Study Guide to Britain's Road to Socialism

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism” (Programme of the Communist Party, 8th edition, 2011)

Communist Party www.communist-party.org.uk

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism” (BRS) (Programme of the Communist Party, 8th edition, 2011)

Introduction This guide is designed primarily to help comrades who are acting as facilitators (tutors, discussion leaders) for Marxist study groups or discussion forums. See Communist Party Handbook pages 40-44 for guidance on the organisation and conduct of study groups. The guide will also be useful for individual, private study of the BRS. Guided discussion around the questions set out in this guide will bring out the main points of the BRS and some underlying principles of Marxist theory and practice. Only very brief answers are given here. Fuller answers will be found in the BRS itself and in the suggested additional reading. The facilitator should try to ensure that satisfactory answers emerge out of the discussion, partly as a result of wrong or partial answers being corrected or supplemented by others taking part.

Participants should be encouraged to read the relevant chapter of the BRS before each session, but those who have not been able to do this should not be deterred from taking part in the discussion.

If a whole chapter is being covered in one session, there will probably not be time to pose all the questions set out below. The facilitator will select those questions that fit in with the course of the discussion. But they will seek to bring the discussion back to the main points that have to be emphasised. It may be useful to devote more than one session to some chapters of the BRS. .

2

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Chapter One

Capitalism and exploitation We live in a predominantly capitalist world, so the first chapter of the BRS considers the nature and development of capitalism, the growth of monopoly and imperialism, leading to the general crisis of the capitalist system.

Main theoretical topics: surplus value, capital accumulation and crisis.

The development of capitalism and imperialism •

How would you define a capitalist? Most of the means of production, distribution and exchange (commercial buildings and land, plant, machinery, finance etc.) are owned by a small number of capitalists in the form of shares and other financial assets.

•

How would you define a worker? The vast majority of people own little but their labour power, which they have to sell to capitalists (or the state acting on behalf of capitalists) in order to make a living and fund their public services, social benefits and pensions.

•

How is surplus value created and appropriated? The value of a worker’s output is greater than the value of the wage received for their labour power.

By their (unpaid) surplus labour, workers create this surplus value but it belongs to the capitalists who own the enterprise. Surplus value is the source of profit (which funds dividends, rent, interest and expansion) and is the basis of capitalist exploitation and the class struggle between capital and labour.

•

Are public sector workers also exploited? Yes, but not in the same way.

Their pay and terms of employment are similar to those in the private sector, but their unpaid surplus labour helps maintain the capitalist state and system rather than create surplus value directly.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

3

•

How does the oppression of women help to sustain capitalism?

Unpaid labour in the home: (1) replenishes the worker’s ability to work and perform surplus labour for the capitalists and their state; (2) reduces the pressure on wages; and (3) rears new supplies of labour power. Lower pay for women (and black and immigrant) workers can divide the workforce and further depress wage levels to the benefit of profits.

•

What is the main form of capitalist ownership and control today?

Almost every sector of the British economy is monopolised by 3-6 giant companies, most of which operate internationally as transnational corporations (TNCs). Most are jointly owned by wealthy capitalists (often company directors) and their other companies including pension, insurance and investment funds which they control even when not fully owning.

•

How are the capitalist monopolies linked to state power? The state sustains and promotes the monopolies and their system at home and abroad, defending capitalist property rights, regulating the economy, spending public money in the private sector and combating any significant challenges to capitalist economic and state power. Many top state officials in the civil service, judiciary, armed forces, state broadcasting etc. share the same social conditions, educational background and ideological outlook as many top capitalists. For their part, the monopolies sponsor and lobby political parties and governments, hire top state officials and politicians, help to devise and administer public policy and use their ownership of the mass media to promote capitalism and attack or ignore alternatives (especially socialism and communism). This fusion of the economic power of the capitalist monopolies with the political power of the state is expressed in the term ‘state-monopoly capitalism’, coined by Lenin.

•

How do TNCs politically dominate the world? All TNCs are based primarily in a specific country, where state power is used to protect and promote their ‘own’ TNCs above others. As well as driving the process of ‘globalisation’ so that TNCs can operate in favourable conditions across the world, the most powerful states also combine to promote the common interests of monopoly capital through such international agencies as the IMF, World Bank, WTO, ‘G’ summits, the European Union and NATO. Globalisation is the latest phase of imperialism.

4

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

•

Why do we say that the US is imperialist when it doesn’t have an empire? Neither does Britain, which has lost most of its colonies. Lenin defined modern ‘imperialism’ as the final or ‘highest’ stage of capitalism.

Economically, monopolies have extended their operations across much of the world to control sources of labour and raw materials, markets and transport routes, investing their accumulated profits outside their own country in order to secure super-profits. Politically, state power is used to combat rival imperialisms, dominate other countries (often without ruling them directly) and suppress socialism. That’s why imperialism is an epoch of militarism, war, national liberation and socialist revolution.

•

How has imperialism changed since Lenin’s time? First phase (up to mid 1940s): an era of colonial rivalry and world war. Second phase (up to 1980s): relative stabilisation, class collaboration, formal political (but rarely economic) independence in the colonies, ‘Cold War’ against socialism and communism. Third and present phase (since 1980s): aggressive neo-liberal class war including privatisation, ‘globalisation’ and foreign intervention.

A system of contradictions and crises •

What is the fundamental contradiction of capitalism? The economic processes (production, distribution and exchange) are social (inter-linked and inter-dependent across society) but ownership and control of the means of production, distribution and exchange are mostly in private ownership (jointly or individually). Narrow corporate interests conflict with society’s broader needs and objectives.

•

How does this contradiction lead to periodic crises of overproduction? As capitalists compete for price advantage and market share in order to maximise profit, wages are held down and workers are unable to buy goods and services they produce. This leads to gluts, lower production, less investment, lay-offs and falling demand in a downwards spiral.

•

Why does technical progress intensify periodic crises? Competition and the drive for maximum profit compels capitalists to invest proportionally more in forces of production such as machinery, fuel and other inputs etc., and less in labour power – the source of total surplus value. This depresses the rate of profit in the economy as a whole, which capitalists counteract by cutting labour costs, thereby reducing purchasing power and the demand for goods and services.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

5

The general crisis of capitalism •

Which 20th century changes led Marxists to identify a ‘general crisis of capitalism’ (over and above periodic crises of over-production)?

The growing domination of monopoly capital over the economy, the state and society generally sharpened all of capitalism’s contradictions, intensifying crises on every front (economic, social, cultural, political, environmental) and generating mass opposition to the system or aspects of it e.g. trade unions, political parties, social and national liberation movements and the international socialist system led by the Soviet Union.

•

What new features of the latest periodic crisis have intensified the general crisis? The international financial crisis from 2008 overshadowed and aggravated a deepening economic crisis. Economically, it reaffirmed the predominance of the banks and financial markets – the least productive and most parasitic section of finance capital – within the most advanced capitalist economies, and the ineffectiveness of regulation that is not part of a strategy for socialist revolution. Socially, the bail-out and subsequent austerity measures is widening social inequality and deepening social problems that capitalist is unwilling or unable to resolve. Politically, this crisis has intensified the fusion between finance capital and state power, further undermining and corrupting capitalist ‘democracy’, demonstrating the anti-democratic and pro-monopoly character of the EU and highlighting political bankruptcy of social-democratic, so-called ‘socialist’ and ultra-leftist parties and movements in the struggle to defend the working class, social justice and popular sovereignty.

•

Why can’t capitalism end poverty and deprivation, environmental degradation, oppression and war? The drive for capitalist profit seeks to hold down the value of wages and the costs of social and welfare programmes.

Capitalists do not invest mostly in products and services which would benefit the poor or the planet, but in those which are profitable or subsidised (as with armaments) regardless of social or environmental priorities.

•

What can we say about war and capitalism and how it affects the economy now and how it affected it in the past?

1. Uneven economic and political development between capitalist states and a consequent struggle for colonies, markets and resources led to the first and second world wars.

2. These wars stimulated the economies of the West, led to significant growth and the concentration of capital, out of which came the transnational corporations that now dominate the world.

6

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

3. These wars also resulted in new partitions of the world between the major capitalist powers and their imperialist ‘spheres of influence’, which can change through economic and political competition but are ruptured most dramatically through war.

4. Since counter-revolution in the Soviet Union, the main imperialist states have been able to subvert or disregard the United Nations in their drive to impose a new imperialist order on the peoples and nations of the Third World by war or the threat of war. But the resulting chaos and instability has produced new threats to social cohesion and stability at home and to the security of Western access to markets, resources and political control abroad.

•

What is meant by the ‘financialisation’ of the British economy? The process of financialisation has established the financial markets and institutions – notably the banks – as the predominant section of monopoly capital in the most developed economies. Assets and contracts are traded as ‘products’ (usually in the form of derivatives or bonds) in the financial markets. When their realisable value collapses after a speculative boom, the state bails out the holders and their markets at public expense. Financialisation has thus strengthened the most parasitic, non-productive and unstable elements of finance capital, which exert their negative influence in the industrial, commercial, political and social spheres as well.

•

What are ‘derivatives’ and how do they work? Derivatives are financial contracts whose market value initially derives from that of an underlying asset (a commodity, a quantity of currency, a loan agreement etc.). Most trades are no longer to guard against future market instability, failure or default, but to make an instant profit. Derivative dealing is largely unregulated, volatile, risky, inflationary, destabilising and a waste of society’s resources.

•

How would you characterise the relationship between the City of London, the EU and US finance capital? The City is one of the world’s top financial centres and a springboard for US, British and other financial and economic operations throughout the EU. The ‘Big Bang’ deregulation of 1986 enabled US banks and hedge funds to establish substantial interests in the City.

They favour continued British membership of the EU, but also want to protect the City as a corrupt and unregulated casino against EU plans to establish a regulatory ‘level playing field’ between the financial centres of London, Paris and Frankfurt.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

7

•

What impact has this relationship had on British manufacturing? The City has long had a dual impact on Britain’s industrial base, acting on the one hand as a source of funding, profitable investment and a channel for international dealings. But its support for productive industry and R&D at home has been low (compared with, say, Germany), large amounts of capital have been used for speculation or export, and the City’s preference for a high sterling exchange rate have inflicted high interest rates on industrial investment at home and high prices on British exports overseas.

Further Reading Karl Marx, Wages, Price and Profit (1865) Karl Marx, Wage Labour and Capital (1847) Frederick Engels, Letter to Joseph Bloch (September 21, 1890) V.I. Lenin, Imperialism,The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) John Eaton, Political Economy: A Marxist Textbook (1949) Arise in Unity: the international crisis and alternatives from the left (2011), especially the essays by Sitaram Yechury, Ma Jing Peng, and John Foster John Foster, European Union Withdrawal:The People’s Answer to Austerity (CP, 2013) Costas Lapavitsas, State and finance in financialised capitalism (CLASS, 2014)

8

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Chapter Two

State-monopoly capitalism in Britain If capitalism has failed, then socialism is the only way forward for humanity. But before considering how socialism can be achieved, we need to look in more detail at how capitalism operates in this country today.

The second chapter of the BRS therefore analyses how the British ruling class exercises state power, and the economic, political and social consequences.

Main theoretical topics: the state – how the ruling class rules.

The ruling class and its strategy •

Who constitute the dominant core of the British ruling class today?

A relatively small circle of finance capitalists concentrated in the banks and other major financial institutions, linked through the City of London with their US and EU counterparts.

•

What are the main features of ruling class strategy today to increase their profits and power?

The big capitalists are striving to: 1. Impose austerity policies which further reduce tax pressures on the wealthy and big business.

2. Use austerity to prepare potentially profitable areas of the public sector for privatisation, not least by holding down public sector wages, slashing their pension entitlements, cutting jobs and intensifying workloads (all of which will maximise the ‘surplus labour’ they perform).

3. Weaken trade unions in both public and private sectors by further restricting legal rights and facilities.

4. Retain the position of the City of London as a world financial centre, based on minimal regulation and the viability of sterling.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

9

5. Strengthen British state-monopoly capitalism’s domination of intellectual, cultural and political life through ownership and control of the mass media and the main political parties.

6. Settle the national question in Scotland on terms as favourable as possible to British finance capital and state power in England, Scotland and Wales.

•

What are the international aims of the British ruling class?

Whether through economic, political or military means, British imperialism objectives are to: 1. Promote the interests of British monopoly capital around the world, which include access to markets, resources and transport routes.

2. Create the most favourable conditions in which British TNCs can compete against their EU, US and Far East rivals.

3. Maintain Britain’s dual position as a junior ally of US imperialism and a leading member of the EU, promoting common interests including through international agencies such as the IMF, WTO and NATO. 4. Combat the rise of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and their alliances as rival economic and political powers.

5. Maintain Britain’s nuclear weapons and its permanent seat on the UN Security Council in order to pursue strategic goals and alliances more effectively.

6. Place as much as possible of the burden for combating global warming on the peoples and governments of developing countries, rather than on the capitalist monopolies and states of the imperialist powers.

Social inequality and oppression •

What practices are employers using to condition the working class to accept growing inequalities of wealth and income, and less security of employment? Casualisation. Debt bondage. Deregulation.

Flexible working. Part-time work. Pension `holidays’. Privatisation.

Marketisation. Paid redundancies. Two tier (core/periphery) workforce.

•

What differences does capitalism use to divide the labour force and drive down the level of real wages? Gender. Disability. Ethnicity.

Immigration status. Skill. Education. Mental differences. Physical differences.

Religion. Short-term contracts. Performance-related pay. Zero hours contracts.

Internships.

10

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

•

How can we overcome these damaging divisions? By emphasising the common interests of all workers, unionising them and fighting for the best possible terms of employment – while also recognising and combating all forms of prejudice and discrimination that can be used to divide workers and degrade their wages and conditions.

Democracy and the state •

What is ‘democracy’? Its essence is rule by and for the people, including the power to control capital. Under capitalism, however, ‘democracy’ is restricted to ‘rights’ that can be undermined, distorted and denied by the power and wealth of the capitalists and their state power.

•

What separate organs make up the state apparatus today? Central and local government, the civil service, the state education and welfare systems, the police and security services, the armed forces, the legal and prison system, state broadcasting, the established church.

•

What is the role of the state in class-divided society? To impose and maintain the rule of the exploiting class – slave owners, feudal landowners, big capitalists – by fraud and ‘consent’ if possible, by force if necessary.

•

How does the capitalist ruling class try to project the state as ‘neutral’, standing above classes? For example, by emphasising the ‘accountability’ of parliament and government, ‘neutrality’ of the civil service. ‘independence’ of the judiciary, ‘equality’ under the law, ‘freedom’ of the press, ‘independence’ and ‘neutrality’ of the BBC; by promoting institutions of class rule (the monarchy, the armed forces) as popular symbols of national unity and patriotism ; and by presenting ruling class and state policy (e.g. NATO membership) as being in the ‘national interest’.

•

How are top people in the state apparatus linked to the dominant capitalists? Through networks of advisory committees and think tanks; public appointments and secondments; the honours system; business directorships and consultancies; and a shared background in the same wealthy families, public schools, universities, clubs and societies. This helps produce a common ruling class outlook that shapes state policy and dominates political and public debate in the capitalist or state controlled mass media,

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

11

•

What if the ruling class fails to gain consent for its policies? Mass pressure can defeat, delay or modify ruling class policies, and even win reforms in the interests of the working class and the people. But in important matters the coercive power of the state will be used (e.g. the 1984/85 miners’ strike) and the ruling class will always seek opportunities to roll back reforms and reassert its agenda.

•

Why bother fighting for or defending democratic rights under capitalism?

1. They enable the working class and progressive and revolutionary movements to organise more effectively and on a mass scale.

2. Fighting for democratic rights educates and politicises the labour movement and helps prepare it to play the leading role in a popular, democratic alliance of forces against state-monopoly capitalism.

3. Achieving democratic rights helps expose their limited, fragile and distorted nature in the face of capitalist and state power.

•

Why did capital need a Tory government in 1979 but readily accepted New Labour’s victory in 1997? In 1979, the ruling class required sweeping measures to widen and deepen capital’s profit base: lifting controls on the export of capital; cutting taxes on big business; privatising industries and utilities; using mass unemployment to intensify exploitation; while enacting farreaching anti-trade union laws and strengthening the repressive state. By 1997, ‘New Labour’ was a relatively safe pro-business, pro-imperialist replacement for corrupt and discredited Tory rule that had fulfilled its main objectives.

•

The 1997-2010 New Labour governments failed to reverse most Tory anti-working class measures, but they did improve trade union and employment rights, introduce the national minimum wage, secure the peace process in northern Ireland and establish the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Greater London Authority, albeit with limited powers and resources. But what were New Labour’s most reactionary policies?

1. Strengthening British imperialism’s subservient alliance with the US, notably by: launching wars in Afghanistan, Serbia. Kosovo and Iraq; collaborating with the Star Wars programme; colluding in the kidnapping, transportation and torture of detainees.

2. Supporting repressive regimes in Israel, the Middle East and Colombia.

3. Expanding the powers of the police, intelligence services and other state authorities and planning the introduction of ID cards.

12

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

4. Bailing out the banks and financial system without nationalising the whole sector and redirecting public and private funds into productive investment and public sector house-building.

5. Beginning the fragmentation and privatisation of the NHS and schools through reforms and a massive expansion of PFI-style schemes.

6. Initiating a programme of austerity and privatisation to fund the bailout and reduce the financial deficit, instead of taxing the rich and big business and investing in growth.

7. Launching a programme of closures of Remploy centres for workers with disabilities.

8. Accepting a series of anti-working class and anti-union rulings from the EU Court of Justice instead of challenging them.

The limits of social democracy •

What progressive policies have been carried out in the past by social democratic parties in government in Britain, Australia, Scandinavia, and elsewhere? Building a welfare state, promoting progressive taxation, taking key or failing parts of the economy into public ownership, attempting to plan economic development, aiming for full employment, reducing social inequality through health and education reform, extending democratic rights, rejecting or moderating militarism.

•

Do these policies represent any form of socialism? No. They did not end capitalist exploitation or challenge capitalist state power (cf. Labour’s nationalisation programme in 1945-51). Social-democratic governments have never had an effective analysis, theory and programme to guide them.

Government office has been mistaken for state power and the result, invariably, was to strengthen state-monopoly capitalism. In recent times of crisis, most Labour or ‘Socialist’ parties in office have embraced ‘neoliberal’ economic and social policies and abandoned social democracy altogether (Britain, Italy, Greece, Spain, Germany).

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

13

Further Reading John Foster, The Politics of Britain’s Economic Crisis (CP, 2011 edn.)

John Foster, ‘State monopoly capitalism in Britain’, Communist Review No. 46, Spring 2006 John Foster, European Union Withdrawal:The People’s Answer to Austerity (CPB, 2013) V.I. Lenin, Imperialism,The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) V.I. Lenin, The State: A Lecture Delivered at the Sverdlov University (1919) James Harvey & Katherine Hood, The British State (1958) Ralph Miliband, Capitalist Democracy in Britain (1982) Ralph Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society (1969) Ralph Miliband, Parliamentary Socialism: A Study in the Politics of Labour (1972 edn.)

Peter Latham, The State and Local Government (Manifesto Press, 2012)

14

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Chapter Three

The case for socialism In seeking to replace capitalism by a superior system we must learn from the achievements and shortcomings of twentieth century attempts to build socialism.

This is the subject of the first part of chapter three, which goes on to consider the essential features of a successful socialist society.

Main theoretical topics: the definition of socialism.

•

What is the world historic significance of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia? It showed for the first time that the working class and its allies (in this case, the peasantry), led by a Marxist party, is capable of seizing and holding on to state power.

•

What benefits did the revolution bring to: – The peoples of the USSR? Abolishing the remnants of feudalism.

Building an industrial economy with full employment.

Providing free high quality education and health care for all, raising the status of women.

Bringing freedom and cultural autonomy to the peoples of the former Tsarist Empire.

• • • •

– The working class in advanced capitalist countries? The danger that workers would follow the Russian example led to concessions by the capitalist ruling class, e.g. the welfare state. The heroic Soviet Red Army ensured the defeat of German fascism in the Second World War (four-fifths of which was fought on Europe’s eastern front).

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

15

– The peoples of the Third World? Colonial peoples were inspired by the end of the Tsarist Empire to struggle for their own freedom. The Soviet Union and other socialist states used the UN to oppose colonial rule; they also provided massive financial, military and other practical aid to national liberation movements and newly independent states.

•

Which negative factors weakened socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and prepared the way for counter-revolution?

1. They began to build socialism in under-developed countries on the ruins of world war, facing capitalist invasion and encirclement intensified by Cold War. 2. Imperialist boycott and aggression led to a siege mentality, which further restricted democratic rights and participation in political life, the Communist Party, industry and society generally.

3. The bureaucratic integration of the Communist Party and trade unions into the state meant that they ceased to function fully as agencies of working class and popular power.

4. Marxism came to be taught as official dogma instead of studied as a critical and revolutionary science.

5. The bureaucratic command system increasingly failed to modernise the economy.

6. Thus the Party and the people failed or refused to defend socialism when a section of the bureaucrats sought to protect their privileges by bringing back capitalism.

•

How does the Chinese path to socialism differ from the Soviet one?

Communist Party rule is combining central planning, public ownership and Western and Chinese capital under state control to prioritise economic modernisation and the abolition of poverty.

•

...and what challenges does it face? It is a long-term perspective in which immediate problems of urbanisation, rural decline, pollution and corruption have to be overcome; trade unionism needs to be strengthened, capitalist interests and ideology controlled, democracy extended and external threats and pressures resisted without recourse to ruinous war.

•

What can we learn from the success of the Cuban revolution? The importance of keeping the Communist Party close to the people and involving the mass of citizens in defending the revolution and building a new society.

16

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Public ownership and planning •

Which human needs does capitalism turn into commodities to be provided in order to make profit? Almost all of them, including food, water, clothing, shelter, heating, health care, education, sex, leisure, sport and protection. An exception: fresh air? (NB. rural land ownership, the holiday industry and carbon emissions trading).

•

How does capitalism lead to the waste and destruction of resources?

Workplace closures, gluts and dumping, commercial secrecy, contrived style and fashion, duplication, unnecessary packaging, promotion of excessive consumption, built-in obsolescence.

•

What useless economic sectors does capitalism generate? Major examples: most of the corporate financial sector, notably the currency, commodity and derivatives markets; legal and accountancy services to minimise taxation; business consultancy; advertising for unnecessary or rival but identical products and uninformative advertising; property and wealth management.

•

What are the differences between: capitalist public ownership (such as Labour’s 1945-51 nationalisations); progressive, democratic public ownership (such as a left government would carry out); and socialist public ownership (only possible after the working class has won state power)?

Capitalist public ownership leaves the old management system in charge, loads the industry with a burden of excessive compensation, usually extends only to failing industries, and is run for the benefit of the rest of the capitalist economy.

Progressive, democratic public ownership would compensate only pension funds and small investors, extend to viable enterprises, be accountable to elected representatives, workers and communities and be operated for people’s benefit. It is the only way to plan energy and transport to combat global warming and climate change.

Socialist public ownership would extend to all except the smallest enterprises (where cooperatives would be encouraged) and would make possible the democratic planning of the whole economy.

Ending exploitation and oppression •

How does socialism end the exploitation of workers? Under socialist public ownership, surplus labour is used to meet the needs of society as a whole.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

17

•

What about the oppression and super-exploitation of women, black workers and other disadvantaged groups? Socialism will end the material basis of oppression (capitalist ownership of the means of production) but the sexist, racist and other prejudices that sustain discrimination may linger on and have to be consciously combated (note Cuba’s struggle against racism).

Production for people’s needs ends social conflict over jobs, housing and public services.

•

Is the fight against oppression a ‘class’ as well as a democratic question? Yes, because it arises in a class-divided society, often benefits the capitalist class, divides the working class and undermines its position. By leading the struggle against all kinds of oppression, the working class can achieve unity in the fight to overthrow capitalism and build socialism.

Democracy and popular sovereignty •

What are the limitations on democracy in Britain today? The interests of capital predominate; democracy is subverted by wealth and power; politicians are bought, excluded, or intimidated; issues and debates are neglected or distorted by the mass media; the electoral system is rigged against small parties that challenge the system; the EU enables monopoly capital to bypass democracy.

•

How is the EU used by monopoly capital to circumvent democratic representation and accountability? Within EU basic treaties that individual member states cannot amend: the unelected EU Commission initiates laws and issues directives binding on national governments, with little parliamentary scrutiny; it also represents all member states at the WTO and in regional trade and investment negotiations such as TTIP; the unaccountable European Central Bank polices fiscal strategy with the Commission and, within the eurozone, decides monetary policy; and the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) overrides national legislation in vital areas such as employment and industrial policy. The EU Parliament has few powers and its franchise is too large to enable organic, accountable, democratic representation.

•

What main arguments are advanced within the labour movement in favour of the EU? 1. It has initiated EU-wide progressive measures in favour of equal pay, health and safety at work, fairer working hours and environmental protection.

[Response: most social gains have been secured at national level as the result of national campaigning; the EU has not protected us against antiunion laws, pay cuts, mass redundancies etc.; international agreements can be negotiated between national governments].

18

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

2. The Single Market has helped Britain’s trade and created millions of jobs.

[Response: Britain’s big EU balance of trade deficit destroys many more jobs here than it creates; it would still be in EU interests to have a comprehensive trade agreement with an independent Britain; EU membership prevents us negotiating mutually beneficial agreements elsewhere].

3. The EU is a counterweight to US imperialism; it is internationalism in practice. [Response: the EU works more closely with the US and NATO to promote their common imperialist interests in the former socialist countries and the Third World.

•

What key arguments could persuade your trade union to take a progressive anti-EU stance?

1. The TUC and individual unions support policies for more public investment and renationalisation of energy, transport and the postal service to create jobs and rebuild a modern, sustainable industrial base – many of these would be ruled out by EU competition law.

2. Many measures to protect and promote specific enterprises, industries or regions contradict the free movement and open tender provisions of the Single Market.

3. The free movement of capital has enabled the relocation production facilities and jobs to low-paid economies in southern and eastern Europe.

4. Recent ECJ judgments have outlawed or undermined nationally established wages and conditions.

5. The EU was set up and functions as a big business club with neo-liberal economics enshrined in its basic treaties; the EU is the European bridgehead for US imperialism; the main task of internationalism is to defeat imperialism and Britain’s withdrawal would strike a major blow against the British ruling class and its EU and US allies.

•

What are the alternatives to EU membership in the short to medium term?

1. Bilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and development with European, BRICS, Commonwealth and other countries which don’t sacrifice sovereignty, democracy and planning on the altar of TNC profits.

2. Membership of EFTA and other international bodies, including independent representation at the WTO. 3. An independent foreign and defence policy for Britain based on peaceful relations, mutual beneficial cooperation, social justice and international solidarity against exploitation and oppression; full participation in the UN and associated agencies with a view to strengthening them in pursuit of these principles.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

19

•

What would popular sovereignty look like in practice? Our conception of democracy originates in people’s collective struggle for control of their lives against the power and wealth of their exploiters and oppressors – as seen in the English Revolution with the Levellers and the soldiers’ parliament; in the French Revolution and later the Paris Commune; and in the workers’, soldiers’ and peasants’ councils (‘soviets’) of the Russian revolutions.

•

Where can we see struggles to assert popular sovereignty in Britain today? In the mass movements and campaigns to oppose imperialist wars, nuclear weapons, housing stock transfers or evictions and austerity; and to defend jobs, public services and the environment against governments and big business. Workplace union committees, trades union councils and broad-based People’s Assembly groups provide a glimpse of how popular sovereignty can be fought for and established. It will win when state power is taken from the capitalist class by the working class and its allies, whose interests represent those of the people and society as a whole. Popular sovereignty opens the way for mass participation in decision-making – the surest guarantee that socialist democracy will flourish.

•

What are the two essential features of a socialist society? State power in the hands of the working class, with its allies, and social ownership of the means of production.

Further Reading Hans Heinz Holz, The Downfall and Future of Socialism (1992) Bahman Azad, Heroic Struggle, Bitter Defeat (2001) John Foster, European Union Withdrawal:The People’s Answer to Austerity (CP, 2013) Roger Keeran & Thomas Kenny, Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union (2004) Joe Slovo, Has Socialism Failed? (1989) John Foster, The Case for Communism (CP, 2006) Mary Davis, Women & Class (CP, 2008 edn.)

Angela Davis, Women, Race & Class (1981) Frederick Engels, The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)

20

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Chapter Four

The labour and progressive movements For the working class to make political progress, the socialist theory outlined in chapter three has to be combined with revolutionary practice. Chapter four therefore identifies those forces in society that can be won to oppose monopoly capitalism and embrace far-reaching change.

Main theoretical topics: definitions of class and intermediate strata.

The leading role of the working class •

Why does capitalist exploitation give the working class both the need and the means to end capitalism? Workers are directly and continuously exploited over a lifetime of inequality and insecurity; gains and reforms –however welcome – cannot abolish this. But workers, especially those in large workplaces, usually come to see their common interest in resisting employers’ attacks, and are compelled to organise to struggle for better pay and conditions. Over time, experience demonstrates the need to replace the capitalist system. Their organisation at work and in political parties should give workers the strength and confidence to fight for socialism.

•

Are public sector workers, though not directly exploited by capitalists, part of the working class? Yes, through the state their surplus labour provides lower cost services and benefits for the capitalist class as a whole. Like other workers, they have to struggle in the same way for decent wages and conditions.

•

What about those workers officially classed as ‘self-employed’ but whose labour is performed for employers? Unlike genuinely selfemployed workers, they generate surplus value for capitalists and have no control over the use of their labour.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

21

•

What is the role of trade unions in working class struggle? They defend workers against capitalist attacks, fight for improved wages and conditions and seek to promote workers’ interests through political process.

Unions across Britain are combined in a single centre, the TUC, which has the potential to be the voice and weapon of the whole working class; the formation of the Labour Party by the TUC was an important step in transforming trade union class consciousness into political class consciousness.

•

What are the main tasks of the left in the trade unions today?

They are to: 1. Raise the level of militancy by extending union membership to all workers – especially young people – including in smaller enterprises and technologically advanced sectors.

2. Intensify the struggle for complete equality of women, black workers, and other oppressed sections of the working class.

3. Forge links with local communities so that strikes and other actions have maximum public support.

•

What enables the working class, uniquely, to be the leading force in the struggle for socialism? The fact that capitalism would cease to function without the labour power of the working class.

•

Have changes in the composition of the working class weakened its leading role? No, the majority of people in Britain and other advanced capitalist countries are objectively working class; some changes (e.g. more brain, less brawn) may have made it harder for some groups to recognise their working class identity; Marx never said that the revolutionary proletariat comprised only industrial workers.

The labour movementand the left •

What have been the implications of the Labour Party’s federal structure and the affiliation of unions representing millions of workers? As the mass organisations of the working class, unions have had the potential power to determine Labour Party policies and leaders. Hence recent changes to end the sovereignty of the conference and hugely reduce the collective role of the unions in the party – although this has not guaranteed that individual members and supporters will always vote for right-wing leaders and policies.

•

How can the labour movement reclaim or re-establish its own mass party? The upsurge in mass action led by unions and the People's Assembly made possible the election of Jeremy Corbyn. The battle to reclaim Labour

22

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

has entered an unexpected but welcome new phase. The CP and Morning Star support the Labour left against the right in the PLP. Success depends on (1) renewed mass activity by unions and progressive movements against austerity and imperialism; and (2) increased understanding and unity across these movements around a common alternative economic and political strategy (AEPS).

•

On what basis can the Communist Party form local and national alliances with sections of the far left? It is possible to work constructively with some individuals and organisations in broad campaigns and movements.

But sectarian and adventurist tendencies to manipulate, dominate, divide or narrow the appeal of such initiatives should be resisted through debate and broad mass work. Some groups are so deeply sectarian, disruptive, anticommunist and politically irrelevant that seeking an alliances is pointless.

•

Why is such ‘left unity’ no substitute for the unity of the labour movement and the working class? Once it goes beyond campaigns on immediate demands, differences arise on strategy and tactics, notably in relation to the Labour Party, the Labour left and how to ensure the whole movement has its own mass party (rather than a sectarian united front of far leftists). The labour movement needs to unite around an AEPS and with its own left-wing programme of policies.

•

What is the role of local trade union councils in the advance to socialism? They can play a vital role alongside unions in (1) coordinating local and national action including strikes and demonstrations; (2) projecting trade unionism in the locality through May Day marches, festivals and other events; and (3) recruiting new sections of workers to their appropriate union.

Progressive movements and alliances •

Which sections of the population fighting oppression, discrimination or injustice find themselves up against the vested interests of monopoly capital? Women, LGBT people, black and ethnic minority communities, young people, students, the unemployed, pensioners, tenants facing collective eviction, peace campaigners, environmental activists, supporters of national rights in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, international solidarity campaigners – all may face opposition from sections of the capitalist class (employers, property companies, arms producers, mining corporations, privateers) and its state apparatus

•

How can the members of such groups be won to support socialist policies? Communists and the left need to work in and with such groups and

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

23

their organisations, helping to develop militancy and the political understanding that only socialism can provide a full and permanent resolution of their concerns. As appropriate, links should be made or strengthened between such campaigns and labour movement organisations.

•

Are there any sections of the capitalist class that can be won to join with workers in resisting monopoly capitalist exploitation? Many small businesses suffer the consequences of big business policies and power when it comes to rental or energy costs, dealings with suppliers and customers, finance, environmental damage, etc. They often rely on the purchasing power of local working class families and can see how austerity will affect them too.

Socialists may be able to take advantage of other divisions in the capitalist class, e.g. manufacturers vs. financiers, exporters vs. those serving the home market, domestically owned vs. foreign owned enterprises.

•

What about the intermediate strata – where do they stand? Many self-employed workers, senior managers and small farmers and shopkeepers may identify their interests with those of capitalism, but they also come into conflict with monopoly capitalist power. Some can be won for progressive policies – most people want a prosperous economy, good quality public services, personal security, peace and bright prospects for their children – and even socialism.

The Communist Party and revolutionary leadership •

How does the Communist Party differ from social democratic parties?

1. It is based on the theory and practice of Marxism.

2. Our aim is socialism: we do not believe that capitalism can be regulated into fairness and stability, or reformed into socialism.

3. The revolutionary transformation of society is required, through parliamentary, extra-parliamentary, industrial and mass political action against state-monopoly capitalism.

4. We prioritise extra-parliamentary campaigning and fight for reforms to improve society and people’s lives – but also with the perspective that these can make inroads into monopoly capitalist power and increase people’s capacity and confidence to strive for more extensive and deeper change.

5. In order to abolish capitalism and build a new socialist society, the old capitalist state apparatus will have to dismantled and replaced by one based

24

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

on the exercise of power by the working class and the people and their own mass organisations. Socialist democracy will be open, inclusive, participatory and exercised in every sphere of society.

•

How does the CP differ from most far left parties? Ours is the Marxist party with the longest and deepest roots in the labour movement. The Communist Party strives to avoid the adventurist tactics of some groups, as well as sectarian practices which put the interests of the party above those of the working class and labour movement as a whole.

•

What is the role of democratic centralism in building an effective organisation to fight capitalism? It ensures that in (1) formulating and reviewing policy, the Party can draw on the experience, knowledge and views of all its members; and in (2) carrying out decisions, members speak with one voice and act in unity.

•

What is the role of the CP programme Britain’s Road to Socialism and how should it be used within the movement? The programme is a strategic document, explaining the character of capitalism and its forces and trends; and summarising the experience of previous efforts to reform or abolish it and build a socialist society. In the light of this analysis and its conclusions, BRS charts a way forward for the working class and people of Britain; it is intended as a guide to action, not a speculative prediction or a dogmatic blueprint. The programme helps the CP to make appropriate decisions, anchored in a solid analysis and a longer term strategy, as the political situation changes. It inspires members to strengthen the Party and the labour movement. BRS should be studied by all Party members and used to bring militant members of trade unions and social movements closer to, and if possible into, the Communist Party.

•

What is the relationship between Britain’s Road to Socialism and the Morning Star? The paper is owned by a cooperative society of its readers and supporters, not by the CP. Nevertheless, the People’s Press Printing Society has agreed at successive AGMs that the programme should guide the editorial policy of the Morning Star. This reflects and reinforces the paper’s broad coverage, its role as a forum for discussion and debate, its emphasis on struggle and its socialist and anti-imperialist perspectives – all of which help to inform, educate and mobilise the labour and progressive movements. In its editorials and features, the Morning Star also plays an invaluable daily role conveying the ideas and policies of the BRS to thousands of trade union and political activists.

•

How should Communists work in other organisations and

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

25

movements? Openly, demonstrating how their communist perspective guides their work in broad movements, but acting loyally to carry out the democratic decisions of these organisations; wherever appropriate, including in elections, the party should also campaign independently on issues, putting a distinctive Marxist view.

•

How does the Communist Party seek to provide revolutionary leadership in mass movements and the struggle for socialism? It organises within the labour movement and on every front, and so can identify their common interests and build solidarity between them. The Party also brings Marxist theory into working class and progressive movements, raising political understanding and influencing their leading cadres. Our close links with communist parties and national liberation movements around the world enable the CP to help develop an internationalist and anti-imperialist outlook within movements at home. The BRS and Marxist analysis together equip Party members to make a concrete analysis of concrete situations, putting forward objectives which can unite and mobilise movements and campaigns in the interests of the working class and the people, against those of state-monopoly capitalism.

Further Reading Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach (1845) Karl Marx, Wage Labour and Capital (1847) Frederick Engels, Letter to Joseph Bloch (September 21, 1890) Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) James Connolly, The Reconquest of Ireland (1915) John Eaton, Political Economy: A Marxist Textbook (1949) Mary Davis, Comrade or Brother?: A history of the British labour movement 1789-1951 (1993) Mary Davis, Women & Class (CP, 2008 edn.)

Robert Griffiths, The Battle for the Labour Movement (Morning Star, 2016) Gawain Little, ‘New Draft of Britain’s Road to Socialism’, Communist Review No. 59, Winter 2011 Bill Benfield (ed.), Britain’s Road to Socialism: An Introduction (Morning Star, 2012)

26

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Chapter Five

An alternative economic and political strategy To unite and mobilise the forces for change there’s a need for a set of progressive policies that can command widespread support. Chapter five of the BRS therefore sets out an Alternative Economic and Political Strategy (an alternative to the strategy of the ruling class) and a Left Wing Programme that can form the basis of a popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance, leading to the election of a left government and far-reaching change.

Main theoretical topics: alliances between the working class and other classes and social movements.

The fight on three fronts •

Why does an alternative strategy involve much more than a set of aims, policies or demands? What are the key elements of the AEPS and how are they related? Class struggle is fought on the economic, political and ideological (and cultural) fronts: the economic struggle for wages, jobs, etc can’t produce lasting gains without political changes to strengthen the position of the working class and challenge monopoly power; and neither economic nor political action will succeed without fighting the battle of ideas against capitalist notions that confuse and divide the working class.

The left wing programme •

What is the purpose of a Left Wing Programme (LWP)? It is a vital component of the AEPS: a set of policies that can be fought for now, could be carried out by a left-wing government, and would lay the basis for even more advanced policies to challenge state-monopoly capitalism.

Building a productive, sustainable economy •

What are the economic aims of the LWP? Stronger productive industry and public services, full employment, Third World development, safeguarding the planet’s ecosystem.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

27

•

What are the main policies to achieve these aims? Guaranteed work or education for all young people; public and private investment in manufacturing; planning agreements with private firms; controls on the export of capital; promotion of hi-tech exports to developing countries; a shorter working week; no mass redundancies in viable enterprises; support for rural communities, especially small farmers; democratic control of land use; democratic public ownership of energy, transport and the financial sector; massive investment in renewable energy and energy saving measures.

•

In what industrial sectors might investment be concentrated?

Renewable energy projects and equipment; house-building, construction materials and components; food processing; conversion of arms manufacturing to peaceful uses.

For social justice and democratic culture •

What are the social aims of the LWP? To raise living standards, reduce inequality, attack discrimination and encourage cultural creativity and participation.

•

What are the main policies to achieve these aims? Higher state pensions and benefits, and a higher minimum wage (i.e., a living wage); equal pay for work of equal value; stronger laws against discrimination; more council houses; an end to NHS fragmentation and privatisation; comprehensive, secular local authority schools for all; mass mobilisation against racists and fascists; greater support for local initiatives in the arts and sport.

Funding the left wing programme •

How might the programme be funded? Higher top rates of income tax; a Wealth Tax; a levy on City financial transactions; higher corporation tax on large companies; windfall taxes on monopoly profits; closing tax havens under British rule; replace council tax by local income and wealth taxes; renegotiate PFI contracts; cut military spending; BUT reduce VAT on essential goods and services.

Extending and deepening democracy •

28

What democratic reforms should be included in the LWP? 1. Repeal all anti-trade union laws with solidarity action recognised as a human right.

2. Full and equal rights for all workers from day one.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

3. A Federal Britain with equal status and substantial economic powers for Scottish and Welsh parliaments and, preferably after regional devolution, an English legislature; combined with measures to equalise financial resources between all devolved bodies.

4. Where the demand exists, directly elected assemblies with economic powers for the English regions and Cornwall.

5. Parliamentary and assembly elections through a real system of proportional representation (STV in multi-member constituencies), with votes at 16.

6. Break up the media monopolies.

7. Restore powers to local councils over education, transport, housing and business taxes.

8. Abolish the House of Lords and disestablish the Church of England.

•

What is meant by ‘democracy is not an institution but a process of emancipation’? Democratic advances – extending working class and popular rights, influence and power – are won through struggle and continuous struggle is needed to defend and extend them.

•

What is the Party’s attitude to Scottish and Welsh independence? We approach this issue not as a matter of constitutional principle but as a question of revolutionary strategy; we oppose separation between the nations of Britain in preference for progressive federalism (see above), because it would (1) fracture the unity of working class and progressive struggle against a largely integrated and united monopoly capitalist class at British level; and (2) further entrench the unequal distribution of wealth between the nations and regions of Britain. Nevertheless, if the peoples of Scotland or Wales vote for independence, it should proceed without obstruction.

An independent foreign policy for Britain •

What would be some of the international policies of the LWP? End the subservient alliance with US imperialism; leave NATO; strengthen relations with progressive regimes and movements around the world; abolish Britain’s nuclear weapons and support world-wide nuclear disarmament; withdraw from the EU; impose sanctions on Israel until Palestine is established as independent state; help reunify Ireland.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

29

A popular democratic anti-monopoly alliance •

Why do we see such an alliance as the next stage in the class struggle? The class struggle between capital and labour, economically and politically, is continuous but has intensified with the international capitalist crisis of 2007-8. State-monopoly capitalism is on the offensive on every front, but resistance to austerity, privatisation and labour ‘flexibility’ is bringing wider sections of the working class and people into action. In Britain, the objective conditions have been developing for forming, locally and nationally, a broad alliance of forces led by the organised working class, against ruling class strategy and for the kind of left and progressive alternative outlined in the People’s Manifesto.

•

Why do we describe the anti-monopoly alliance as both popular and democratic? Popular because it reflects the interests and so can win the support of the vast majority of the people; democratic because it mobilises the collective power of the working class and its allies against anti-democratic monopoly capital.

•

How do the policies of the Left Wing Programme appeal to different sections of society? Specific policies appeal to specific groups and sections of the people, different campaigns and movements etc., many of them complementing and reinforcing one another. The LWP helps bring these streams of struggle together into the Alternative Economic and Political Strategy in support of its key political objectives.

•

What is the role of the Morning Star in the struggle for left and revolutionary advance? It exposes and attacks capitalist exploitation and oppression; it reports working class and people’s battles honestly and supportively; its features and letters pages analyse and debate important local, national and international developments; and it helps wage the class struggle on all three fronts, popularising the LWP and explaining the need for building a popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance. Editorially, based on Britain’s Road to Socialism, the Morning Star draws political conclusions and points the way forward for the labour and progressive movements in accordance with the AEPS, against state-monopoly capitalism and imperialism and for the socialist alternative.

30

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Winning a government of the left •

What broad stages can we foresee in the revolutionary process in Britain?

1. A substantial and sustained shift to the left in the labour movement; widespread support for the LWP; and development of the popular democratic anti-monopoly alliance, culminating in the election of a left government.

2. The left government and mass movement set out to implement the LWP and come up against resistance from monopoly capital at home and abroad, within and beyond the state apparatus.

3. The mass movement and its government drive deeper inroads into the wealth and power of the capitalist class, take state power, restructure the state apparatus and embark on the construction of socialism.

•

How would a left government come about? By the election of a majority of left Labour, socialist, communist and other progressive MPs. Left governments in Scotland and Wales would also include left and progressive elements in the national movements.

•

How can a left government counteract monopoly capitalist attempts to prevent it carrying out the LWP? By mobilising the working class and its allies in extra-parliamentary action; the forces drawn to the popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance may take new forms and create novel structures, as has happened in Britain and elsewhere at times of intense struggle and crisis.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

31

Further Reading V.I. Lenin, ‘Democracy’ and Dictatorship (1918) V.I. Lenin, Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power? (1917) Jonathan White (ed.), Building an economy for the people (Manifesto Press, 2012) Andrew Cumbers, Renewing Public Ownership: Constructing a Democratic Economy in the Twenty-First Century (CLASS, 2014) Prem Sikka, Banking in the public interest: Progressive reform of the financial sector (CLASS, 2014) Robert Griffiths, The Battle for the Labour Movement (Morning Star 2016) Georgi Dimitrov, Unity of the Working Class Against Fascism (1935) Hans Heinz Holz, ‘Antonio Gramsci’s Theory of the Party’, Communist Review No. 59, Winter 2011 Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900) Paulo Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness (1973)

32

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Chapter Six

Towards socialism and communism When a left government begins to implement the LWP it will face ruthless resistance from monopoly capitalism and its state apparatus.The last chapter of the BRS outlines how the revolutionary movement will confront the capitalist state, how at some point the movement will have to take decisive steps to dismantle the capitalist state machine and construct a socialist alternative.This will open the way to building socialism, and eventually communism.

Main theoretical topics: the lower and higher stages of communist society.

•

What can we learn from the Chilean experience about how to protect a left government from domestic and external subversion?

It’s vital to distinguish between government office and state power, in order to continue fighting for the latter, including by: continuing to build and mobilise broad alliances and mass organisations; combating ultra-left adventurism; replacing reactionary personnel in top positions; unionising and democratising the repressive forces of the state; developing a military policy that relies on mass working class participation; and building a Communist Party with decisive influence.

The international balance of forces •

What kind of external threats might a left government in Britain face?

Attacks on the pound; obstacles to external borrowing; denunciations or diktats from EU, IMF,WTO; restrictions on imports from Britain; challenges in the courts.

•

What changes in the international balance of forces will help a left government to resist these threats? Communist, left-wing, progressive, anti-imperialist and non-aligned governments in Asia, Latin America and Africa may offer diplomatic, political and economic assistance; capitalist crisis is generating mass opposition to imperialism in many parts of the world and these movements can be won to act in solidarity with a left government in Britain.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

33

•

What are the arguments against the possibility of socialism being developed in one country and why are these rejected by Communists? The uneven economic and political development of capitalism internationally, analysed and understood by Lenin, makes it possible to break weak links in the imperialist chain. There are already countries building socialism, so it is unlikely that any single country will have to go it alone in the future. Even so, Britain has the sixth biggest economy in the world with sufficient labour, material and technical resources to build socialism.

Taking state power and defeating counter-revolution •

How will a left government deal with economic resistance and sabotage by monopoly capitalism? For example: by imposing controls on the movement of capital, closing tax havens under British rule; and by prioritising, where necessary, the nationalisation of sectors or enterprises posing an economic or political threat to the LWP.

•

How will it deal with resistance or subversion within the capitalist state apparatus?

1. Replace key personnel in civil service, judiciary, police, secret services, armed forces by supporters of revolutionary process.

2. Extend trade union rights to police and armed forces, and democratise them in collaboration with trade unions and local communities, 3. Break up the media monopolies and allow a much wider range of involvement and operation by social, political and community organisations and campaigns.

•

What would the growing confrontation between a left government and the capitalist state apparatus signify? It will mean that the revolutionary process has entered the third and crucial stage, when the left government must take state power for the working class or counter-revolution will triumph. Having a strong and influential Communist Party, with its allies, organised on every front of struggle, will be an essential factor in ensuring that mass and government action resolves the crisis in favour of building socialism.

•

What is the main danger to the revolution in this final, conclusive stage? Different and even contradictory interests within the popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance – and exploited by the threatened ruling class – must be kept in perspective and resolved democratically and constructively. It is vital to preserve the unity of the alliance, even by making concessions to some sections, so long as these don’t undermine the revolutionary process.

34

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

•

How can the left government ensure the widest public support for radical attacks on capitalist power and privilege? By regular democratic endorsement in elections and referendums, and using parliamentary powers together with new forms of working class and popular power to monitor and take over state functions.

•

Is violent insurrection or armed struggle an inevitable phase of socialist transformation? No. Although a desperate ruling class would almost certainly seek to defend its power by violent means, this may be prevented if the revolutionary movement has a strategy for using mass participation to limit the capacity of the ruling class for violent resistance. It is the responsibility of serious revolutionaries to chart a path to socialism which minimises the risk of violence to those who would be its main victims – workers and their families.

•

BRS quotes Marx’s and Lenin’s description of working class rule as the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’. In what sense do we use the term? It refers not to the rule of an individual dictator or a small dictatorial group (as in common usage), but to state power being exercised by the working class – the vast majority of the population – rather than by the capitalist class. The concealed rule of the minority has been replaced by the open rule of the majority.

Building a socialist society •

Does the extension of social ownership mean that all economic enterprise must be in the public sector and that there must be a single model of public ownership? No. There should be scope for small businesses together with self-employed, cooperative, municipal and voluntary enterprise. But the commanding heights of the economy would be in socialist public ownership, with growing participation by workers and communities within a democratic framework of national and regional economic planning.

The transition to full communism •

Which slogans best express the distinction between the lower and higher stages of communist society? ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their contribution’ for socialism; and ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs’ for full communism.

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

35

•

Which economic and social changes will make it possible to advance from the lower stage to the higher?

1. The planned development of productive forces to the point where society can produce an abundance of all the goods and services required.

2. The erosion of the selfish attitudes engendered by capitalist exploitation and competition.

3. The blossoming of new values arising from participation, cooperation and democracy.

•

Does ‘human nature’ stand in the way of achieving communism? No, ‘human nature’ is a questionable concept and need not be reduced to mostly negative features. There are basic human instincts, and human behaviour which is influenced by social conditions and personal circumstances. Even in classdivided societies, compassion and cooperation often override greed and egoism. In building socialism, these positive qualities will be fostered and prove their worth.

Further reading William Morris, News from Nowhere (1890) V.I. Lenin, ‘Left-Wing’ Communism – an Infantile Disorder (1920) V.I. Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917) V.I. Lenin, The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky (1918) Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution? (1900) Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875) Frederick Engels, The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) Gawain Little, ‘New Draft of Britain’s Road to Socialism’, Communist Review No. 59, Winter 2011 V.I. Lenin, ‘Democracy’ and Dictatorship (1918) V.I. Lenin, Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power? (1917) John Foster, The Communist Party and the Labour Movement – Elections and Class Struggle (2008) John Hoffman, The Gramscian Challenge: Coercion and Consent in Marxist Political Theory (1984) Slavoj Zizek, Violence (2008)

36

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

Notes These notes pages are for you to record issues that arise, which require further discussion and/or which you want to pass on to the Communist Education Coordinator.

......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... .........................................................................................................................................................

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

37

......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... .........................................................................................................................................................

38

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................... .........................................................................................................................................................

Study Guide to “Britain’s Road to Socialism”

39

www.communist-party.org.uk www. issuu.com/communist_party