Rejecting austerity' means little transport. without a rejection of such institutions as The CP also demands that public transport is the EU Commission and European Central brought into public ownership and that these Bank and of the EU treaties, which legislate services are maintained and extended to provide for permanent austerity. These institutions free or affordable public transport across Britain. and treaties cannot be significantly reformed.

The anti-democratic and pro-big business character of the EU is now fully exposed as it imposes unelected 'technocratic' governments and as the European Central Bank – with its partners in crime the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – imposes drastically deflationary policies on one country after another. 'Austerity Europe' offers nothing to workers. The 'free' movement of labour has become the new regulator of labour relations, as transnational corporations undermine pay, worsen conditions and weaken collective agreements with the ultimate aim of smashing trade union organisation.

A commitment by left and progressive forces in Britain to demand withdrawal from the EU will strengthen the position of all those in Europe fighting to preserve and defend democratic gains.

Attacking the monopoly capitalist character of the EU from a left perspective – and standing in solidarity with the communist and workers' parties and working class movements elsewhere in Europe – is a profoundly internationalist position. Britain's communists reject the ultra-leftist view that seeking withdrawal from the EU is a capitulation to reactionary British nationalism.

The EU has nothing to do with working class internationalism. It is the creation of western Europe's big capitalist monopolies and has been designed to serve their interests. The notion that it can be transformed into the basis for a 'united socialist states of Europe' is an illusion fostered in the labour

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movement by ultra-leftist elements who refuse to make a concrete analysis of the EU as it has developed to the present.

Exposing the true character of the EU must be central to the battle of ideas within the trade unions and the wider labour movement. While the Communist Party welcomes the prospect of a referendum on British membership of the EU, it is essential that the terms of the campaign be determined more by anti-EU arguments from the labour movements and the left than from the Tory right. The successful motion at the 2011 TUC conference opposing EU use of World Trade Organisation 'Mode 4' trade provisions (which would erode trade union rights even further by reintroducing indentured labour) provides a good basis from which to proceed. So, too, does the successful motion passed at the 2011 Scottish Trades Union Congress calling for an end of compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact and the negotiation instead of a most favoured nation trade agreement with the EU on the same basis as Norway but outside the provisions of the Single Market.

Welfare The incoming Communist Party executive committee will establish a Commission on welfare, drawing on the existing expertise within the Party on this issue. It should look at issues such as the current ideological attack on the Welfare State, benefit cuts, personalisation and outsourcing, and recommend a strategy for opposing it. The commission should produce its conclusions in pamphlet form during 2013.

The government is planning further welfare cuts to the tune of ÂŁ25bn. Plans include a new crackdown on housing benefit and a 'mark two' system of universal credit to help push people off benefits back into full-time rather than part-time work. There are also reports of a range of measures to encourage more women, particularly single mothers, to return to work.

The 'savings' will be made from cutting back benefits for people of working age.

Arguably this has been the most successful area of government policy so far. The government says: 'Why should people only work part time? Why are young people who are out of work not living at home?' Unfortunately some working class people fall for these phoney arguments.

Other proposed areas for further welfare reductions include stopping young unemployed people from claiming housing benefits when they could live at home; a lower cap on housing benefit for those living outside London and other areas of the country may also be introduced.

Chancellor George Osborne has indicated that the welfare budget should be cut by another ÂŁ10 billion between 2015 and 2017, although the latest proposals go far beyond this level.

The incoming CP executive committee will give higher priority to fighting the welfare cuts, taking the arguments against them into the trade unions and the labour movement, seeking to build the broadest alliance against the cuts.

The Communist Party recognises that trades union councils have a key role in building these alliances in working class communities, putting forward the alternative economic and political strategy of the People's Charter.

Building a class-based popular movement The first steps to building a popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance lie in the campaign against the Con-Dem regime's austerity and privatisation programme. Here the top and immediate priority is to build, broaden and politicise a mass movement of working class and popular resistance. This movement, however, will only develop the necessary strength and direction if it is based on an understanding of the programme's real objectives and the interests it serves.

A growing number of workers reject the fiction that the real purpose of the austerity and privatisation

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Workplace organisation and trade union work

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Organisation within the trade unions remains absolutely central to the CP's general political work. There is an urgent need to strengthen our organisation & recruitment in the unions, to maximise our effectiveness and raise the level of class-consciousness in the labour movement.

The trade union movement is central to the on-going campaign against the capitalist austerity programme. The government and its allies have continued to use the crisis as the rationale for undermining and tearing up social advances won in the workplace & society at large.

The development of a two-tier work force has increased with newer, often younger workers facing poorer terms and conditions. The changes to Employment Tribunal regulations will make it almost impossible for workers to challenge employers via the law. The call for further deregulation in health and safety and consultation arrangements will hinder workers in their efforts to enforce their rights. Furthermore, the full-scale attack on the Welfare State is designed to reduce wages and enforce detrimental terms on our class as a whole.

The Communist Party welcomes the responses of individual unions to these attacks, but given the scale of the assault this response has been inadequate, as shown by the attacks not only on pensions and pay but also more widely. There have been frequent lulls in activity and an acquiescence by some trade union leaders which then finds its way into the union membership leading them to believe that there is no alternative to austerity.

Working through the CP’s trade union coordinating committee (TUCC), communists and our allies need to make the political case against cuts and austerity and take the offensive to the employers.

The Party further recognises that trade union membership has declined despite rising employment levels. There needs to be a significant increase in trade union activity and militancy and a more active and dynamic approach to the recruitment and organisation of existing and potential union members. This requires cooperation across unions working to recruit in unorganised areas, rather than competing for membership in the same workplaces.

Trade unions should also seek to include unorganised workers in their activities and campaigns, and as a step towards this the CP executive committee should look to bring together Party members active in campaigns against unemployment and on related issues.

Trade unions are a powerful force for effective struggles. There is a need to concentrate on building CP branches in key strategic areas – such as among tanker drivers and in airports, on the railways and in manufacturing – that affect capitalism.

The incoming CP executive committee (EC) will open a discussion across the Party as to how we might increase our industrially based membership. The EC should instigate a debate as to how our influence among this vital section of the population can be reinvigorated.

The trade union co-ordinator will convene a meeting of the Party’s trade union cadres rapidly after the 52nd congress, tasked with building the Party's organisation in the unions.

That meeting should consider a range of ideas aimed at supporting the work of the trade union coordinator in building effective, coordinating structures within and between unions, including: Improving our mapping of existing cadres and broad left organisations. Improving the identification of industrial and political priorities within unions and industries and reporting on work toward Party priorities. Identifying new cadres to be approached. Building an effective organisation to develop new cadres, including electronic networks of industrial activists, industrial meetings and an industrial training programme. Ensuring that each Party group has a lead organiser and a plan for party building.

The trade union co-ordinator should convene another meeting within the calendar year and liaise with lead organisers to produce a report for the EC on progress towards these agreed objectives.

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programme, introduced by New Labour and intensified by the Tories and LibDems, is to reduce the public sector financial deficit. They see it more as part of the neoliberal ideological attack on the working class, on wages, pensions and public services. Nevertheless, even this is by no means the whole picture.

The unelected Con-Dem regime, cobbled together at the behest of City financiers, is seeking to fulfil four key objectives on behalf of the ruling class, namely to:  Increase the state's capacity to make yet more funds available to the banks and financial markets in future bailouts.  Reduce still further the burden and pressure of taxation on monopoly capital and the rich.  Enable the monopoly capitalist class to maximise still further its ability to make profits at the expense of the working class (which is reflected in the plans and proposals to dismantle legislation for employment protection, health and safety, equality and in threats of new antiunion laws).  Transfer responsibility, control and ownership of the public provision of services, welfare and benefits to private sector providers and individuals, thereby transferring wealth from publicly owned and accountable services to unaccountable transnational corporations such as A4E and G4S (which also breaks up the collective and democratic provision of services, welfare and benefits).

Politically, this fourth objective represents a fundamental threat to democracy, while ideologically it is intended to remove from public consciousness any suggestion of collective provision of goods or services. The hidden agenda has been the least widely understood in the labour movement, although the Communist Party and the Morning Star have played a significant role in raising people's awareness of it.

This fourth objective explains why the Con-Dem regime is introducing policies intended to remove the 'disincentives' to greater private profit making in public services, namely decent pensions, job security, health and safety standards and national pay agreements. In all of these areas, workers are generally better placed in the public than the private sector, reflecting higher levels of trade union organisation – and, therefore, prompting another line of attack from the Con-Dem regime.

The government believes it can defeat public sector trade unions by encouraging them to respond to a

Regional pay The Communist Party condemns the ConDem coalition government’s proposal to introduce regional pay bargaining in the public sector.

The CP recognises that, if successful, this vicious attack will further depress the economies of Wales, the north-east of England and other areas of Britain that are disproportionately dependent on public sector employment, resulting in further job losses as spending power is reduced.

Furthermore, the Party recognises that the introduction of regional pay will impact more critically on women who are employed in far greater numbers in the public sector and its lower paid grades than their male counterparts. This will further increase the pay gap and result in greater child poverty.

The People’s Charter and Charter for Women, both of which have wide support across the labour movement, are the principal focus of the Communist Party’s campaigning strategy.

The CP executive committee will make regional pay a key campaigning issue within the context of the Charter for Women and People’s Charter by:  Producing a briefing and a leaflet for wide distribution, making the links between regional pay, the People’s Charter and the Charter for Women.  Convening an early trade union aggregate to develop a strategy for the campaign.

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strategic political attack with a narrow industrial response. The latter can then be contained by 'divide and rule' tactics (between private and public sector workers, the low paid and better paid, central and local government, industry and services etc.), the threat and use of existing anti-trade union legislation and the warning that more could follow.

The ruling class and its politicians also rely on those trade union leaders who still cannot or will not see the paralysing effects of 'economism' – the view that trade unions should restrict themselves to the industrial struggle, leaving 'politics' to the Labour Party. Some such 'leaders' are primarily self-serving – hoping for Labour Party favours in future – while others lack confidence in the potential of their own members. Some are so completely wedded to the ideology of social democracy, with its subservience to a capitalist system that they believe cannot be replaced, that they put this outlook before the defence of their members.

The trade unions represent by far the most powerful force, potentially, with the capacity to help build and lead a mass, broad-based movement against the Con-Dem austerity and privatisation programme.

The enormous TUC demonstration of March 26, 2011, provided a glimpse of what is possible.

However, making this a reality will require a greater sense of the unity demanded by the common interests of all their members (for decent wages, pensions and benefits; for high-quality public services; for trade union and other democratic rights). It will also require a deeper political understanding of the ruling class offensive and the need for the labour movement to work out its own political, strategic and militant response.

This response will need to include more coordinated and generalised industrial action, but it must also embrace other campaigning activities, not least in thousands of local communities. Otherwise, any new momentum generated by the October 20 British and Scottish TUC demonstrations for 'A Future that Works' will be dissipated as before. Yet the potential still exists for the unions to help found and support genuinely broad-based bodies to oppose cuts and defend local jobs and services.

After all, only a small proportion of the intended cuts have taken place so far: £23 billion in 2011-12, with an extra £48 billion planned for 2012-13 and at least an additional £242 billion by the end of the 2015-16 financial year. (It should not be forgotten that the previous Labour government planned at least £123 billion of these £313 billion cuts).

Facing such enormous cuts in social benefits and local services, therefore, trades union councils have a vital role to play in building local trade union-led alliances in our towns and cities. Trade union sectionalism must be overcome at every level, with many more local branches affiliating to their trades council and making community trade unionism an important dimension of their work. Vibrant trades councils will not only strengthen local anti-cuts campaigning; they can also contribute to the struggle needed to reclaim the Labour Party as the labour movement's democratic mass party. For instance, they can put pressure on local Labour Party organisations, not least in taking the anti-cuts agenda into the party's political structures.

The trade union movement must also recognise and combat the new offensive now underway by the EU Court of Justice and the Con-Dem government against trade union and employment rights.

Resistance should be based on a clear demand for the repeal of Britain's anti-trade union laws and commitment by the Labour Party to introduce a Trade Union Freedom Bill when next in office.

The People’s Charter A mass campaigning alliance against the Con-Dems, one based on the organised working class, will be all the more solid, coherent and effective if it can project a clear alternative to the policies of austerity, privatisation, social inequality, ecological catastrophe, militarism and war.

The People's Charter as an alternative programme has already been endorsed by the Trades Union Congress, in 2009, and reaffirmed by the Scottish TUC, Wales TUC and the TUC women's and trades union councils conferences in 2012. Sixteen national trade unions are directly affiliated to the People's Charter. No other anti-austerity initiative has such a level of support among the trade unions and in the

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labour movement as a whole.

Its policies for a fairer, more productive economy, more and better jobs, equal pay, enhanced public services, social justice, decent homes for all, environmental security and peace are practical, affordable and realistic. They are also mutually reinforcing as, for example, a public sector house building drive financed from progressive taxations and a programme to convert armaments production to socially useful products would sustain many thousands of new and skilled jobs.

Of course, the Charter's proposals for 'an irreversible shift in wealth and power in favour of working people' are rejected by the ruling class and its government. Because the Charter breaks with the neoliberal consensus among the parliamentary parties, including the Labour Party leadership, and defies the prescriptions demanded by the EU Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, powerful reactionary forces are determined to suppress it, including inside Britain's labour movement.

The challenge now, therefore, is to make the People's Charter a central feature in the resistance to Con-Dem policies and, in effect, the alternative programme of the labour and mass movement. All left and progressive forces in the labour movement and beyond should work to transform it from a document and a resolution into the campaigning centre for an alternative economic strategy, linking the trade unions and trades councils with local communities and anti-cuts campaigns. Strengthening the central organisation of the People's Charter and coordinating activities in its support within the nations, regions and localities of Britain must now become a top priority for the labour movement, including the Communist Party.

Successful advances in promoting the People's Charter will very quickly raise more profound political questions in the labour movement, not least about the kind of strategy that could ensure the implementation of its policies. The Communist Party's programme, Britain's Road to Socialism, outlines the Left Wing Programme of measures and the alternative economic and political strategy required to fulfil the aims of the People's Charter.

For communists, the struggle for socialism and working class state power are not 'add-ons' to mass political work. The Communist Party has set itself the task, working in the labour movement and with other socialists, of nothing less than assisting the working class to develop revolutionary political consciousness. It is only through such a development that socialist revolution is possible. We also understand that fundamental change takes place in stages, quantitative changes leading finally to qualitative leaps forward – thus the significance of broad class-based mass struggle, the People’s Charter, the Left Wing Programme and Britain’s Road to Socialism.

Promoting equality for all working people Discrimination against any section of the working class or the people lays the basis for the worsening of opportunities, conditions and rights for all, as employers and the state seek to 'equalise' standards downwards for everyone. Thus trade unions needs to have in place a framework to support equality campaigning, because it is in the interests of every section of the labour movement to fight unstintingly for trade unionisation, equal status, equal rights and equal treatment for all workers.

Women suffer disproportionately from the austerity and privatisation agenda of the Con-Dem government. They are paying the price for at least 70 per cent of the cuts in public spending.

Women comprise by far the greater part of the public sector workforce and hundreds of thousands of women’s jobs are being lost in that sector alone. Female unemployment is at its highest for a quarter of a century. The benefits women depend on are being slashed and the services on which they rely are being removed. In consequence, women are disproportionately in poverty, isolated and vulnerable and their dependents suffering intolerable hardship.

Exacerbated by the economic crisis, women are also disproportionately subject to abuse. The trafficking of women and girls is on the increase. At the same time, women are coming into the trade unions and the labour movement in growing numbers, drawing attention to their exploitation and

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Mobilising women

The Communist Party has a long history of campaigning and promoting social and welfare issues that affect women, such as abortion rights, housing, childcare, and others.

The assault on the very existence of a Welfare State, now being pursued by the ConDem government, has placed women in the firing line. However, although women are disproportionately affected by the main areas of attack, the issues involved are of concern for the entire working class. Families, too, will bear the main brunt of these attacks.

It is vital, therefore, that the Communist Party and the labour and progressive movement continue to address these concerns and even raise the level of commitment in combating them higher.

Serious cuts in maternity services are leading to a marked concern over the health of mothers and babies. A cut of 6 per cent in the number of health visitors and midwives has taken place in Britain in 2012 alone, leading to concerns, among other things, that women are ending the breastfeeding of new-born babies much earlier in areas of cuts to maternity services than elsewhere. In Sandwell, 56 per cent of new mothers start breastfeeding but twothirds of these stop in the first 6-8 weeks. The local primary care trust (PCT) reduced spending on maternity services in this time period by 20 per cent.

In contrast, in the borough of Westminster, which saw an increase in maternity spending of 157 per cent, 90 per cent of new mothers begin breastfeeding and only 7 per cent stop in first 6-8 weeks.

Women’s health in general is seriously challenged by the cuts. Hysterectomy is now considered a 'non-priority' operation by the NHS. But growing numbers of patients are being forced to endure pain, injury or disability arising from many conditions or illnesses because NHS PCTs are ignoring evidence about the effectiveness of certain treatments, simply to balance their books. Lists of surgical interventions that are deemed of lower 'value' are being used by PCTs despite a lack of evidence behind the bans.

Parents are facing a triple assault on childcare, with costs of child minders and of nurseries rising at a time when pay is more or less static. Nurseries in London and south-east England can cost £300 a week, even for a part-time place. Financial support from government has been slashed and the number of childcare places available has been diminishing rapidly. Twothirds of local authorities already have insufficient provision.

All of this is leading to the situation where it will cost more than an average salary to enter one child into full-time care while the mother works. The plain choice for most is to work, or to have a family, and the end result is that women are once again being forced back into the home by the system.

Sure Start centres provide a variety of advice and support services for parents and carers right through to when children go into reception classes at primary school. Most are now struggling to cope with budget cuts, with more than half in an unsustainable financial position.

One fifth of centres are charging for services which were formerly free. More than half no longer provide any onsite childcare, and those that do are providing fewer places.

Cuts that are heavily affecting the voluntary as well as the state sector have been extended to women’s resource, advice, and health centres. Many vital local specialist domestic and sexual violence services are currently at risk of significant cuts or closure. For example, Devon’s domestic abuse services have been cut by 42 per cent, far more than the overall level, meaning that these services are taking unfair and disproportionate cuts. Women and

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children’s refuge spaces are being reduced in most parts of Britain. Today, 72 per cent of home-based domestic violence support services have no council funding.

Britain’s pensions system needs a massive overhaul. Because of gaps in their past employment, 60 per cent of women are entitled to less than full basic state pension, while only 10 per cent of men also receive less than the basic state pension. This situation, inherited from history, is set to worsen massively. Women have always been seen as the main carers in society, but now an army of unpaid carers is being ejected from the workforce. Fully one quarter of women in their 50s have caring responsibilities, often for an ailing partner or parent, often despite having already spent many years juggling caring for their own children with work, saving the state hundreds of billions of pounds that would have otherwise been funded by the NHS. Massive youth services cuts have seen some responsibilities unrealistically transferred to housing associations, the police, religious groups and residents’ associations, but mostly the result has been simply the cancellation of much needed services for young people.

Leisure centres, public swimming baths and sports centres are all being closed, rationalised, or privatised, hardly creating the impression that future British sporting prowess is to be expected among working class people, or that the increase in youth obesity among the poor is an issue to be tackled. In many cases, it will be mothers who will pick up the slack and working class families that will bear the brunt.

As we see a massive rise in challenges relating to housing, rents, and mortgages, it is evident that women’s homelessness is worse than previously believed. Some three-quarters of homeless households in priority need are women, with 45 per cent of them being female lone parent applicant households with dependent children. Of single homeless people with support needs, some 30 per cent are women, who also form 11 per cent of rough sleepers.

It is now commonly understood that many young people experience hidden homelessness, staying on the floors of friends and relatives, living in overcrowded or squalid housing, or staying in violent relationships. But it is now becoming clearer, despite the lack of robust data, that the numbers of women and girls who are hidden homeless are far greater than might be expected.

For all these reasons and more, the Communist Party will consider a plan to mobilise more effective campaigning and publicity on welfare issues, recognising the special concerns of women, but understanding these matters to be the concerns of the whole working class.

Significant advances have been made in the position of women in capitalist society, these clearly coinciding with the era of post-Second World War reconstruction. However, with the onset of the neo-liberal reaction, women have borne the brunt of the onslaught. The austerity programme of the ConDem government intensifies the general attack on working people, with women as both workers and carers often struggling to maintain their income and family life.

In a society which projects a distorted image of women, with unrealistic expectations encompassing extreme opposites of role and identity, the pressures on women are particularly oppressive.

This significant question should not just be side-lined for the existing women members of the CP to deal with – it affects the Party as a whole and needs to be treated with equal importance by female and male members alike.

Therefore, the incoming CP executive committee will continue the good work already done

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by taking forward the Party’s work on women to:  Further develop a structured and coherent policy on women, beginning from a fresh analysis of the position of women in society today.  Examine the position of women in the Party, to this end inviting contributions from all women members, vigorously exploring the difficulties some women may have in even contributing to such an investigation.  Invite male members to offer their thoughts on such an initiative.  Use the results of such an investigation to develop a new strategy which will enhance the contribution women members are able to make at all levels and in every area of Communist Party activity and organisation, encouraging more women to take leading roles within the Party and developing a membership drive specifically to encourage women to join the CP.  Facilitate political education of women who may not have received it through trade union work, encouraging women to become more politically active and winning women to the struggle for socialism.

A future for youth

The aspirations of young people are clearly not being met by the policies of the main parties.

The imposition of tuition fees by the government, together with high unemployment, deadend jobs, homelessness, discrimination and lack of apprenticeships, leads to young people feeling alienated from society.

This despair particularly affects the youth among ethnic minorities, who are often 'ghettoised' and forgotten. Many fall victim to crime, drugs and alcohol. This is exacerbated by inequalities in education, where it has been shown that young people from low-income families are less likely to go on to university than those from the high-income bracket.

The Communist Party executive committee will initiate a Party-wide discussion on how best the CP can bring more young people into its ranks – especially those from ethnic minorities – and will consider a new strategic approach to youth through the implementation of a youth programme.

The Communist Party must also become more youth-conscious in its approach to its own publications and those of others.

Discriminatory policing

The draconian curfew adopted by Gwynedd County Council and the North Wales Police against young people in Bangor is yet another example of how young people are systemically discriminated against as part of the drive to re-educate the working class in this country into accepting inferior civil, political and economic rights. It is vital that the labour movement opposes this process as decisively as possible. The incoming Communist Party executive committee will write to Gwynedd County Council and North Wales Police condemning their discriminatory decision and will urge others in the labour movement to do the same.

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oppression and demanding change.

As an urgent priority, the labour movement must campaign against all measures that impoverish and weaken the position of women. It should also champion the demands of women for fairness and justice, vigorously promoting the Charter for Women now endorsed by at least 14 national trade unions. Its campaigning programme for equality in society, at work and in the labour movement (including through the operation of equalities structures) provides the basis for united advance for the working class as a whole.

The introduction of academies and 'Free Schools' is undermining and restricting local educational provision and this privatisation is damaging the quality of education available for working class children.

Attempts to allow academies to employ unqualified teachers must be resisted and condemned as a backward move in education. Further education is being made very expensive and hence beyond the reach of many young people. The Communist Party is committed to the belief that education is a right and that there should be real equality of opportunity in this area.

Young people have also been hit particularly hard by the crisis, with more than one million (22 per cent) aged 16-24 now officially classified as unemployed. These figures do not include 16-18 year olds forced into part-time, short-term and precarious jobs. The question of work for young people can be tackled in part by opposing the extension of working life to 67 and fighting for the 35 hour week. The Communist Party will continue to actively support the development of its youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL).

The labour movement needs to find ways of organising young people, involving them in mass campaigning for decent, well-paid work instead of precarious 'here today, gone tomorrow' jobs, deadend apprenticeships, slave labour 'welfare to work' schemes and free-labour 'internships'. The labour movement should be fighting on behalf of all students in schools and in further and higher education, for a properly state funded education system, resisting the invasion of our education institutions by vested business interests.

The August 2011 riots were sparked by the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, the lies the police told about his death and the mismanagement of the peaceful march against the shooting. The disturbances were fuelled by the despair of unemployment and the lack of alternative activities because of cuts in youth and leisure services, and hostility towards a police force which is perceived by many to be racist and guilty of victimising young people.

However, many of the outbreaks were bouts of mindless violence and opportunistic looting, in which working people and their communities were harmed; they did not have the political content of the 1980s uprisings in Brixton, Toxteth and Handsworth. Some were gang related as in the shooting at police in Birmingham. Clearly, they offer no way forward for young people, while providing the pretext for the introduction of yet more repressive use of the police, courts and modern technology. The excessive and incommensurate sentences being imposed by the courts will create more bitterness, while doing nothing to improve the social conditions that generate alienation, anger and anti-social crime and behaviour.

The devastating cuts, privatisation and eradication of youth services illustrate both the contempt and discrimination that young working class people suffer today. It is crucial that campaigns such as 'in defence of youth work' are given our fullest support to protect young people's services.

The Con-Dem austerity programme has included an unprecedented attack on the benefit entitlements and social facilities for disabled people. Recent sponsorship of the Paralympic Games has focused attention and action against the takeover of formerly public sector services by multinationals. ATOS has been exposed for working to government targets to strip many disabled people of their benefits while profiting from this government contract. The labour movement, including the trade unions, should support and follow up the direct action taken by UK Uncut and others to drive home the message that

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'deficit reduction' is indeed a cover for privatisation.

The campaign of disabled workers, many of them highly skilled, to resist government plans to People with disabilities close 36 Remploy centres across Britain deserves Disabled people’s longstanding campaigns for the solidarity of the whole trade union greater autonomy and rights to determine their movement and an unqualified commitment from own support arrangements have been hijacked, the Labour Party leadership to reopen them first by the New Labour clique and now with when in office. Remploy factories should be kept greater ferocity by the ConDem government in open to ensure disabled workers are given hope pursuit of their objective to put an end to the and a future. It should be noted that the closures public provision of services and welfare. are intended to save £25m in public expenditure, In particular, direct payment schemes force after £1,400,000m has been pledged or made individuals to become 'employers' and use available to bail out Britain's banks and financial independent – often profit-making – 'brokers' to markets (including £375,000m in 'quantitative source services from the private sector, leading easing'). to the erosion of social services departments.

At a time when the government is closing This further destroys workers' terms and Remploy factories, leaving disabled workers conditions in the care sector, diverts resources facing an uncertain future, much of the work they from communal and collective provision and is do is intended to be carried out by prisoners profoundly damaging for service users and who are paid slave wages in what has become workers alike. known as 'Prisonfare'. Many of the goods the Still worse, the cancerous growth of parasitical prisoners produce are in direct competition with for-profit 'care providers' is a direct channel for other companies covered by minimum wage public money into private pockets. The CP legislation, including Remploy. Where prisoners supports an alternative vision for disabled are doing this type of work, whether inside HM people based on a societal approach to remove prisons or when bused to external companies, the barriers that they face and to develop they should be paid at least the rate for the job collective provision of the support they choose. to protect the terms and conditions of existing This vision needs to be built by our party with workforces. disabled people in struggle, illustrating new But the greatest physical dangers posed by the models of public and not-for-profit support, economic and social crisis are to our black and provision and mainstream service reform. ethnic minority citizens. At times like this, unscrupulous politicians, the big business media and racist and fascist organisations invariably step up their propaganda and activities, in order to divert people's attention from the real causes of the crisis and the real purpose of right-wing remedies, or to otherwise promote their own anti-working class agenda.

Yet the reality is that black youth have suffered most in the post-2007 recession. While unemployment rose by at least a half among all sections of young people (aged 16-24) between 2006 and 2011, the biggest increase has been among young black men, from 33 to 56 per cent.

All attempts by the racists and fascists to take their message onto the streets, including the turn to violent attacks on left and progressive organisations by the 'English Defence League' and other racist and fascist organisations, must be resisted by mass mobilisations wherever appropriate, together with detailed work in local communities. The Communist Party resolutely opposes racist and religious bigotry and condemns attacks on mosques, synagogues and other places of worship. Communists condemn attempts to demonise Muslims and to use the press to harass religious minorities.

Fascist forces also continue to target lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in violent attacks and vicious propaganda campaigns. LGBT people also continue to be subjected to discrimination and harassment at work, in their daily lives and in transacting goods and services including public services.

Nonetheless, the labour movement must also fulfil its responsibilities to campaign for policies that will

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erode the economic and social basis for racism, by providing decent education, jobs, social facilities, public services and democratic rights for all, taking positive action to eliminate the deep-rooted inequalities in our society. In particular, the left and the labour movement (including the Communist Party) have a duty to campaign against the racist provisions in Britain's immigration, asylum and nationality laws.

The threat of the far right must be opposed peacefully at every possible opportunity. This threat cannot and should not be underestimated by communists, and we must fight to undermine racism and fascism culturally and electorally – not by resorting to the tactics of ultra-left organisations, using unprovoked violence, alienating working class communities and giving the far right more justification to resort to violent measures. In cases where mass mobilisation is not achievable, comrades must be secure in the knowledge that the Communist Party supports the defence of themselves and those around them by appropriate means, as circumstance dictates.

The national question and working class solidarity Decision-making should be made as responsive and accountable to the working class and the people as is possible in a capitalist society.

Thus the Communist Party has long supported substantial The national question and devolution of power from the highly centralised British state to constitutional reform the nations of Britain – including substantial economic and The incoming CP executive financial powers – as well as to the regions and localities. We committee will establish a shortalso advocate a parliamentary chamber for England and an allBritain assembly as part of a federal republic. An elected head of life commission which will, within a 12 month period, bring forward state could be made accountable to the majority of the people proposals for constitutional reform and not an elite minority. It is essential that such an all-Britain within Britain. Such a report federal assembly and government would use its powers to should make recommendations on stimulate regional economies and redistribute wealth through a how to develop and take forward progressive taxation system. within the labour movement a new To maximise the power that can be devolved now also constitutional settlement for the requires the repatriation of powers from the European Union nations of Britain, building on the to Britain and its constituent parts. decisions of the 52nd Congress, However, in the current conditions, the Communist Party specifically on the Left Wing opposes the separation of Scotland or Wales from the rest of Programme and the Party’s Britain, while upholding absolutely the right of nations to independence should their peoples so choose. In our estimation support for the People’s Charter. at present, any benefits from Scottish or Welsh independence would not outweigh the disadvantages likely to arise from economic dislocation, the upsurge in competing nationalisms and, most critically, the rupture in the working class and progressive unity built by the peoples of Scotland, England and Wales through two centuries of struggle and solidarity. The resulting divisions between workers would be used to ensure that any economic benefits from separation would accrue to monopoly capital in each nation.

Britain's Road to Socialism argues that 'a united challenge to British state-monopoly capitalism will require a high level of working class and progressive coordination and unity, maximising the democratic potential of national rights in Scotland and Wales and minimising the scope for division'. The unity of British monopoly capital would survive national separation largely intact, while the division of Britain's labour and progressive movements would immediately weaken their capacity to challenge and overthrow state-monopoly capitalism.

That is why our opposition to such a trajectory is revolutionary and strategic, and not based on British unionism or nationalism. Independence on the terms set by the SNP would simply divide parliamentary institutions without breaking the power of British state-monopoly capitalism. Scotland would remain

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part of the sterling area, within the EU and also within NATO. Meanwhile, in the short to medium term at least, England would be a particularly aggressive, nuclear-armed force in international affairs allied to the USA. The key economic levers of government policy would continue to be controlled by British finance capital – which would also remain the predominant owner of Scotland’s productive resources.

The labour movement and the Labour Party The fight against British and EU austerity and privatisation policies, the work to build a broad movement in which the People's Charter comes to the fore, will throw into sharper focus the labour movement's crisis of political representation.

Despite the intensification of the class struggle over the recent period, the Labour Party leadership has not given support to workers in struggle or broken decisively from New Labour policies, despite gestures in that direction in an attempt to keep the organised working class movement on board. In fact the Labour Party leadership has served the ruling class in arguing the need for austerity measures, supporting pay cuts and attacking workers taking industrial action.

As the Communist Party's Open Letter to Workers, Socialists and the Labour Movement (2011) put it: 'The refusal of the Labour Party leadership to fight for policies that would defend public services, jobs, wages and pensions and so revive economic growth highlights the extent to which the interests of the labour movement ... go largely unrepresented in the House of Commons'.

The Open Letter raised the question of how the labour movement can best ensure that its collective voice and interests are represented in the Westminster parliament, putting forward proposals for unions to make financial donations to the Labour Party conditional on solidarity from the Labour leadership with workers in struggle, and for affiliated and non-affiliated unions and the TUC to convene conferences to consider the crisis of political representation in the labour movement.

Although some trade union leaders have made some of these points in similar terms, our proposals have yet to be taken up widely in the labour movement. Yet the movement's continuing failure to do so could have dire consequences for the working class and peoples of Britain.

Clearly, it is essential that the Con-Dem regime be removed from office at the earliest opportunity. It is an unelected, illegitimate government even in terms of bourgeois democracy. If the labour movement fails to bring down the Con-Dems before their term of office expires in 2015, they must be dealt a crushing defeat at the General Election. This can only mean their replacement by a Labour government.

No other left-wing coalition or range of left candidates could conceivably win a parliamentary majority, although the fact that some credible candidates are likely to emerge from some trade union or campaigning groups will demonstrate continuing anger and despair with the Labour leadership.

However, an unchanged Labour Party, controlled by a clique at the top rather than by the labour movement, will not even try to implement policies that challenge finance capital, the City of London and the EU. Sooner rather than later, disillusionment will set in and the conditions created for the return of an even more reactionary government, one likely to be committed to destroying whatever might be left of the public sector (other than the agencies of rule and repression) and removing much of whatever remains in terms of trade union and employment rights.

Far from solving the crisis of political representation for workers and the labour movement, that crisis would most likely get worse as the Labour leadership would undoubtedly claim the party's votes as an endorsement of their pro-monopoly capitalist, pro-EU, pro-NATO policies.

Therefore, a strategy must be developed to ensure that the labour movement reclaims and once more has its own mass party – one which is capable of winning elections, forming a government and enacting policies in the interests of the working class and people generally. Simply repeating calls for the labour movement to reclaim the Labour Party are not sufficient. Communists need to work on the ground, to shift attitudes to the left.

In the Communist Party's view, the first steps should include stepping up the pressure to win the trade

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unions and the TUC to the kind of initiatives in the Open Letter, set out above.

However, the driving force in any successful strategy will be mass extra-parliamentary action and the building of a mass movement in favour of the kind of policies in the People's Charter, the Charter for Women and the Left Wing Programme.

Any Labour or social-democratic government committed to reforming but maintaining the capitalist system would immediately come under enormous pressure from monopoly finance capital to conform to its agenda. Every attempt would be made to use the intensity of the capitalist crisis to compel a Labour government in or before 2015 to maintain anti-working class policies. From now until the election, therefore, the labour movement and the left need to argue the urgency and practicality of policies needed to rescue the productive economy and to explain that, historically, the ruling class has been compelled to retreat when faced with sufficient pressure from below. In particular the trade unions, the TUC and the left should make every effort to win the Labour Party to the type of policies set out in the People's Charter and the Charter for Women.

Building the mass movement that would help bring down the Con-Dems, elect a Labour government and exert the maximum possible pressure upon it is the pre-requisite for solving the problem of labour movement representation under capitalism. This includes a struggle to strengthen and rebuild the democratic structures within the Labour Party which were undermined or destroyed during the New Labour era, and which provide the means for the Labour movement to exert influence over its mass

Housing The Communist Party believes that everyone should have a decent, warm, secure, home they can afford as part of our vision for the future of Britain.

We condemn the failure of the ConDem government to address the need for decent, secure, affordable housing in England – preferring instead to slash spending on housing and pursue reactionary policies such as increasing the subsidies available for the sell-off of council housing to tenants.

The ConDem government has taken further the calls that Labour ministers had already made to turn social housing into a form of generally short-term provision for the 'deserving' poor.

The right to a home can be found in international documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, but communists know that capitalist governments have failed to deliver on these post-war promises.

The Communist Party will play its part in developing and campaigning for a rounded, immediate alternative which would include:  A massive programme of house building for rent, led by local councils.  A major increase in the rights of tenant organisations and individual tenants.  Effective controls on the quality and cost of private rented accommodation.  A programme to combat fuel poverty and deaths from winter cold by tackling heat loss.  Availability of adaptations and specialist accommodation for those people with disabilities.  An end to discrimination in housing law of all kinds, including that suffered by gypsies and travellers.

The CP will ensure that its local organisations support campaigns like Defend Council Housing and demands that Labour-run councils in England demonstrate the difference they can make – especially in the shire counties, where housing is the main responsibility not held by county councils.

The Communist Party’s Housing commission will work to develop a housing strategy to guide the party's work and policy in this area.

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party.

Perspectives for the labour movement reclaiming the Labour Party should include some indicators of progress and appropriate responses at particular times. For example, if the kind of proposals contained in the Open Letter are not taken up and Labour-affiliated unions do not campaign in a more determined, planned and co-ordinated way to affect changes in policy and, if necessary, the leadership of the Labour Party, then this will represent an abdication of their responsibilities – and will indicate that the Communist Party and its allies have not succeeded in mobilising a sufficiently coherent mass movement.

The depth of the current crisis, the extreme options facing British finance capital and the consequences for both the productive economy and the political base of the current government combine to create a new political situation. In these circumstances there exists an unprecedented opportunity to mobilise an anti-monopoly alliance, with the trade union movement at its heart, that has the potential to change the orientation of the Labour Party.

If successful, the struggle to achieve such an alliance will create new political forces with the political clarity and numbers needed to transform the trade union movement. It will be through the democracy of this movement that decisions will need to be taken on the future character of its political representation.

If, on the other hand, despite being in Opposition throughout the deepest capitalist crisis and the most ferocious ruling class offensive for 80 years, the Labour Party goes into the next General Election with its current anti-working class policies largely intact, this will indicate that the struggle to reclaim the Labour Party has thus far been unsuccessful. In those circumstances, the Communist Party will have to intensify its efforts within the labour movement to raise the need for the movement to re-establish its mass party of labour. The process of re-establishment would have to involve substantial sections of the trade union movement, for which a number of smaller unions and left-wing groups would not be a substitute.

Should the TUC not convene a special conference to discuss working class political representation, some of the major trade unions would have to be won to the position of bringing together the broadest possible range of labour movement organisations to discuss how to resolve the question of parliamentary representation.

The Morning Star The Morning Star has an irreplaceable role to play in all the major battles now facing the labour, progressive and left-wing movements as an agitator, educator and organiser. In particular, its editorial line based on the approach set out in Britain's Road to Socialism, helps to promote political clarity in the labour and progressive movements. In furthering this role, the editor and staff are to be congratulated for publishing articles and features that can attract a wider readership.

Evidence to the Leveson Inquiry has patently demonstrated the corrupt relationships between media owners, the capitalist monopolies, politicians, the government and the state. In this light, the labour movement should celebrate the Morning Star's unique qualities as the only truly independent, cooperatively owned daily title in Britain and the only daily English-language socialist paper in the world.

Today, the paper has a much stronger base of support in the labour movement, with eight national trade unions representing over half of the total TUC membership now represented on the paper’s management committee. Supportive unions have sponsored free distribution of tens of thousands of free copies at conferences and major events, such as the March 26 TUC in 2011 demonstration and the annual Durham Miners' Gala.

The Morning Star, as the only national newspaper not under the control of big business, delivers the message of socialism and peace daily. However withholding information is a common tactic in a reactionary society such as ours and the Morning Star is not treated like other newspapers by national broadcasting media.

The Communist Party will work with socialists in the Labour Party and in the trade unions to step up

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Media and communications The CP has made considerable improvements in its propaganda and organisational work since the 51st congress, particularly by enhancing the quality and increasing its use of the internet and digital, film and social media, both centrally and by district and local party organisations.

The greatly increased range and quality of printed and published material compares very favourably with parties and political organisations with much greater resources than our party.

Electronic communication and social media continue to grow and develop and many CP organisations and individual comrades have successfully engaged with these new opportunities to promote the Party, its activities and the Morning Star.

However, there are the negative aspects to some of these technological developments:  They allow naive views to flourish about internet 'democracy' and the efficacy of internet campaigns.  They encourage the broadcasting of trivia.  They encourage participation on an individual rather than a collective basis.  They are immediate and can encourage short-circuiting of due process.  They are vulnerable to manipulation by anonymous agencies, from mischievous individuals and agent-provocateurs to concerted action by state agencies at critical times.  They can detract from face-to-face campaigning in workplaces and on the streets with printed materials.

The use of digital publishing (via Issuu for example) is a valuable addition to the Party's propaganda armoury, as is the increased range and frequency of Our History and Manifesto Press publications, Party Organiser, Party newsletters and Unity!. The incoming CP executive committee will investigate the viability of more closely co-ordinating these initiatives, including the possibility of producing Unity! in both printed and digital versions on a monthly or more frequent basis, as well as at conferences etc.

But we condemn the ongoing boycott of the Morning Star by the BBC and its negative portrayal of socialist perspectives and alternatives and of the working class and its aspirations.

The Communist Party urges its members and supporters to protest at every opportunity to the BBC, whenever it shows anti-trade union, anti-progressive or pro-war bias in any of its coverage.

In an unfavourable media climate with a dominant monopoly media, where working class and revolutionary political views are routinely excluded, it is particularly important for the communist message to be clear and consistent. Accordingly, the CP executive committee will prepare clear guidelines on the presentation of the party's image and messaging, paying particular attention to the need for simple, easy to use graphics, consistent typography and standard formats for leaflets, pamphlets, broadsheets and posters in both printed and digital form.

In general, it is particularly important to protect the exclusive use of the hammer and sickle symbol conferred by the Electoral Commission, enhancing its unique branding and powerful association with the world revolutionary and working class movement. This is especially embodied in the continuing and exclusive use of our distinctive hammer and sickle emblem designed by Eric Gill, first used on the masthead of the Daily Worker. However, this will be

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mainly used for illustrative, historical and merchandise purposes, leaving the hammer and dove as the primary symbol used in central publications.

Over the next two years, the Communist Party will seek to build effective external communications through strategic and operational planning and by centrally organised training, coordination and support of activists.

Communications strategy The incoming CP executive committee will set up a working group to draft a long-term strategy, detailing objectives, key target audiences, communication methods and evaluation. In particular, this will look at means to monitor the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the Party’s engagement with screen-based communication and social media, and to advise the EC accordingly.

Media training The CP executive committee will consider organising a practical and theory-based propaganda school to assist party organisations in their agitation and propaganda work.

In order to be more effective in projecting the Party in print media, training will be offered in: writing letters and press releases to newspapers; pitching ideas and giving interviews to press media journalists; and writing articles.

To gain access to radio and television, training will be offered in: giving live and pre-recorded interviews; taking part in panel discussions; and pitching ideas to broadcasting media journalists.

To improve the effectiveness of locally produced materials, training will be made available in: marketing; graphic design and typography; and strategies for marketing and distribution.

The EC will coordinate with Party districts and nations to establish: Working relationships with journalists (both inside and outside the Morning Star).

Opportunities for regular radio interviews.

Trained press officers in each district/nation to oversee press relations.

Collectives of trained designers in each district and nation.

Quality control systems to be applied to external communications.

Public relations and marketing materials with content and design aimed at target audiences.

The above points will be reassessed and built upon at the Communist Party's 53rd congress.      

It’s 'Our History' The importance of labour history has always been recognised by Marxist-Leninists as an important weapon in the class struggle. The re-establishment and work of the Communist Party History Group is critical to this and CP members are encouraged to support its efforts both nationally and locally Party branches should designate an officer to collate local labour movement and Communist Party history materials in their area. Oral recordings should be made and digitised of Party members and local activists. Party branches should endeavour to run local history workshops wherever possible and also send delegates to national meetings and events.

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pressure on the controllers of the publicly-owned BBC for the Morning Star to be given coverage in 'What the Papers Say', 'Newsnight' and other news and current affairs programmes on BBC radio and television.

Culture A strong working class culture is essential to the health of a strong working class movement.

While not losing sight of maintaining political and theoretical leadership, a focus on promoting and supporting working class cultural activity of all kinds would greatly benefit the Communist Party.

Intellectual copyright and the internet Communists are generally in favour of an open approach to intellectual copyright and Internet freedom, with the strong proviso that fascists and racists should be totally denied the right to peddle their totally unacceptable views.

But efforts to establish international treaties to protect international copyright and patent law militate against intellectual and internet freedom. In particular, any clamping down on the use of generic medicines in the developing world and the forcing of impoverished countries to pay exorbitant costs for patented drugs to treat HIV/Aids and other illnesses is morally wrong and unacceptable.

Worryingly, the US administration is also pressing its use of extradition treaties to protect corporate rights in the intellectual sphere, which is inconsistent with internet freedom.

However, we broadly support the principle campaigned for by the Musicians’ Union that artists should be able to choose and control the use and distribution of their music in a digital world where creative workers should be able to reap the full fruits of their labour.

Full advantage now needs to be taken of this new level of trade union support and of the dedication of Morning Star staff who have negotiated potentially beneficial new printing and distribution arrangements.

These will further enhance the value of the paper by substantially advancing its news deadline.

Therefore, the challenge for the left, progressive and labour movements – including the Communist Party – is to translate this potential into more daily readers, which is the key to the paper's survival and future prosperity.

The development of more local Morning Star Readers & Supporters Groups will be essential both for winning new readers and for winning progressive and left wing positions locally The Morning Star's financial situation remains very difficult and paper sales are essential to its survival. It is vital that Communist Party members buy the Morning Star daily now that distribution problems are a thing of the past. Members should also be encouraged to make contact with the paper when involved in local or national campaigns and engage with the paper's development through Readers & Supporters Groups.

Building the daily circulation of the Morning Star is a prerequisite not only for building the popular democratic anti-monopoly alliance but for strengthening the size and influence of the Communist Party.

The Communist Party The task of the Communist Party is to play a leading role in turning the deepening economic and financial crisis of world capitalism into a political crisis for the ruling class. This is best achieved by focusing on the contradictions within capitalist Britain and within the position of British imperialism at the international level, analysing the principal contradictions and organising within the labour and progressive movements to expose these clearly.

To meet this challenge the Communist Party needs to be bigger and better. The party will continue to

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improve its organisation at all levels, with a view to deploying our limited resources in the most effective way, while making use of the experience and interests of every member. The party will also intensify its efforts to involve all members and contacts in regular, systematic Marxist education, and to extend the sales of Communist Review.

The Communist Party's electoral work reflects our more general strategy of building a popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance based on the labour Local election work movement. In local elections, we need to maximise the number of CP candidates standing on the basis of building popular The Communist Party recognises resistance to austerity and privatisation and mobilising on local the value of its branches standing issues. in local elections. It is an excellent For the 2014 EU elections, discussions should begin urgently way of getting our party on the to investigate how to maximise the demand for a progressive map and in people's homes. The alternative to the EU and ensure the fullest involvement of the incoming CP executive committee trade union movement. will draw up guidelines for branch In the next General Election, the Communist Party will call for election campaigns and, wherever a Labour victory as the only realistic way of defeating the Tories possible, its members will set an and replacing the Con-Dem coalition. The CP will also aim to example by standing as candidates stand a significant number of candidates either in the name of themselves. the Communist Party, or as part of a 'Unity for Peace and Socialism' alliance in which the Communist Party plays a major and public role; an alliance which recognises the need for a Labour victory and whose policies reflect those of the People's Charter.

Our intention on every front must be to help strengthen working class and popular organisations through mass and militant activity, so that they contribute to the development of a broad, popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance. Our policies, strategy and tactics – and the work of Party organisations and individual members – must be determined in the light of these objectives.  NO TO AUSTERITY, PRIVATISATION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION!  FOR THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER AND A PEOPLE'S BRITAIN!  BUILD THE LABOUR MOVEMENT AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY!

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Communist Party finance and organisationCommunist Party

The Communist Party notes Lenin’s powerful and sobering remark that 'in its struggle for power, the proletariat has no other weapon but organisation'. This is even truer for the Communist Party, in our aim to be the leading detachment of the working class.

The CP – much more than other organisations – is far more than the sum of its parts. This arises from our adherence to the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism and to the revolutionary organisational practice of democratic centralism.

The Communist Party, almost uniquely on the left, has been able to develop a clear strategic perspective of how to end capitalism and replace it with socialism, starting with a clear understanding of where the working class movement actually is, and not where we might like it to be. As Marx put it, 'The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of that future movement'.

We punch well above our weight within the labour and progressive movements, due to the strength & relevance of our analysis, the calibre & quality of our cadres, the hard work & selfless dedication of our activists, and through our organisational coherence & effectiveness.

However, we remain a membership of around 1,000 in a population of around 60 million. We need as an organisation to significantly increase and enhance our impact, role and contribution, to more systematically increase our membership, and to convert expressions of interest into genuine and sustained applications for membership.

Recently our party has taken a more bold and innovative outward facing role, projecting our positive image and profile within the wider movement in a more self-confident and systematic way as well increasing our activism and public contribution. However, this increasingly outward and expansionary role needs to be supported and complemented by greater attention to internal organisational effectiveness and functioning.

Membership dues. Although the new dues system agreed at our 51st congress has been successfully implemented, it is with concern we note that the majority of districts/nations appear unable to deliver agreed annual dues collection and return targets.

The regular payment of dues is an essential condition for membership of the Party and to be a communist. The Party will strive for much greater vigour and verification to ensure that those declared as being members are bone fide and do pay their dues regularly, and for district and nation committees to work very closely with branches in this regard.

An area of significant financial risk is where members do not pay dues by direct debit to the Party centrally but 'via local branch', and this seems to be one of the reasons for the financial shortfall faced by the Party each year.

All branches will strongly encourage those members identified as 'paying via local branch' to switch to direct debit in line with agreed Party policy– and for district and national committees to work closely with branches in this regard.

Where members continue to pay via local branch, district and national committees are called upon to work very closely with branches to ensure that all such dues are being regularly paid, collected and returned to the Party centrally in a timely manner.

In some circumstances it may not be possible for a member to continue to pay dues and/or it may not be appropriate (e.g. due to physical or mental frailty) to approach them. If the local party organisation feels the member should continue to be in the CP, the correct thing is for either the local or the higher party organisation to pay their dues on their behalf.

All branches, nations and districts will ensure that membership lists are verified as being accurate and up to date, that all declared members are paying dues or having them paid on their behalf, and that all dues are being returned to Party centre, with a view to achieving as close to possible as a 100 per cent compliance with targets for 2013.

District/nation committees have a key responsibility for ensuring their declared membership lists are accurate and all members are paying dues.

Branch organisation and functioning. While Party membership can be dispersed across a large geographical areas, nonetheless, the branch is the primary party organisation for all members

and nd the key for communists to operate as a collective, to develop as communists, and to impact 52 Congress Report Page 27 on the wider movement in a coherent and coordinated manner.

All branches need to be operating and functioning at a minimum level in order to maintain the existing communist collectives and to create the basis for growth and expansion.

If large parts of the geography of Britain are covered by party organisations on paper only, we will fail to convert people interested in socialist or communist ideas and politics – who perhaps are coming into contact with communists for the first time – into new members. People will not take the big personal step of applying to join the Communist Party, if there is no actual local organisation to join.

All district/national committees will work with branches in their localities to ensure that all branches: Properly call an Annual General Meeting to review the previous year, plan for the forthcoming year, approve a financial statement of branch income and expenditure and elect key officers and/or a Branch Committee. Consider the Party’s annual Campaign Plan, discuss and agree how to implement it locally. Elect key officers (secretary, chair, treasurer) and others as appropriate, identifying and updating these to the district/ national committee and Party centre, to ensure they can be communicated with appropriately. Meet on a regular basis, perhaps monthly, to discuss political and local issues, activities in their trade union, workplace and other relevant groups, and how to build the Party. Meet perhaps once a quarter to study the science of Marxism-Leninism and its application, including the use of Party publications such as the Communist Review as well as more classical texts, either as part of the regular branch meeting or in addition to it. Ensure that all branch members are paying dues and that these are being returned correctly to either the district committee or Party centre. Ensure that all members are buying, reading and promoting the Morning Star. Follow up all expressions of interest in the Party in a timely manner. Encourage all branch members to attend and contribute to meetings. Where members are unwilling or unable to attend, appropriate steps should be taken to ensure that they are kept fully informed of local and central Party news, and kept as involved as possible. Encourage members to be active in their trade union, seeking election to office and representing their trade union on local trades union councils. Are affiliated to the Cuba, Venezuela and Palestine solidarity campaigns and prioritise work in these locally or nationally. Hold shares in the Peoples Press Printing Society and are represented at PPPS AGMs. Keep a running contact list of all those who have expressed interest in the Party, in order to publicise local and national Party and Party supported activity as well as key political messages from the Party. Consider who in their trade union, progressive organisation or elsewhere should be a member of the Communist Party and how they might be approached. Are represented at major national events organised by the Party or the Morning Star. Consider holding one public meeting a year to raise the profile of the Party, perhaps targeting towns and localities where there is no current communist presence for activity, where possible to be supported by neighbouring branches and district committees. Aim for one annual event of social nature, perhaps using it for local fund-raising. This might aid the cohesiveness of the branch and make contact and develop relations with a wider circle of people.

Where branches cover large geographical areas (e.g.. more than one county), they should consider developing local “collectives”, supported by the main branch, with a view to new branches being formed over time.

District/nation committees should work with branches in a constructive & supportive way to help them achieve their fullest potential, improve overall organisational effectiveness, increase recruitment & membership, and enhance the wider influence and leading role of the Party.

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Communist Party Main International Resolution Together for our future! A world to win!

The capitalist crisis and the balance of world forces The world economic crisis continues, the most severe since the 1930s. Compared with that of the 1930s, however, the global impact of the current crisis has so far been more uneven. Major economies in the developing world, particularly those with strong state intervention such as China and Brazil, have continued to grow fast and in doing so have maintained world demand for primary products. This, in turn, has sustained the pace of growth in large parts of Africa and Latin America. The resulting shift in the focus of economic growth away from the major imperialist powers has continued for half a decade and is beginning to consolidate new economic and political alignments.

At the same time, the weight of economic and military power continues to be overwhelmingly with the US and other imperialist centres and their political and economic response to the crisis remains the determining factor. The G7 leading imperialist states are determined to impose their monopoly dominance over world markets, to open up new reserves of exploitable labour and, as far as possible, shift the burden of crisis on to working people – with women particularly exposed.

Currently, the economic crisis appears to be entering a new and more dangerous phase. In the US and Japan, economic growth is only sustained by currency depreciation and a further inflationary expansion of credit. In the European Union (EU), the systemic crisis of uneven development threatens a new destabilisation of the international banking system.

These developments explain the increasingly aggressive economic and political moves by the imperialist powers, particularly the US, to assert their interests.

US strategy Under President Obama, the US has set itself three main international policy objectives, namely to:  Reinforce its politico-economic dominance over the Pacific region, including China, as the new primary area for intervention.  'Normalise' relations with the ‘Muslim world’ as the basis for retaining control over the energy resources of the greater Middle East.  Re-set its relations with Russia and to involve European members of NATO more systematically in securing US global hegemony.

The US has succeeded in consolidating alliances in the Pacific, especially with South Korea and Japan, and increased its dominance in subsidiary economies such as the Philippines and Indonesia. It has failed in its objective to further strengthen its hegemony over the Middle East, notably in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

On the other hand, the US views the regime change in Libya as representing a significant extension of its influence in both North and Central Africa and as a model for future intervention – particularly in Syria. Replacing the existing government in Syria is seen as key to redressing reduced US influence in Iraq, reversing the balance of power in Lebanon and isolating Iran – as a necessary preliminary to any intervention. Overall, the US determination to maintain control of energy resources across the Middle East, from South Sudan to the Persian Gulf, represents the biggest immediate threat to world peace.

The US sees the EU, and the dominant powers within it, as central to the development of NATO as a vehicle of US influence and intervention across Eastern Europe, Africa and the Near East. It also sees the EU as a key economic vehicle for enabling US banks, based in the City of London, to dominate European financial markets. On the other hand, Germany is the biggest industrial challenger to the US, and Franco

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-German responses to the systemic crisis of the Eurozone are likely to pose further political challenges to both the US and its ally, Britain.

The systemic crisis of the EU Uneven economic development across the Eurozone, and particularly the monopolisation of industrial production in the core states of the north, has resulted in unsustainable economic contradictions within the single currency area and within the EU's banking institutions.

The unfolding of these contradictions, and the associated assault on living standards and the collective bargaining rights of organised labour, underlines the correctness of our party’s argument that such a union was both unsustainable and deeply reactionary. The effective determination of EU policy by the heads of state of the two dominant powers, the replacement of elected governments by EU nominees and the disregard of the expressed will of electors all illustrate the fundamentally anti-democratic character of the EU and of its founding principle that gives a central place to the politically unlimited freedom of capital.

The Communist Party calls for Britain’s withdrawal from the EU and supports the freedom of all countries to do the same – with a view to reconstructing economic relations on a basis that respects the democratic sovereignty of parliaments and their freedom to adopt policies that reflect the needs of working people. We express our solidarity with those on the front line of resistance in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. We also applaud the growing electoral rejection of neo-liberal policies by the peoples of Europe from France to Slovakia. At the same time our party condemns the increasing freedom given to fascist and racist groupings across the EU and the moves at governmental and EU level to outlaw Communist parties and Communist ideology.

The 2012 EU Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance, and the accompanying Fiscal Treaty, represent a further step in the subordination of the democracy of member states and the imposition of austerity rules that are designed to enforce grave hardship on working people and deprive them of the collective means to resist. They mark a key stage in the drive towards fiscal and political union and the concentration of effective power with the EU Council and a more dominant role for the European Central Bank (ECB) as borrower and lender. The outcome can only be to intensify pressure to give free rein to monopoly power across the EU and a further depression of living standards.

It is also likely to trigger conflicts with Britain and the US over the control of European financial markets. Britain and the US will wish to defend the autonomy of the City of London and its freedom from regulation and EU taxes – but at the same time retain influence within the EU Council. It will therefore be vital for the trade union movement and the left to oppose the City of London agenda and demand a complete break with the neoliberal principles of the EU and to pose alternative, progressive and democratic forms of economic cooperation both with countries in Europe and internationally.

War, disarmament and the peace movement US imperialism and its allies are putting together long term plans for maintaining their position in the face of challenges both from emerging capitalist economies – which will inevitably, if unchecked, rival their domination – and the growing ideological influence and global share of societies that are moving towards socialist economic and political organisation.

Central to these plans is the role of NATO in securing the world for continuation of the old order.

This is being achieved through threats, interventions and wars that wreak havoc, destruction, suffering and death on an unprecedented scale, while the peoples of NATO states pay dearly through everdeepening cuts to jobs, services and living standards. At the same time, new 'defence' strategies and an extended network of NATO partnerships and projects are drawing more and more countries in both the developed and developing world into a 'shared security agenda' and an arena from which they cannot easily extricate themselves. This serves to enrich the military-industrial complexes of the developed world; mitigate to some extent new and emerging inter-capitalist rivalries; embed reactionary

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Campaigning for peace and disarmament The Communist Party recognises that the struggle for peace must be a priority in our work.

Over recent years, the world has become a more dangerous place with Western imperialist states shamelessly aiming to re-divide the world, violating the sovereignty of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya and Syria through military intervention, invasion and occupation. Antiimperialist forces have rightly opposed these predominantly US-led wars because they were wholly unjustified, illegal and brought only death and destruction to those countries.

These military interventions and wars have been waged for the direct purpose of oppressing other nations, of securing by raw aggression and armed force political and economic control and dominance over vast regions of the world. The imperialists have used some of the most terrifying and abhorrent means available to them to force regime change to bring about subjugation and compliance. This has been done by using the latest most advanced ‘screen based’ (and 'emotion absent') weaponry and technology and the obscene use of assassination, torture techniques, drones, secret prisons and other actions outside the law. Millions of people have been killed and maimed and millions displaced – families forced to abandon their homes and flee to other areas within their country or abroad.

The imperialist countries have constantly worked to find ways of convincing their own people to accept their war policy, namely the so called ‘war on terror’. They have created a climate of fear and distrust at home, and they have attempted to demonise peoples and their cultures. The major international media have generally colluded with those advocating aggression and have been seen to distort information about the ‘war on terror’, whether relating to the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or elsewhere. This is in contrast to the Morning Star’s daily reporting of the facts, along with other progressive media reporting, giving due importance to peace initiatives such as those from ALBA (the association of Latin American states), Russia or China that are generally downplayed by the capitalist media.

The statements and actions of Western imperialist politicians and reactionary forces have encouraged armed conflict, fuelling terrorism across the world. In target states, imperialism has encouraged the sabotage of infrastructures, infiltration by mercenaries and the smuggling of weapons. We have witnessed the way in which Libya was systematically destabilised, preparing the ground for military interventions to take place. Currently, we see the imperialists creating and exploiting the divisions within Syria to justify similar action.

The TUC and organised trade union movement have a vital role to play in bringing an end to the ‘war on terror’, and in defence of peace. TUC Congress 2011 noted that the 'war on terror' was still continuing and has failed, after ten years, to bring the promised peace and stability to either the Middle East or the wider world. The Unite motion passed at that congress said: 'It is time Britain disengaged from this conflict and in particular urges the rapid withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan'. While this is to be welcomed, there is much work to be done campaigning for individual trade unions, trades councils and others to affiliate and take part in the work of the peace and anti-war movement.

While the ConDem government is spending huge sums on wars that the majority of the British public oppose, at the same time it is cutting billions from public expenditure, insisting that this is the only way to reduce the national debt. Government cuts are leading to millions of jobs losses – the majority of them affecting women – together with closures and the downgrading of local services & amenities, cuts to allowances for people with disabilities and cuts to housing benefit forcing thousands of families into homelessness. Young people are being denied access to university and college education as a result of exorbitantly high fees

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and the abolition of the EMA. The cuts are hitting the poorest & most vulnerable in our society the hardest and all areas of public life are being affected.

As a Communist Party, we have a specific responsibility to alert the British people, and especially the trade union movement, to the true and full cost of the ‘war on terror’, explaining the links between waging war and cutting welfare. We have to help convince them to support and take action to bring imperialist war to an end. The US-led imperialist wars on the Middle and near East have been supported by successive British governments. The Communist Party demands an end to the British government’s slavish adherence to the interests of imperialism and the US military-industrial complex.

The CP executive committee will therefore:  Carry forward a multi-level campaign against the ‘war on terror’ and threat of future imperialist war and help win the British people for a policy of peace, for unilateral nuclear disarmament, for abolishing Trident, for the removal of all US bases, for a strategy of withdrawal from the NATO alliance.  Liaise closely with and help build the public campaigning work of the broad peace movement, winning support for CND, the Stop the War Coalition and other peace and anti-imperialist organisations.  Ensure that all Party branches contribute to the work of the peace movement, actively support their local peace and stop war groups work, and designate a branch member to take responsibility for developing peace work in a systematic way.  Assist the Party’s trade union advisories to plan a campaign to raise awareness within the trade union movement of the true cost of the ‘war on terror’, with the aim of winning the movement to take up a more active stance against imperialist wars.  Help Party branches and district and nation committees to develop their support for actions taken by the peace movement, and ensure that the Party’s presence, banners and campaigning resources are highly visible at peace and anti-war campaign events.

War criminals The Communist Party supports the call for Tony Blair and George W. Bush to be put on trial at The Hague for War Crimes.

World War One and the Nobel Peace Prize The Communist Party is dismayed by the hypocrisy of the Prime Minister's announcement on October 11, 2012, of establishment-led plans to mark the centenary in 2014 of the start of the imperialist slaughter known as the Great War. The incoming CP executive committee should therefore: Ensure that Party makes clear the real nature of the Great War and its gigantic waste of workers' lives from many lands. Connect in its publications the bloody nature of imperialism 100 years ago with its bloody record in the present day. Draw specific attention to the link between the Great War and the creation of Communist parties separate from 'Socialist' organisations that backed the war. Work as far as possible with Communist parties in other countries to connect the centenary of the outbreak of the War with the next European Parliament elections (also in 2014), in order to debunk the notion of the EU as an international peace organisation, and to condemn the Nobel Peace Prize award to the EU.

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ideology more deeply; and to erect almost insuperable barriers to progressive movements in their quest for democracy, peace and justice in any of the countries concerned.

More than 20 years on from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of eastern Europe, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the much vaunted vision of a peaceful, ordered capitalist world, as promised by the mass media of imperialism, can never come about.

It is imperative that the Communist Party raises awareness in the labour movement, the peace movement and in the public generally that the struggle for peace, defence of national sovereignty and democracy is inherently linked to the struggle for jobs and civil rights in Britain and around the world.

We must campaign for an end to the presence of the armed forces in schools and colleges, particularly presentations by army personnel, which encourage students to regard the military as a force for good and which seek to justify armed interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere where the interests of monopoly capitalism are threatened. We must also expose the true nature of NATO and its link to the further militarisation of the EU under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty.

In the Far East, communists oppose the long-standing attempt to isolate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and to create around it an alliance of reactionary forces led by the US. The unjustified blockade of the DPRK poses dangers of still wider conflict.

In South America, Britain's communists condemn the continuing imposition of British colonial rule over the Malvinas Islands with the objective of securing control over the region’s oil resources and maintaining a strategic base in the South Atlantic. We call for the return of these islands to Argentina and the resettlement of any residents wishing to return to Britain.

The Communist Party will campaign for:  The immediate withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan and support the work of Stop the War Coalition to halt further interventions in Syria or Iran.  An end to plans for the renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system and support the work of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament for comprehensive nuclear disarmament and cessation of the production, deployment and threat of use of all weapons of mass destruction.  The cessation of the use of non-discriminate weaponry such as drones and smart bombs.  Britain’s withdrawal from NATO and support the World Peace Council in its demand for the dissolution of NATO under the slogan ‘Peace Yes, NATO No!’  Building support for the World Peace Council within the British peace movement.

The Communist Party also supports the National Assembly of Women and the Women’s International Democratic Federation in their promotion of the fundamental tenet that peace is a prerequisite for justice and freedom from oppression and exploitation for women and their families everywhere.

The Middle East US imperialism, its NATO allies and the state of Israel, remain determined to control the geographically contiguous area from North Africa to Pakistan and from the Sahara, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean to the borders of Europe, Russia and China. This vast region – with its wealth of energy and mineral resources, its ‘life-line’ supply routes by land and sea (including the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and the Red Sea) and its strategic proximity to major developing economies that rival US interests (Russia, China and India) and other markets in central Africa and Asia – is vital to imperialism's future and will be held by any and every means.

Not only are the peoples of the Middle East prey to the designs and machinations of imperialist powers, they are also subjected to the oppression of right-wing, authoritarian regimes and exploited by the wealthy oligarchies in whose interests these act. These regimes are in many cases inextricably tied in with and aligned to the US and its NATO allies – notably Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Bahrain.

Other regimes, such as Iran, while overtly pursuing interests more independent of imperialism, are anti-

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people, anti-humanitarian and cruelly repressive.

After withdrawing its combat troops from Iraq, imperialism continues to do everything possible to prevent the genuine self determination of the Iraqi people and, to that end, to sow the seeds of sectarian discord and hatred. A similar scenario awaits Afghanistan, where every effort is being made to provoke division on religious, tribal and ethnic grounds, suppress progressive movements and render the country ungovernable without imperialism’s 'support'.

In Iran, following mass popular opposition to the stolen election in June 2009, in which Ahmadinejad gained a second presidential term against the wishes of the electorate, the regime – despite its absolute control – seems more fractured and unstable. The ongoing demand of all left and progressive forces in Iran for human rights, justice and a peaceful and democratic future have provided continuing and effective opposition to the theocratic regime and inspiration to other movements in the region and beyond.

Widespread struggles and uprisings across the region in 2011 against anti-people, oppressive and autocratic rule, collectively referred to as the ‘Arab Spring’, were sparked by acute impoverishment intensified by the global economic crisis. As a result, genuinely popular movements have emerged in countries previously ruled by dictatorships which were, in many cases, allied to the US, Britain, France and others. These are expressing both economic and political aspirations – for freedom from poverty, deep-rooted reforms and democratic change.

Recognising that all processes can be hijacked by nationalist, religious or populist forces and reversed, the forces of imperialism and their regional allies are manoeuvring to ensure that these movements remain within their control. In this context, the significance of the current rise in Islamic fundamentalism and political Islam can best be understood. Hand in hand with attacks on movements and the promotion of societal divisions, the forces of reaction have responded to popular struggle with intensifying attacks, using brute force to secure their strategic interests and introducing in Libya a portable model of regime change with which to threaten and coerce the governments of the region. All this has been done with absolute contempt for the peoples of the countries concerned.

Communists recognise that the aspiration of the peoples of the Middle East is to reside in free, democratic and prosperous countries, in which corruption, poverty and sectarian strife are forever eliminated, and that international solidarity has a vital role to play in realising this. The Communist Party will therefore oppose and campaign against:  Dictatorial and repressive regimes in the Middle East, whether or not they are overtly aligned with the US and its allies.  All external attempts to use reactionary or sectarian forces in any struggle or conflict in the region or to 'turn' progressive movements by subterfuge, deception and propaganda.  Wars, acts of aggression, external intervention or threats of such in any country of the region on any pretext whatsoever, especially those that involve the government, armed forces and industries of Britain.

Britain's communists will support:  Progressive movements and organisations campaigning for peace, justice, democracy and human rights in the Middle East, including CODIR (the Committee for the Defence of Iranian People’s Rights).  Progressive and democratic women’s organisations in the Middle East in their struggle against oppression and for fairness and justice.

Palestine The aggressiveness of Israel towards the Palestinian people is unabated. It continues to occupy and extend occupation, repress, arrest, torture and kill relentlessly.

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Communist Party

The key priority of the Communist Party of Britain's international agenda will be to win all possible support for the implementation of UN Resolution 194. This calls for the creation of a sovereign, Emergency resolution on Gaza viable and independent Palestinian state alongside The Communist Party calls on the UN Security the state of Israel, with its borders of 4 June 1967, Council to demand an immediate halt to Israel’s with Jerusalem as its capital and with the right of military assault on Gaza and calls on the British return for Palestinian refugees. In furtherance of government to issue an unequivocal this goal and to highlight the injustices perpetuated condemnation of Israel’s assassination of Ahmed by the state of Israel, we will campaign for its Jabari. universal boycott, including all things academic, Israel’s continued defiance of UN resolutions cultural, economic, military and political. on the Occupied Territories, its refusal to We support the demands of the Palestinian engage in the UN sponsored peace process with people and their organisations for the restoration the Palestinian Authority and its continued of all that has been taken from them, for rights construction of illegal settlements on the West and freedoms, the cessation of abuse and the Bank together constitute a long-term threat to release of all political detainees, including child world peace that demands coordinated prisoners. The Communist Party of Britain intervention by the United Nations. supports the demand for UN recognition of We call on the British government to support Palestinian statehood and sees it as its particular such intervention including the imposition of duty to campaign for the release of Palestine sanctions on Israel. It demands an end to British Legislative Council member and PLO leader, arms supplies to Israel and calls on the British Marwan Barghouti. We also note the continuing labour movement to increase its efforts to opposition within Israel to the creation of a ensure a full boycott of Israel. sectarian Jewish state, the mass movement The CP reaffirms its demand for the creation developing in the face of deteriorating economic of a separate Palestinian State, alongside the conditions and the positive role of the Communist state of Israel, with its capital in East Jerusalem Party of Israel. and on the basis of pre-1967 borders, as the essential precondition for a just and peaceful Progressive change in Africa and the future for the peoples of Palestine and Israel.

Americas We salute the Palestinian People's Party and the For more than 50 years, since the beginning of the Communist Party of Israel and their consistent decolonisation of Africa, the former colonial work to achieve these objectives. powers have used every means possible to subject that continent to their continuing hegemony in order to plunder its vast natural resources, exploit its labour and control its markets. Today, Africa remains crucial to the designs of imperialism. The imperialist states and their armed forces, together with the transnational corporations whose interests they represent, and local agents of foreign capital (the comprador bourgeoisie who perpetuate neo-colonial interests on behalf of their foreign masters), are securing Africa’s resources for themselves.

All this is being done with absolute disregard for the peoples of Africa, who face underdevelopment and misery. Every opportunity is being taken by imperialism and its allies to create and intensify ethnic and regional tensions. The establishment of imperialist military bases is being extended and support is being given to local autocratic and military regimes.

At the same time, there is an ongoing struggle to liberate the whole of Africa from imperialism and neo -colonialism and to safeguard and strengthen independence. Everywhere the struggle for the legitimate democratic, social and economic rights and aspirations of the peoples continues.

In southern Africa, left and progressive forces led by communists (notably the South African Communist Party) are resolved to deepen the African Revolution beyond decolonisation and to build international solidarity between progressive left forces. In some countries, such as Sudan and Swaziland,

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people have heroically protested against autocracy and poverty and drawn the attention of the world to the abuses perpetuated by their leaders.

Recognition of the crucial role of solidarity and internationalism has been epitomised by the formation of the Africa Left Network Forum (ALNEF), which forges links between left and progressive forces not only within Africa but also with Latin America, Asia and across the world.

In Central and South America, the past 15 years have seen important moves to reject capitalist exploitation and deprivation in a number of countries, including Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Across the region, US-backed military dictatorships and neoliberal governments have been replaced by anti-imperialist governments and regimes committed to achieving national sovereignty, greater democracy and extended rights and participation. While the pathways and processes for achieving these goals differ from country to country, they are nonetheless all focused on similar goals and agreed on the importance of developing mutual cooperation and solidarity. A major milestone and one with great potential has been the creation of the Community of Latin American States (CELAC) in late 2011.

Imperialism has responded to developments in Latin America with threats and offensives against the peoples’ movements, trade unions and progressive forces. The coup in Paraguay follows on the earlier coup in Honduras and the failed coup attempt in Ecuador, as well as ongoing attempts to use localised sympathetic forces to destabilise – often through the use of violent tactics – the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela. Sabotage, both on the infrastructure and the economy, is a common tactic of imperialist forces in South America, and must be viewed and revealed as such. Such counterattacks will continue as left-led gains take root and democratic processes deepen. Colombia has already been turned into a large military encampment of the US, while the notorious US base on occupied Cuban territory at Guantanamo continues. At the same time, Colombia is infamous as the most unsafe place on earth in which to be a trade unionist.

In Britain, the Communist Party will strive to unveil the network of lies and propaganda which is being spread by the state and capitalist media (including the BBC) about developments in Latin America. In particular, we will emphasise the positive steps taken by the group of socialist oriented countries to liberate millions of people from poverty while forming a new transitional relationship between the state and the people.

As US pressures in the region increase, we must be alert on all fronts to the campaign of misinformation against the sovereign and deeply democratic regimes of the region, who are on the road to socialism. Such propaganda campaigns have been seen previously and been the pre-cursor to military intervention in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. The Morning Star has a major role to play in exposing and counteracting these machinations.

Britain's communists welcome the announcement of peace talks in Cuba and Norway between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Santos government. While hoping for a peaceful resolution of Colombia's 50-year civil war, we are mindful that previous peace initiatives have culminated in the mass slaughter of progressive forces. In Britain, therefore, the CP will continue to work closely with Justice for Colombia to maintain the pressure for a peace process that includes civil society and addresses the social inequality at the heart of the conflict.

The Communist Party will support campaigns to remove US military bases from Latin America. It will also campaign for the US 4th Fleet to cease to operate in Latin American ports and waters. Along with such bodies as Justice for Colombia, we will continue to campaign for the right of trade unions to assemble, operate openly and democratically and represent their members’ interests with impunity. At the same time, the CP will support the campaigns of solidarity with progressive Latin American countries and do everything possible to ensure that the gains on behalf of their peoples are protected and consolidated. Particular vigilance will be needed to protect the gains of the Venezuelan people over the coming period, in the face of internal and external subversion.

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Communist Party

International co-operation and solidarity The Communist Party welcomes steps towards the democratisation of the United Nations and the widening of membership of the Security Council. However, we note the continuing predominance of the major imperialist powers, above all the United States, and their ability to exercise a controlling influence both directly and indirectly through pressure on other states. In these circumstances, the continued existence of veto powers in the hands of China and its potential allies in the Security Council remains an important protection against the use of the UN as a front for imperialist aggression.

Britain's communists support the call by the poorer nations of the world for a greater voice The human and civil rights of the and justice in matters of global trade, finance and Kurdish population of Turkey investment.

Internationally, the trade union movement The Communist Party condemns the Turkish represents a significant force for solidarity. The government's continuing denial of the human Communist Party understands the need, in terms and civil rights of the 20 million Kurds living in of trade union affiliations in Britain, to work within Turkey. the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) to We express our great concern for 600 defend and extend trade union and workers rights, Kurdish political prisoners currently on to combat the legacy of Cold War ideology and to indefinite hunger strike. seek broader unity for the struggle ahead. Equally, The CP calls on the Turkish government to we recognise the continuing role of the World respond to their demands for: Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in defending  The right of Kurdish children to be workers’ freedoms and its mass base of support in educated in their mother tongue. parts of Asia, Africa and Europe.  The right to use Kurdish in defence in However, the most crucial area of activity is to trials. win our own trade unions to formulate  Respect for the Kurdish people's progressive international policies and bring democratic rights. pressure to bear on both the current government  Freedom for the Kurdish leader and, most of all, on the Labour Party. To this end, Abdullah Ocalan. the CP should conduct education at a local level that will benefit not only its own members but also those of other progressive organisations, including trade unions and the Labour Party.

It remains the Communist Party’s understanding that the power of finance capital is exercised and enforced through specific imperialist states: finance capital's dependence on state power at this level has been clearly demonstrated during the course of the current financial crisis. For this reason, our prime duty must be to mobilise pressure against the imperialist policies of our own ruling class.

In doing so, a focus on concrete issues is essential. One instance is the EU-India Free Trade Agreement. This seeks to open India’s retail and banking sectors to direct competition from EU and in particular British companies, to dismantle India’s state enterprises and enable British companies to exploit the labour of India’s highly-educated scientists and technicians through unequal and punitive Mode 4 labour contacts in Britain. This issue therefore has the potential to unite trade unionists in both India and Britain, as well as mobilising the influence of the Indian Workers Association in Britain.

International action on climate change The Durban Summit of 2011saw some progress towards a universal recognition of the need for binding limits on carbon emissions, including by such countries as the United States which had previously refused to ratify the original Kyoto Agreement. It also recognised the need for assistance for poorer countries through the setting up of the Green Fund.

However, the deadlines for agreeing specific targets (2015) and implementing them (2020) remain too distant to reduce the pace of global warming significantly, and to bring it below the critical 2 degree

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Bio-fuel production The increasing tendency for transnational corporations to buy up land for the production of cash crops and/or bio-fuels in, for example, Africa, Latin America and eastern Europe, should be condemned as a form of economic colonialism. It stands in opposition to all forms of food sovereignty and sustainability and campaigns against this practice should be rigorously supported.

Deep-mined coal The Communist Party's incoming executive committee will set out the case for deep-mined coal in Britain and its opposition to opencast coal mining, except in special circumstances, and to oppose the nuclear energy programme.

The Communist Party recognises that the demise of deep-mined coal is not because coal is redundant as a source of power, as witnessed by the importation of millions of tons a year from overseas, including countries such as Colombia – with its brutal suppression of trade unionists – Poland, Russia Canada and the US. The Party accepts that global warming needs to be addressed in an extremely serious manner, and that every effort should be made to ensure that safe and plentiful renewable energy sources are put to use as soon as is possible. Other problem areas need to be addressed such as road travel, air travel, poor housing insulation, etc.

But coal cannot and should not be ignored. With hundreds of years' supply under our feet and the use of clean coal technology – which can be improved with more scientific effort – it makes sense to expand our deep-mined coal production, reduce opencast mining and eliminate imports from abroad.

A coal industry, nationalised under democratic control, would be extremely beneficial to Britain for many years into the future. We know from past experience that it can create thousands of valuable jobs and apprenticeships, while also benefiting Britain's balance of payments.

Waste incineration The Communist Party reaffirms its support for the maximum possible recycling of domestic and commercial waste in order to make optimum use of the earth's resources.

The incineration of waste undermines this policy and is promoted by big business in order to maximise corporate profits, especially when projects receive public money.

Incineration of hazardous waste releases toxic and other emissions into the air, produces hazardous 'bottom ash' which requires treatment and disposal, endangers the local environment through leaks and spillage and significantly increases road traffic.

The Communist Party will work with others to initiate, join and support broad-based local campaigns against waste incineration plants, while also supporting the use of alternative technologies such as anaerobic digestion, autoclaving, pyrolysis, plasma gasification and mechanical and biological treatment (BMT), some of which create more local jobs than incineration.

The issue of employment makes it all the more important to involve trades unions and trades councils in local campaigns and to win more unions to oppose waste incineration.

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Communist Party

centigrade level of increase. The consequences, particularly in terms of extreme weather events, desertification and flooding of low lying, densely-populated areas, will disproportionately affect populations living in the poorest regions of the world. This underscores the need for national governments to put legislative pressure on big business to fulfil its environmental obligations.

The Communist Party will strive to highlight the link between imperialism and environmental catastrophe - not only climate change, due to profligate combustion of fossil fuels, but also the resource costs of war and war production, the impact of mineral extraction and bio fuel production on the ecology and food production of developing nations, and the resulting uneven division of global income that sees one billion of the world’s poorest people consuming less than 3 per cent of its energy.

Comprehensive disarmament and an end to the exploitative pillaging of resources must be linked to the demand for binding targets on carbon emissions and the dissemination of green technologies outside the control of the giant capitalist monopolies.

Ireland and Britain’s colonial legacy Every attempt is being made to normalise the inclusion of the northern six counties as part of the territory of the United Kingdom and to establish the belief in Britain that the Good Friday Agreement was an agreement to continued partition. The Communist Party of Britain, on the other hand, remains committed both to ending the legacy of Britain’s long colonial occupation of Ireland and to the peace process.

British and US finance capital still exercises disproportionate economic control over Ireland, Ireland north and south, and continues to exploit the The Communist Party condemns the return of resulting political influence for its own purposes detention without trial to the north of Ireland within the institutions of the EU – with disastrous and calls for the immediate release of Marian consequences for Ireland’s working people. The Price and other prisoners now enduring territorial division of Ireland continues powerfully 'preventive detention'. We also call for the end to inhibit the development of a united working of 'super-grass' trials and the growing use of class movement that can challenge this repression. This is a retrograde step and marks exploitation and assert popular sovereignty in a return to old methods of control that have Ireland. been shown to be a complete failure. We call Therefore, Britain's Communist Party will seek for: to: The release of all those now suffering  Work jointly with comrades in the Irish preventive detention. trade union and progressive movements to Ending of the use of repressive laws. challenge the anti-people policies being Closing and removing all British military imposed by the EU in the interests of installations in the north of Ireland, external finance capital and notably the City including secret service bases and of London. operatives.  Win an understanding in the British trade The repeal of all repressive legislation. union movement of the need to ensure that Britain becomes an active persuader for unity and to see this work as part and parcel of combating the continuing legacy of British imperialism.  Use its influence to encourage those unions which organise in both Britain and Ireland to support the demand for greater economic, social and political co-operation between the North of Ireland and the Irish Republic.  Actively encourage and campaign for the full transfer of fiscal powers from Westminster to the Northern Ireland Executive. The transfer of these powers is an essential part of building greater political, economic and social co-operation between north and south in Ireland, and greater

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integration between the two economies.

Countries on the socialist road The transformation of Cuba that began in 1959 has never ceased and its people continue to actively build socialism, defend their revolutionary gains and inspire and support progressive change in the countries of Latin America. They have made it plain that their national security, independence and identity are rooted in the transformation of Cuba into a socialist society based on the belief that human beings have an unlimited capacity to make history. Their current struggle to transform the economy and tackle economic inefficiency takes place in a hostile environment, in the face of every attempt by imperialism to isolate and crush the Cuban Revolution including an economic blockade that has now continued for over half a century.

The people of Cuba have said that they can remain committed and united because of the support of others. The Communist Party of Britain is committed to the Cuban Revolution and will continue to show solidarity with the Cuban people, supporting the work of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in every way and all actions to end the US blockade of Cuba. We will also continue to demand the release of the Cuban Five, four of whom remain in prison and one under house arrest in Miami.

Britain's communists also express solidarity with the countries in Latin America which are taking varying steps towards a progressive or socialist future such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Brazil and Argentina. We recognise that the process these countries are going through is fraught with difficulties and contradictions, and we have also seen examples of imperialism rolling back progress in Honduras and Paraguay. The CP in Britain will continue to support the work of bodies such as Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, which publicise the achievements and social progress in these countries as well as countering the hostile propaganda and misinformation of the capitalist mass media.

Britain's communists also welcome the advances made by the South African Communist Party (SACP), whose membership has now topped 150,000. SACP participation in the Tripartite Alliance supporting the ANC government enables the development of class politics and a socialist programme that will benefit the majority of the people of South Africa.

China’s increasing economic and political influence has been a major factor in the avoidance of global conflict and the provision of support for countries seeking to undertake their own independent economic development. China’s declared commitment to maintain progress towards a socialist society, its achievement in lifting over 600 million people out of absolute poverty and its ability to use state power to direct economic development provide a key object lesson that it is possible for working people to secure economic progress without subordination to the power of big business. Other countries on the socialist road, including Vietnam and Laos, have continued to achieve significant economic and social advances.

At the same time, we need to be aware that these countries’ openness to the global capitalist market and their widening income differentials could create circumstances of political vulnerability. The Communist Party of Britain will therefore remain vigilant and oppose all attempts by the imperialist powers to create opportunities for intervention, destabilisation and counter-revolution. We also recognise that the possible restoration of capitalism in the socialist countries can best be resisted through the extension of socialist democracy.

Countries taking a socialist road have adopted a range of economic and political models that have emerged from the particular circumstances of their struggle for liberation – in all cases, circumstances of extreme difficulty. Today, however, in the midst of a capitalist crisis that is destroying the hopes of whole peoples, their existence demonstrates that it is possible for working people and their allies to create societies that are not subordinated to the barbarism of capital.

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Communist Party Congress Elections

The following comrades were elected for the next two years: Executive Committee: Richard Bagley Ben Chacko Andy Chaffer Tony Conway Mary Davis Kevin Donnelly John Foster Moz Greenshields Bill Greenshields Robert Griffiths Tim Gulliver Anita Halpin John Haylett Steve Johnson Carolyn Jones Martin Levy Gawain Little Marc Livingstone Tommy Morrison Liz Payne Ben Stevenson Graham Stevenson Joanne Stevenson Jenny Turner Anita Wright Appeals Committee: Tony Briscoe Lorraine Douglas David Grove Margaret Levy Kevin Halpin Dominic Macaskill Gerrard Sables Auditor Tony Kain

52nd Congress Report

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Eighty seven full delegates representing 44 local Party branches and 9 districts/nations, 7 consultative delegates and 13 fraternal delegates representing embassies based in the UK or overseas communist & workers’ parties attended the CP’s 52nd Congress. 72 delegates were male, 22 delegates female with 21 delegates who were retired, 10 in full-time education*, 6 who were unemployed and 60 delegates in some form of employment*.

Number of delegates involved in other labour/progressive movement organisations ARA 2 Local anti-cuts group 14 Stop the War 8 CAEF 4 Local anti-racist group 5 NPC 3 Co-op 24 Local environmental group 1 NSC 1 CND 24 Local peace group 5 PSC 14 CODIR 1 Local pensioners group 4 Searchlight 3 Connolly Association 2 Local People's Charter group 10 UAF 5 CSC 24 Local tenants/residents assoc. 4 VSC 10 Democracy movement 1 MML 23 YCL 12 Greenpeace 1 National Assembly of Women 10 Hope not Hate 6 School governors 3 Economic sector delegates employed in^ Admin, Professional, Managerial etc. 3 Aerospace and shipbuilding 1 Civil Service 4 Construction 3 Community, not for profit & youth workers 4 Culture 2 Docks - Waterways - Shipping 1 Education (FE/HE) 17 Education (Secondary/VI Form) 6 Finance & Banking 1 Graphical - Paper & Media (incl. publishing) 1 Health - NHS 4 Health - Other 1 IT & communications 3 Labour & Progressive movement 11 Legal 2 Leisure, Tourism & Entertainment 1 Local Government 6 Local Government social services 4 Manufacturing (engineering & general) 3 Manufacturing (vehicle and automotive) 1 Media & Broadcasting 4 Prison Service & Probation 1 Royal Mail 1 Services (general incl. retail & catering) 2

Trade Union ASLEF 1 BMA 1 CWU 1 EIS 2 GMB 4 NASUWT 1 NUJ 6 NUS 7 NUT 5

Age Range 16-25 10 25-35 18 35-45 9 45-55 17

55-65 65-75 75-85 85+

PCS 4 POA 1 UCATT 2 UCU 7 Unison 17 Unite 21 USDAW 1 Involved in local Trades Council: 31

19 16 2 3

Date first joined the CP pre 1962 6 1962-72 16 1972-82 12 1982-92 8 1992-2002 10 2002-07 15 2007-11 16 2012 7 Unidentified 4

*some duplication as most people in full-time education also undertake part-time work as well. ^includes retired delegates, multiple selection allowed as some jobs fall into more than one area of economic activity.

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