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the Communists speak Political statements 2016-18

A full record of the political statements issued by the Communist Party of Britain from its 54th Congress in November 2016 to its 55th Congress in November 2018.

the Communists speak November 2018 Published by the Communist Party Š Communist Party Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon, London CR0 1BD

Reproduction of this text is permitted in part or full providing the source is acknowledged

email: oďŹƒce@communist-party.org.uk phone: 020 8686 1659 www.communist-party.org.uk

Successful Communist Party congress The 54th Congress of the Communist Party of Britain took place successfully last weekend, November 19-20. More than 100 full and consultative delegates and visitors participated in extensive debates and discussions.

The main resolution ‘Block the Ruling Class Offensive and Win a Left-led Government’ set out the party’s analysis of the current national and international situation and its campaigning priorities for the coming period. A special session considered how to take forward the process of ‘communist renewal’, which seeks to enhance the party’s recruitment, activism, membership retention and political education.

The congress and several fringe meetings heard from representatives of the communist parties of Cuba and Venezuela, the German Communist Party, the Tudeh Party of Iran, the Communist Party of Ireland and the Iraqi Communist Party.Visitors from Ukraine, where the communist party is fighting government moves to ban it, brought the congress to its feet. Other guests came from the communist and parties of Greece, Bangladesh and Cyprus and the Chinese and Cuban embassies (ambassador Teresita Vicente Sotolongo). Congress delegates also saw video messages from general secretaries Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Oscar Figuera of the Communist Party of Venezuela. Messages were received from more than 30 other communist and workers’ parties across the world. An emergency resolution condemned Turkish government and state repression of the Kurdish people.

Special presentations were made to former party chairpersons Anita Halpin and Bill Greenshields, who have stepped down from the CP executive committee. The congress elected the following members to serve as the Communist Party’s leadership over the next two years: Nisar Ahmed, Andy Bain, Mollie Brown, Ben Chacko , Andy Chaffer, Tony Conway, Ramon Corria, John Foster, Alex Gordon, Robert Griffiths, Jonathan Havard, Owain Holland, Steve Johnson, Bernadette Keveaney, Tam Kirby, Trish Lavelle, Martin Levy, Tommy Morrison , Liz Payne, Carol Stavris, Graham Stevenson, Joanne Stevenson, Ruth Styles, John Taylor, Anita Wright , Nick Wright.

Party Centre, November 22 2016 Autumn Statement: ‘full steam ahead for a Tory attack on the poor and vulnerable’ The Tory attack on low paid workers, benefit claimants and people with disabilities will continue for years to come unless we get rid of this government.

Most of the cuts planned by ex-Chancellor Osborne are going ahead as planned through freezing in-work benefits, rolling out Universal Credit and slashing disability payments.

At the same time there are yet more tax cuts for business and extra public subsidies for capitalist free markets in housing, transport and technical innovation that have failed so miserably up to now.

Instead of pumping £8bn more into the private housing sector and accelerating the forced sell-off of Housing Association properties, that money could build 140,000 new homes – almost four times more than Chancellor Hammond unveiled today.

Another £8bn of public money is to be invested in private sector transport, telecoms and R & D, where companies have utterly failed to invest their huge savings in Communist Party | 1

corporation tax over the past decade. Only the renationalisation of rail and telecoms as well as energy will ensure that Britain’s infrastructure is fully modernised and many more hi-tech jobs created.

The puny benefit concessions and a 14 pence an hour increase in the statutory minimum wage are far outweighed by a thumping £4bn rise in insurance premium taxes.

This is a government whose education priority in this Autumn Statement is to find extra funds for the reintroduction of grammar and secondary modern schools.

But the statement will be welcomed by the City bankers and speculators, who prefer to see public spending funded by ballooning government debt rather than a serious clamp-down on corporate fraud and tax-dodging.

General Secretary, November 23 2016 On the death of Fidel The Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Britain has received with profound sadness the news of the death of Comrade Fidel Castro.

As leader of the Cuban Revolution, Comrade Fidel liberated his country from centuries of imperialist control, profoundly changed the balance of world forces and inspired generations.

His commitment to socialism, to the revolutionary transformation of state power, freed the Cuban people to create their own future, to develop their own organs of popular self-government, to end economic exploitation and to oppose all forms of oppression and discrimination.

In doing so, Cuba provided a beacon of socialist hope that has inspired movements for social transformation across the world. In the face of direct military attack by the United States, Fidel Castro led the resistance. In the face of a crippling economic blockade, Fidel Castro worked with his comrades to ensure that the Cuban revolution survived and was able to supply assistance to others seeking liberation across Africa and the Americas.

His legacy remains today in the existence of a free Cuban people determining how to consolidate and develop socialism and contribute to a world without exploitation and oppression.

British Communists salute the memory of Fidel Castro. Please pass our condolences and solidarity to Fidel’s family and to the Cuban Communist Party.

Long Live the Cuban Revolution!

Long Live Socialism!

Party Centre, November 26 2016 Class politics needed, say Communists The left and labour movement in Britain are urgently in need of a return to ‘class politics’, according to Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths.

He told the party’s political committee on Wednesday evening (December 7) that subjective and impressionistic views were in danger of misleading socialists and trade unionists to the benefit of big business and the far right.

In particular, he cited the warm response given in some quarters to a recent address delivered by Bank of England governor Mark Carney and the support of trade unions 2 | the Communists speak

and Labour MPs to Britain’s continued membership of the Single European Market.

‘Mr Carney represents the interests of finance monopoly capital centred on the City of London, not those of workers whose real pay is lower that a decade ago’, Mr Griffiths pointed out.

‘He fully supports monetarist policies, including austerity cuts and bailouts for the bankers and speculators – but now he’s worried that working class victims of capitalist globalisation and neoliberalism are turning against so-called free markets’.

Mr Griffiths pointed to the Long Term Asset Return Study published recently by the Deutsche Bank, which shows how workers in the advanced capitalist economies have been the biggest losers in the globalised labour market.

The report also calls for greater political and economic integration in the EU. ‘Everywhere, the ruling capitalist class is gearing up for a new, prolonged struggle to intensify the exploitation of flexible workers and defeat trade unions in order to seize the productivity gains’, the CP leader argued.

Britain’s communists called for a working class response including a coordinated wages offensive in both the private and public sectors.

‘In particular, the labour movement should reject membership of – although not access to – the Single European Market which outlaws many of the policies necessary to plan the economy, regulate the labour market, rescue strategic industries and extend public ownership’, Mr Griffiths insisted.

And he warned that by not taking class-based positions against pro-EU monopoly capital, questions of immigration and the EU would be used by the far right to weaken and split working class unity.

Political Committee, December 8 2016 Communists support ‘united way forward’ on EU exit Jeremy Corbyn’s speech in Peterborough earlier this week offers a united way forward for the labour movement on Britain’s exit from the EU, according to the Communist Party.

CP general secretary Robert Griffiths said that his ‘incisive and important’ remarks should not be forgotten in a ‘media fog of misreporting and distortion’.

While most news coverage concentrated on the Labour Party leader’s comments about a maximum salary cap, the Peterborough speech set out how, in Mr Corbyn’s words, ‘Labour will build a better Britain out of Brexit’.

Ruling out a second EU referendum, Mr Corbyn insisted that the electors last June had sent out a clear message: they want to bring back democratic and economic control to Britain, transfer Britain’s EU budget contribution to the NHS, have an economic and political system that works for the many and not just the few and see their concerns about immigration properly addressed.

‘What a refreshing change from the slanderous pro-EU campaign since the referendum to paint Leave voters as gullible, undereducated, xenophobic racists’, Mr Griffiths told the Communist Party’s political committee on Wednesday evening.

He welcomed Mr Corbyn’s acknowledgment that continued membership of the Single European Market would prevent a Labour government from implementing measures to protect and rebuild Britain’s industrial base, promote regional economic development and deny public sector contracts to low paying and tax dodging corporations.

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‘The Labour leader was also right to uphold the rights of refugees, overseas students and EU residents while highlighting, too, the vital contribution of migrant workers and immigrants to our economy and society’, Mr Griffiths declared.

But the CP leader warned that some of Mr Corbyn’s plans to legislate against the importation of super-exploited labour to undercut wages and conditions in Britain would fall foul of EU law.

‘A series of European Court of Justice rulings make it unlawful for national or regional governments and trade unions to take action to enforce equal terms and conditions for so-called posted workers’, he pointed out.

Britain’s Communists urged the Labour leadership to come out ‘openly and unambiguously’ against post-exit membership of the European Single Market, while supporting access to it on negotiated and mutually beneficial terms.

The CP political committee also proposed that what Mr Corbyn called the ‘reasonable management’ of migration after leaving the EU must include equal immigration and settlement rights for non-EU citizens in place of the current proEuropean discrimination.

Political Committee, January 12 2017 For internationalism and a ‘people’s exit’ General Secretary Robert Griffiths delivered the Political Report to the first meeting of the Communist Party’s new executive committee on January 21: There is an ancient and well-worn Chinese saying: ‘May you live in interesting times’. What is not so well-known – at least outside China – is that this is meant as a curse, not a blessing.

After the inauguration of Donald Trump as US President, we can be sure that we live not only in interesting times, but in dangerous times as well.

He has taken office on a minority vote, but having won substantial support among sections of the working class with promises of private and public sector investment, more jobs and higher wages.

Trump’s nationalist appeal His ‘America First’ appeal has been a nationalist one to the insecurity, despair and racism of different sections of the American people. This nationalism – rather like that of UKIP and the Tory right – is not a progressive patriotism of the kind identified by Lenin, which takes pride in the struggles and achievements of one’s compatriots against exploitation and oppression. Rather, it’s a perversion of patriotism, appealing to the most backward and reactionary of national feelings and traditions.

Trump’s economic, social and foreign policy programme also includes more tax cuts for the rich and big business, scrapping the Obamacare health insurance scheme, massively extending drilling rights for oil and shale gas, a crack-down on inner-city crime, the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, a wall to keep out Mexicans, blatant discrimination to keep out Muslims, measures to limit imports that could lead to a trade war with China, and a major expansion of US military power.

Some of these policies will, sooner or later, dash the hopes of those millions of working class electors who rejected Hillary Clinton’s pro-Wall Street, pro-globalisation agenda.

Their industries are unlikely to be rebuilt and their jobs will not be restored by the 4 | the Communists speak

capitalist free-market jungle in which ruthless and predatory beasts such as Trump and his Cabinet members prosper. His newly appointed Director of the National Economic Council was the President of Goldman Sachs, the ubiquitous merchant bankers, and a former commodities gambler. The new Treasury Secretary had also worked for Goldman Sachs before heading a notorious hedge fund that foreclosed on homeowners during the sub-prime mortgage crash. Trump’s Labour Secretary, the CEO of a major fast food and restaurant chain, rejects any increase in the federal minimum wage.

There will be many disillusioned unemployed or low paid workers who mistakenly placed their faith in Trump and who, in future, will be looking for scapegoats.

The new President’s nationalist and xenophobic rhetoric – and the measures that flow from it – will deepen racial divisions in American society, intensifying the prejudice and discrimination aimed at black and ethnic minority citizens. They should not expect too much support from the new Attorney General, who has a history of friendly relations with the Ku Klux Klan while opposing civil liberties groups, voter registration drives and immigration.

Within hours of occupying the White House, Trump staffers had taken down web pages proclaiming LGBT, BME and civil rights and the need to combat global warming. In their place now are proposals to strengthen the police and ‘homeland security’ and to promote fossil fuels.

Threats to peace and the environment On the international front, the most immediate impact of Trump’s accession will most likely be felt in Cuba, Latin America and the Middle East.

He may well re-freeze US relations with Cuba, while maintaining the economic and financial embargo not lifted by his predecessor. We can also expect the imperialist counter-offensive against left and progressive governments in Venezuela and other Latin American countries to intensify.

The work of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and similar movements in Britain is far from finished.

In the Middle East, the Trump regime will lend uncritical support to the Israeli government and its genocidal policies against the Palestinian people. He will seek to undermine the recent UN support for a two-state solution and the creation of a sovereign state of Palestine alongside Israel.

The announcement yesterday of his intention to build a missile defence shield against a possible nuclear attack from Iran will further destabilise the region. Make no mistake, this would be an offensive measure against a non-existent threat. The real purpose of such a shield is to enable the US or Israel to launch a first strike at Iran without fear of retaliation by any kind of missile, whether nuclear or conventional.

Almost certainly, the immediate effect of announcing the shield will be to strengthen the reactionary regime in Tehran itself.

President Trump seeks a rapprochement with Russia, perhaps seeing in President Putin a kindred spirit – ruthless and authoritarian – with whom he can ‘do business’.

Both declare a common cause in the defeat of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism in Syria and elsewhere. That would, of course, be in humanity’s interests. But it also begs the question: what kind of rule will be installed in the wake of US and Russian military intervention, and in whose interests?

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Moreover, ruling circles in the USA and Russia, as in Britain and France, also see this struggle against Islamic fundamentalism as a prime opportunity to restrict civil and political liberties at home in order to prosecute the ongoing ‘war on terror’.

Certainly, Trump’s intelligence chiefs and his Secretary of the Interior are not best known for any commitment to civil or even human rights. The newly appointed Director of the CIA openly supports the use of torture against detainees.

A more fundamental motive for any Trump-Putin rapprochement would be economic.

One of the new US President’s earliest appointments as Secretary of State, responsible for foreign policy, was Rex Tillerson. As the Chief Executive of Exxon Mobil, Tillerson has negotiated extensive agreements with the Russian state oil corporation Rosneft to drill for and extract oil in Siberia and the Arctic. Work there has been halted by Western sanctions against Russia on the questions of Crimea and the Ukraine, but Trump and Tillerson understand the enormous potential for profit-making in some of the biggest sectors of the Russian economy. In return, Putin and Rosneft want the most advanced technology that only companies such as Exxon Mobil can provide.

A short-term marriage of convenience between Trump and Putin might also be intended to drive a wedge between Russia and China, so that the US regime can concentrate its fire on the latter.

The bellicose outbursts from Trump about Taiwan, and from NATO chiefs about Chinese ‘expansionism’ – into the South China Sea! – should sound the alarm bells for all who care about world peace.

Real expansionism is the spread of US and NATO military installations and operations across much of the globe, including military bases in Diego Garcia, Afghanistan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, the Pacific Islands, Iraq, the Gulf States, Kosovo, Turkey, the Caribbean including Cuba, Djibouti, Greenland, Western Europe and now in much of eastern Europe and the Baltic States.

China has no bases outside its own territory. Its foreign policy is based on peaceful co-existence, mutually beneficial economic relations and collective security through the United Nations.

But Trump’s proposal yesterday to install a missile defence shield against a possible nuclear attack from North Korea will ramp up tension across the whole region.

We should have confidence in China’s Communist Party and government not to rise to provocations from the Trump administration and NATO. We should not be fooled by Trump’s disparagement of NATO. He will be brought into line with US imperialism’s military strategy, and his call for higher arms spending by other NATO members will – if conceded – enable him to divert some of the US military budget into his missile defence project.

Our responsibility, meanwhile, is to redouble our work in the peace and anti-war movements to expose the machinations of US and British imperialism; to oppose the renewed US-NATO drive to global ‘full spectrum’ military dominance of land, sea, air and space; and to call for Britain’s exit from NATO and the closure of US military bases here. In particular, we must take definite steps – including the allocation of Executive Committee members – to rebuild the Peace Assembly as Britain’s affiliate to the anti-imperialist World Peace Council.

Trump and his administration represent some of the most reactionary circles of US 6 | the Communists speak

finance monopoly capital. But that Cabinet and his policies contain contradictions.

Some of his appointees support the Paris Climate Change Treaty, perhaps appreciating its weaknesses and limitations rather than its positive points and potential. There are divisions, too, over such issues as free trade and protectionism, rapprochement with Russia and gay and reproductive rights.

Mass struggle will help bring those contradictions to the fore. With that in view, we are sending a message of solidarity to the Communist Party of the USA and our best wishes in the battles to come. We also applaud the mass women’s marches across the USA and around the world for social justice and the environment, and against the sexism, racism and xenophobia reflected in the words and deeds of the 45th – and possible most dangerous – US President.

The Tory Brexit It is clear that the Tory regime of Theresa May – unelected in any General Election – seeks to use Britain’s exit from the European Union to intensify neoliberal policies, while claiming to represent the interests of people ‘left behind’ by globalisation, many of whom voted Leave in last June’s EU referendum.

Closer economic relations with the US may provide the opportunity for a trade deal enshrining the same pro-big business principles as those contained in the stalled (and possibly doomed) Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the USA and the EU. Far from defending the many millions of people left behind by capitalist globalisation, the Tory government will continue to cut or privatise public services, hold down wages and restrict trade union and employment rights.

But those on the left and in the labour movement who support membership of the EU and the European Single Market should be under no illusion. These Tory policies would be coming at us whatever the result on June 23 last year. And membership of the European Union or the European Single Market will no more stop them over the next few years than it has stopped any of the cuts, privatisations and anti-trade union laws inflicted on the working class and peoples of Britain since Thatcher was first elected Prime Minister in 1979.

The Communist Party and its allies in the EU referendum campaign have no illusions whatsoever about the capitalist, imperialist and anti-democratic character of the EU, which makes it incapable of fundamental reform.

The City of London’s financial institutions, the Bank of England, the Confederation of British Industry, the Institute of Directors, the International Monetary Fund, the EU Commission, the European Central Bank and NATO all understand that membership of the EU serves the interests of big business and imperialism and should be maintained.

These are the powerful forces – backed by an illiberal intellectual elite – that have sought to undermine the legitimacy of the referendum result and frustrate its implementation.

Their fall-back position has been to keep Britain enmeshed in membership of the European Single Market with its rules requiring the ‘free movement’ of capital, goods, services and people across the EU and, for capital, across the world.

In her recent speeches at Lancaster House and Davos, May appears to have Communist Party | 7

accepted that public opinion, including many who voted to remain in the EU, is strongly in favour of respecting the sovereignty of the people and implementing the result; that many who voted Leave are also opposed to remaining in the Single Market, especially with its ‘free movement’ of cheap and super-exploited labour; and that neither German Chancellor Merkel nor the various unelected ‘presidents’ of the EU are prepared to compromise substantially on the ‘free market’ and ‘free movement’ principles.

So now, the May government is outlining its perspective of a Britain open to free trade with the rest of the world, cutting taxes and regulations in order to attract companies and capital to Britain as an offshore tax haven; a Britain where almost everything is up for sale, labour is ultra-flexible, unions are shackled and the interests of a largely unregulated financial sector continue to predominate.

In Scotland, the SNP government is prepared to leave the British ‘single market’ which accounts for 85 per cent of that country’s trade, in order to remain in an EU market which accounts for 10 per cent or less.

Neither of these neoliberal perspectives will rebuild industry in England, Scotland or Wales. Nor will they rescue the NHS and local government services from further rapid disintegration and collapse. Nor will they build the millions of new affordable homes that we need – and which can only be guaranteed through public sector investment and provision.

Nor will they ensure the investment required in safe, non-nuclear, renewable energy supplies for the future – a vital task that cannot be left to the profiteering whims of the private sector.

Only a sustained upsurge in popular and industrial action will block the May regime’s policies, and create the conditions in which a left-led government can be elected to office as envisaged in the Communist Party’s programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism.

The mass demonstrations on March 4 ('It’s Our NHS: No Cuts, No Closures, No Privatisations') and March 18 ('Stand Up to Racism') will step up the pressure on the Tories and UKIP. As well as promoting the Morning Star at those events, special issues of the Communist Party’s bulletin Unity! will project the case for a ‘People’s Exit’ and our programme of meetings.

On the electoral front, there must be active support for left and progressive Labour candidates in the forthcoming Copeland and Stoke Central parliamentary by-elections on February 23. At the same time, Communist Party branches should seek to maximise the number of Communist candidates fighting in the council and mayoral elections across England, Wales and Scotland on May 4 on a platform of opposing cuts and privatisation, rescuing the NHS and replacing the council tax with local direct taxation and equalised central funding.

A ‘People’s Exit’ Jeremy Corbyn’s important speech in Peterborough on January 10 displayed some of the signposts towards such a ‘People’s Exit’ from the EU. A future Labour government in Britain must be free of EU rules and any TTIP-style agreements with the EU, USA or anyone else, so that it can intervene decisively to rebalance, rebuild and modernise the economy. Together with the Scottish and Welsh 8 | the Communists speak

governments in a federal Britain, it must have the powers and resources to: • take strategic industries and services into public ownership; • direct regional economic development; • limit the export of capital and the import of particular commodities; • set the terms of public sector contracts; • enforce fairer pay and prevent the super-exploitation of imported labour; and • end Britain’s racist immigration controls which discriminate against non-Europeans.

Now this case must be raised more clearly and forcefully in the labour and progressive movements. That’s why the Communist Party will organise a series of Communist Party public meetings in every district and nation in April, May and June to project this perspective of a ‘People’s Exit’, against the Tory and UKIP one of austerity, privatisation and so-called ‘free markets’ dominated by big business monopolies.

We will invite speakers from the Portuguese, German and Irish communist parties to address these meetings alongside our allies in the labour movement, on the left and in such bodies as the Indian Workers Association and the Bangladeshi Workers Council.

Of course, the meetings must be thoroughly prepared and publicised by our party centrally and locally.

Members of the CP Executive Committee are also taking the lead in disseminating the main resolution of our party’s 54th Congress – ‘Block the Ruling Class Offensive and Win a Left-led Government’ – throughout the Party and across the labour and progressive movements.

Celebrating socialism and communism This year will mark the centenary of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Das Kapital, which Karl Marx himself rightly described as ‘the most terrible missile that has yet been hurled at the heads of the bourgeoisie’.

Communist Party local, district and national organisation will organise events to celebrate the Bolshevik Revolution and the historic national and international achievements of the Soviet Union. 2017 is the year to proclaim afresh that socialism alone will guarantee the future of humanity and of our planet.

We Communists are the original internationalists, and we continue to proclaim the closing words of Marx and Engels in the original Manifesto of the Communist Party: ‘Workers of all lands, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! You have a world to win!’

The CP Executive Committee meeting also decided to: • Support the call for an official investigation into the activities of the Israeli embassy in Britain, including the character assassination of pro-Palestinian MPs and the deployment of Israeli agents and funds inside the Labour, Conservative and other political parties.

• Highlight the role of women in the Russian revolutions of 1917 at events this year to celebrate International Women’s Day and the Great October Socialist Revolution.

• Urge support for the Marx Oration at Highgate Cemetery on March 19, to be delivered by Venezuelan Ambassador Rocío Maneiro.

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• Elect its officers for 2017-19, including: Liz Payne (chair), Ruth Styles (vice-chair), Robert Griffiths (general secretary), Graham Stevenson (trade union organiser) and John Foster (international secretary).

• Publish new pamphlets on immigration, the EU, China and Marxist philosophy.

• Thank CP members and supporters for raising more than the £10,000 target in the party’s Big Red Appeal.

Executive Committee, January 24 2017 Class politics vital to understand Trump and EU ‘The most powerful big business circles in the USA are determined to promote their interests aggressively against China, Russia and the European Union’, Communist Party chair Liz Payne told the party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (February 15).

But at the same time, she pointed out that the conflicts within the country’s state apparatus reflected differences of tactics and strategy within the US ruling class.

‘Some US corporations such as Exxon Mobile are involved in exploiting Russian oil and gas resources, or in the case of tobacco and soft drink giants see the market potential in China – while others resent Chinese competition at home and abroad or put geo-political and factors first in order to complete the provocative military encirclement of Russia and China’, she declared.

As a key base for US imperialism in the Middle East, Israel would receive unequivocal support from Trump, as it would have done from a president Hillary Clinton – but without even the lip-service to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

‘However, we should be in doubt that a “one-state” solution would be a “no-state” non-solution for the oppressed Palestinian people’, Ms Payne argued.

CP international secretary John Foster agreed that the revival of inter-imperialist rivalry was key to understanding recent political and economic developments.

He pointed out that Trump and his key advisers were concerned that workers being thrown on the scrap-heap by capitalist globalisation might turn increasingly to the left, as demonstrated by the support for social democrat Bernie Sanders in the fight against Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Party candidate in last year’s US presidential election.

‘During the election campaign, Trump promised protectionist measures in order to defend and create industrial jobs and redistribute wealth in favour of the working class – yet most of US big business, including major interests within his own regime, profit from globalisation and its so-called “free markets"’, Mr Foster pointed to CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU), endorsed that same day by the European Parliament.

It allows monopoly capital to circulate with little or no restriction throughout the common territories, including in Britain, and enables corporations to sue democratically elected governments in accordance with an ‘investor dispute mechanism’.

This could raise a major legal obstacle to the renationalisation of public services and utilities, Mr Foster declared He warned that US big business wanted to draw Britain closer to its side in what 10 | the Communists speak

could develop into a trade war against the EU. The CP Political Committee urged the labour movement in Britain to overcome its differences over the EU referendum and oppose neoliberal treaties and rules of every kind, whether operating in the EU or being considered by Theresa May’s Tory government.

‘Neoliberalism directly threatens our public services’, Morning Star editor Ben Chacko commented, highlighting the impact of cuts across the NHS and, in England, the accelerated privatisation of hospital services.

General Secretary Robert Griffiths identified the lack of class analysis and class politics on the left and in the working class movement as an ongoing weakness.

‘Trump and his team include a number of sexist, racist and homophobic bigots, as does the leadership of UKIP in Britain – but we should also be clear about the class interests they and their policies represent, and which pose grave dangers to all workers and their families, not least to women and ethnic minorities’, he insisted.

‘Similarly, we need to be clear that British ruling class policy has been to stay in the EU, or in the Single Market if that proves impossible and – failing even that – to conclude neoliberal trade and investment deals with the US, Canada, Turkey, Israel and other countries as necessary’, Mr Griffiths added.

London district secretary Steve Johnson agreed that concentrating on personalities, however vile, could cloud a clear analysis: ‘Racism, the Ku Klux Klan, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign, sexism, homophobia, union-busting and the mass deportation of immigrants existed in the USA before the election of Donald Trump’, he remarked.

CP trade union organiser Graham Stevenson reported that the mass of people in their workplaces and local communities did not share the media obsession with Trump above their own concerns about pay, benefits, pensions, jobs and public services. A new round of steep domestic fuel price rises, following the latest 9.8% average increase announced by Npower, will hit millions of people already in poverty.

Mr Stevenson underlined the importance of communists being involved in the People’s Assembly, DPAC (Disabled People Against the Cuts) and other grass-roots movements.

Britain’s communists also expressed their ‘total opposition’ to moves to create a socalled ‘Progressive Alliance’ of right-wing Labour, ultra-leftist, Green and LibDem forces.

‘Some well-meaning supporters want such an alliance to stand against Tory cuts – yet it would unavoidably help rehabilitate the LibDems, who betrayed millions of voters to form a coalition with the Tories in 2010 and begin a vicious ten-year programme of cuts and privatisations’, Liz Payne reminded the meeting.

‘For others, especially the Greens and New Labourites, their main agenda is to campaign for continued membership of the EU and its neoliberal Single Market. They oppose Labour’s left leadership for respecting popular democracy, when all genuine progressives should be supporting Jeremy Corbyn and his comrades’, she concluded.

The Political Committee decided to: • Publish a new range of campaigning materials for the ‘Our NHS’ and ‘Stand Up to Racism’ demonstrations on March 4 and 18.

• Mobilise for the International Women’s Day event organised by the Coordinating Committee of Communist Parties at the Marx Memorial Library on March 11.

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• Attend the Marx Oration at Highgate Cemetery, March 19, to be delivered by Venezuelan Ambassador Rocio Maneiro.

• Welcome the British Peace Assembly event at the MML on March 24 in memory of renowned Marxist scientist J.D. Bernal.

• Urge support for Graham Stevenson as Communist Party candidate for West Midlands mayor in the May 4 local elections.

• Promote new Morning Star pamphlets on the EU by John Foster and Imperialism and the Middle East: Challenges for the Left.

• Participate in an international seminar on July 1-2, organised by the Marx Memorial Library, the Institute for Employment Rights and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Germany) on the future of the EU. Political Committee, February 16 2017 A Budget for, by and of the rich and big business Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths released the following statement today (March 8) in response to the Spring Budget of Chancellor Philip Hammond: Chancellor Hammond is pressing ahead with tax cuts on corporate profits, capital gains and inherited wealth.

He has nothing new to offer workers on the national living wage – most of whom are women – or benefit claimants and pensioners, even though inflation is set to rise to more than 2 per cent and stay there, swallowing up the small increases already in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, more austerity punishment beatings are promised for everyone who needs public services and social welfare. It’s reminiscent of the old navy motto: ‘floggings will continue until morale improves’.

But Hammond has left local councils to wield the whip and cut even more deeply into essential public services.

Even the extra £2.4bn promised for social care and the NHS over the next three years is chicken feed when an extra £18bn is needed to bring Britain’s health spending up to the European average and an extra £30bn to match France and Germany.

Most of the additional £2bn social care funding to local government will end up in private sector coffers. Even worse, £325m of the paltry NHS pledge is linked to implementation of Sustainability and Transformation Plans in England, which are intended to cut and privatise facilities and services in order to meet a projected NHS deficit of £20bn by 2020-21.

This is a Tory Chancellor who boasts that ‘we are the party of the NHS’ but who responds to the deepest crisis in its history with crumbs and a ‘For Sale’ notice.

Most of his miserly £216m additional investment in schools will be wasted on Prime Minister May’s obsession with dividing pupils into grammar school successes and secondary modern school failures.

This is a Tory government whose budget today confirms that it’s a government of, by and for the rich and big business.

Party Centre, March 8 2017 12 | the Communists speak

Britain’s Communists call for unity around EU exit and progressive federalism ‘The left and the labour movement must intervene in the debate around Brexit to put forward a working class perspective’, Communist Party international secretary John Foster told the party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (March 15).

‘So far, it has been a largely neoliberal dialogue between Prime Minister Theresa May and her pro-EU opponents. Both sides base their arguments on a belief in freemarket fundamentalism, whether inside or outside the European Union and its Single Market’, he pointed out.

‘Exit from EU and Single Market membership opens up greater possibilities for workers to assert their rights through collective bargaining and for a progressive government to support industry and regulate investment, trade and the exploitation of migrant labour’, Mr Foster argued.

But he warned that the Tories are prepared to barter these prospective economic freedoms away in order to obtain TTIP- or CETA-style trade and investment deals with the EU and countries such as the US, Canada, Turkey and Japan. Access to European and other markets under WTO rules would be preferable to extending neoliberal freedoms for big business.

The Communist Party’s mayoral candidate in the West Midlands, Graham Stevenson, pointed out that Single Market or European Economic Area membership would still prevent local councils from pursuing public sector contract terms that favoured workers, equality, trade unionism and local industry.

He reported significant local media interest in his election campaign, with widespread labour movement dissatisfaction with the right-wing Labour candidate.

John Foster’s political report also criticised the response of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to the triggering of Article 50 for Brexit.

He accused her of promoting the ‘politics of grievance’, but claimed that her ‘opportunistic attempt’ to link a new Scottish independence referendum to Scotland staying in the EU or Single Market was backfiring. She hadn't taken full account of the fact that around a third of pro-independence voters last time were also opposed to EU membership.

‘The right of the Scottish people to national self-determination is beyond question, but how we exercise that right should – for workers, socialists and Communists – be determined by class politics’, Mr Foster insisted.

‘Where lie the real interests of the working class and the Scottish people generally?’ he asked.

The Communist Party advocates a fully federal Britain in which national parliaments have full powers to intervene in the economy, combined with a radical redistribution of wealth across its nations and regions to benefit workers and their families everywhere.

‘The recent decision of the Scottish Labour Party to embrace this perspective of progressive federalism is overdue but very welcome’, Mr Foster declared.

CP general secretary Robert Griffiths doubted whether the SNP stood for genuine independence for Scotland at all.

‘What kind of independence would it be which submits Edinburgh governments and the Scottish people to rules and policies decided by the Bank of England or the European Central Bank and membership of the EU and NATO?’, he questioned, ‘And how would Scottish workers gain from leaving their biggest single market by far – Communist Party | 13

Britain – in order to remain in the relatively insignificant European one?’

Mr Griffiths called for working class and labour movement unity in favour of progressive federalism and the election of a left-led Labour government at Westminster. He announced that the CP would be refining its approach to questions of devolution in relation to taxation, employment and trade union law and the English regions.

Britain’s Communists also discussed the possibility that the South African Communist Party and trade union confederation COSATU might stand independent candidates in that country’s next elections, separate from those of the African National Congress and its right-wing leadership. It expressed its unqualified solidarity with the SACP, which would face even higher levels of media hostility and distortion in the event of such a rupture.

The CP Political Committee urged support for the following forthcoming events: • The ‘Stand Up to Racism’ demonstrations in London, Glasgow and Cardiff this Saturday (March 18).

• The Marx Oration at Highgate Cemetery, London, on Sunday (March 19).

• The J.D. Bernal Peace Lecture at the Marx Memorial Library on Friday March 24.

Political Committee, March 16 2017 Rise to the challenges of Brexit, say Communists ‘Triggering Article 50 to leave the EU confronts the left and the labour movement with four specific challenges’, John Foster told the Communist Party’s executive committee at the weekend.

The first, he said, was how to develop a broad campaign to secure the progressive gains to be made from exiting the EU, such as winning back the powers to rebuild industry through state aid, public ownership, a state investment bank, public procurement contracts and economic regulation.

‘These powers could be bargained away by a Tory government in neoliberal trade and investment deals with the EU and other countries’, Mr Foster warned.

Secondly, he called for the right-wing populism of the Tories and UKIP to be countered with an anti-racist internationalism of the left, which was incompatible with supporting a ‘neoliberal Fortress Europe’ with its barriers against people and goods from the Third World.

This would have to include a fair, non-racist immigration policy within the framework of collective bargaining in which workers have a major say.

Thirdly, the CP international secretary emphasised the need to work closely with ‘progressive forces for change’ across Europe and more widely.

Mr Foster welcomed support from trade unions and political parties in Britain, Germany, France, Portugal and other countries for a seminar on the future of Europe on July 1 at the Marx Memorial Library in London, hosted by the Institute for Employment Rights, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and other bodies.

The fourth challenge, he declared, was to replace the ‘politics of grievance’ of the Scottish National Party with the ‘politics of class’ of a resurgent Scottish labour movement.

‘Communists have always insisted upon the right of the Scottish people and nation to determine their own future’, Mr Foster pointed out. But he questioned whether SNP 14 | the Communists speak

policies to retain Britain’s currency and monarchy together with membership of the EU and NATO amounted to real independence.

‘Only federalism outside the EU and a massive transfer of wealth from the City of London’s financial sector to working people throughout Scotland, England and Wales would provide a Scottish government with the powers and resources to intervene decisively in an economy dominated by the capitalist monopolies’, he argued.

The two-day CP executive committee meeting also agreed plans for a series of public meetings across Britain between April and June on a ‘people’s exit’ from the EU, with speakers from communist and workers parties in Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and other EU countries.

Executive Committee, March 26 2017 Britain’s Communists condemn US aggression in Syria The Communist Party of Britain condemns the latest US military attacks on the sovereign territory and people of Syria.

Far from being a blow for peace and security, these reckless actions heighten the risk of military confrontation between the US and Russia, with all the calamitous consequences that would follow.

The assault on the Shayrat air base by 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles confirmed that United States and Western policy in Syria is primarily to remove the government of President Bashar al-Assad, rather than to defeat the murderous sectarian forces of DAESH-ISIS, al-Nusra and other death cults.

This escalation of the war in Syria will be welcomed by these sectarian religious groups who see any weakening of the Damascus regime as an opportunity to further their own reactionary agenda. They understand that the overthrow of Assad is more likely to create the conditions of unlimited chaos, violence and anarchy in which their own brute force can triumph, than to install the kind of pliant pro-imperialist government desired by the US and its allies.

The Shayrat attack also represented yet another flagrant breach of international law by the US. Their cynical misuse of the UN and its conventions threatens the human rights and security of peoples everywhere.

By proposing a one-sided resolution at the UN Security Council that made unacceptable demands of the Syrian government – instead of leaving such matters to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – the US knew that Russia and probably China would exercise their veto. Engaging in unilateral military aggression only 48 hours later, as discussions were underway at the Security Council to formulate a compromise resolution, shows that the US was repeating the same dishonest charade that preceded the disastrous blitzkreig on Iraq in 2003.

For all the media propaganda about what the so-called ‘international community’ desires, most countries and peoples reject any role for the US as the world’s judge, jury and executioner.

This is a role which US President Trump relishes, although he has had to fall into line with the US military-industrial complex. He now appears to accept this subservience, having backtracked on previous positions in relation to NATO, China, Russia, his candidate for National Security Adviser and now on military intervention in Syria.

Communist Party | 15

All of this underlines the need for Britain to pursue its own independent foreign and defence policy, outside the imperialist US-NATO-EU axis.

This should include promoting policies of solidarity with the peoples of the Middle East against sectarian fundamentalism, for a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel and for UN-backed negotiations to bring about a peaceful, democratic settlement of the crisis in Syria.

The Communist Party of Britain unreservedly condemns the use of chemical weapons against civilians in any circumstances and supports all genuine calls for a full UN-OPCW investigation into all credible allegations of their use.

General Secretary, April 9 2017 Communists condemn Tory backing for US-NATO aggression United States aggression is creating very dangerous situations in Syria, the surrounding region and on the Korean peninsula, the Communist Party of Britain has warned.

Steve Johnson told the party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (April 12) that US military intervention was not motivated by concern for civilian lives, but by its strategy to remove governments not compliant with US geopolitical and business interests.

That same strategy had already wrecked Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and would do the same in Venezuela if necessary, Mr Johnson declared.

‘The danger of nuclear conflagration in Korea cannot be ruled out if the US ignores China’s plan to reduce tension in the region, refuses to withdraw US warships and continues to engage in a belligerent war of words and threats with the Pyongyang regime’, the CP’s London District secretary insisted.

Britain’s communists highlighted the need to focus opposition on the role played by Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in backing US and NATO aggression.

‘Britain has helped created bloody chaos in the Middle East at the cost of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, yet May and Johnson rush to demand sanctions against the Russian and Syrian governments’, Steve Johnson remarked.

‘The regime in Saudi Arabia massacres large numbers of civilians in Yemen and sentences its own dissidents to death, while Britain’s Prime Minister pays the Saudi dictators a friendly visit and turns a blind eye to their savage war crimes and human rights violations’, he added.

The Communist Party urged full support for protests called by the Stop the War Coalition and CND against US and British government war-mongering. It reiterated its view that Britain should withdraw from NATO. International Secretary John Foster expressed the party’s solidarity with the Iraqi Communist Party, following an armed attack by sectarian forces on its headquarters in the southern city of Diwaniyah.

The CP political committee also discussed how to contribute to strengthening the mass movement against war, racism and austerity. It looked forward to the People’s Assembly conference on May 13 as an important step in developing a ‘people’s alternative strategy’ that would challenge Tory big business rule and create the conditions in which a left-led government could be elected.

Political Committee, April 13 2017 16 | the Communists speak

Communists urge – ‘Throw out the Tories on June 8!’

The Communist Party is not entirely surprised by the announcement to hold a General Election on June 8, never having taken Tory leaders at their word and aware that the so-called ‘fixed term’ Parliament Act is bogus.

Theresa May seeks a mandate to pursue a five-year programme of neoliberal policies, including yet more austerity, privatisation, militarism and war in alliance with the USA and NATO. Her section of the Tory leadership – most of whom campaigned in favour of EU membership – want to reach a trade and investment deal with the EU on the basis of most Single European Market rules. The EU Commission welcomes this approach and has made little secret of its support for the election announcement.

Another section of the Tory leadership wants Britain to regain full control over trade, immigration and taxation policies, with no more contributions to the EU budget.

A bigger majority at Westminster would allow May’s section to push through its agenda without the support of its most hardline anti-EU dissidents.

It might also strengthen her position, at least in the short run, against the growing opposition to many of her domestic policies such as the reintroduction of grammar schools (and therefore of secondary moderns), the privatisation of the NHS and social housing, deeper cuts in public services and welfare benefits and more tax reductions for the rich and big business.

Both sections of the Tory Party support May’s vision of Britain as a low-wage, deregulated, privatised, anti-trade union, offshore tax haven. Both favour neoliberal economic agreements with the USA, Turkey, Japan and others.

That is why it is essential to win a Labour victory on June 8 and open the way for a government led by Jeremy Corbyn to pursue left and progressive policies across a wide range of domestic and international issues.

It is precisely because the ruling class fears such a prospect that it does not want to give Labour three years – or even three more months – to rebuild party unity and take its policies directly to the people, not least in Scotland.

New freedoms outside the EU and Single Market rules would allow the Labour leadership to enact its key policies to rebuild Britain’s industrial base, defend and enhance public services, promote regional development, slash or abolish VAT, strengthen our trades unions and end the super-exploitation of migrant labour.

A Labour government is needed that would not bargain away those potential freedoms in trade negotiations with the EU. That’s why the Communist Party urges the working class and peoples of Britain to seize the opportunity on June 8 to throw out the Tories. No to pessimism and defeatism! Yes to a victory for the labour movement, progress and peace!

General Secretary, April 18 2017 Vote Labour everywhere for a left-led government The working class and peoples of England, Scotland and Wales face a stark choice on June 8: whether to vote for more austerity, privatisation, growing inequality, militarism and war; or to elect a left-led Labour government with policies to enhance our public services, invest in industry and housing, combat poverty, safeguard the environment, liberate the trade unions, promote social justice and pursue an independent foreign Communist Party | 17

policy based on peace and international solidarity.

Theresa May and the Tories want a bigger Commons majority in order to force through a raft of policies opposed by many millions of people in Britain, including: • Five more years of austerity and privatisation of the NHS and other public services.

• The reintroduction of grammar and therefore, in effect, of secondary modern schools.

• A new round of anti-trade union laws, aimed at workers in public transport, education and other important services.

• Renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system under US control, at a cost of more than £150bn.

In particular, May and her closest allies want to negotiate an agreement with the EU that would keep Britain in the European Single Market in all but name, which would mean no return of democratic control over trade, capital movements, public investment (including state aid for industry), procurement policy, agriculture or over the superexploitation of migrant labour. Almost certainly, too, Britain would have to pay an extortionate ‘exit fee’ and grant favourable access to EU citizens wishing to live or work here – concessions which would be opposed by at least some anti-EU Tory MPs. The Tories also intend to delete any EU policies incorporated into British law that stand in the way of big business profits, especially in such areas as employment rights, health and safety, consumer protection and environmental standards. Many of these policies are feeble, but better than nothing.

On the other side, Labour’s policies in this election include more progressive taxation, state bank investment in public services, support for industry, an end to NHS privatisation, public ownership of the railways, community ownership of energy, an end to zero-hours contracts, the restoration of employment and trade union rights and building half a million new council houses.

The Communist Party is in no doubt that this second option is the only one which serves the interests of workers and their families. Therefore our members will be campaigning for a Labour victory as the essential first step towards the formation of a left-led government at Westminster.

In every General Election since the formation of the CP in 1920, we have stood our own candidates, not least in 2015 when we fielded nine. Now, on this occasion, we will not contest any seats, although this does not signal any withdrawal from the electoral arena in the future.

We call for a Labour vote in every constituency across Britain, despite the reactionary views of numerous Labour Party candidates. Communist Party organisations will approach local Labour Party bodies in their area with offers of practical campaigning assistance.

At the same time – and in the light of the EU referendum campaign – it is now clear that a vote for the LibDems, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru will be a vote for EU freemarket fundamentalism and the EU’s alignment with NATO. A vote for UKIP will be a vote for austerity, privatisation, tax cuts for the rich and big business and for a narrow, xenophobic nationalism that seeks to divide working people instead of uniting them.

In order to project our revolutionary strategy for socialism and a programme of clear, consistent policies for the labour movement, the Communist Party will also promote its own manifesto in this period of heightened political activity and consciousness.

18 | the Communists speak

In particular, we will continue to put the case for a progressive exit from the EU and its Single Market and for the policies that this then makes possible, including: • State-backed investment in housing, public services and renationalised utilities.

• Direction of private capital into depressed areas.

• Regulation of trade to support exports and protect strategic industries.

• Control over public procurement policy in order to favour equal pay and trade union rights including collective bargaining.

• Drastic reductions in VAT alongside higher taxes on the rich and big business.

• Legislative and trade union action to enforce equal terms and conditions for imported workers.

• Replacement of the corrupt, high price and wasteful Common Agricultural Policy by a system of direct production and investment grants.

The Communist Party’s manifesto will also ensure that the case is made for progressive federalism, a radical redistribution of wealth to the working class in all the nations and regions of Britain, abolition of the Trident nuclear weapons system and for Britain’s withdrawal from NATO. The maximum possible Labour vote is necessary not only to secure the election of a Labour government. We also recognise that this election marks a further intensification of the left-right struggle within the labour movement and the Labour Party. The higher the Labour vote and the number of Labour MPs elected, the more secure will be the position of Jeremy Corbyn and his left allies in the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Any reverses for Labour will be used as a pretext by the right-wing pro-EU, proNATO faction in the Parliamentary Labour Party and its trade union allies to launch yet another bid to remove Jeremy Corbyn and take the Labour Party back to the neoliberal and pro-war policies of the past.

Thus the Communist Party says: • Eject the Tories – elect a Labour government!

• Reject austerity, privatisation and imperialist war!

• Leave the EU Single Market and NATO! • No to any free trade treaty with the EU • that denies workers’ rights and the role of the public sector!

• Fight for social justice, public ownership and progressive taxation!

Political Committee, April 23 2017 ‘Labour must challenge ruling class institutions’ say Communists ‘Recent opinion polls indicate that the Tory lead over Labour is narrowing and that the General Election result is not a foregone conclusion’, Nick Wright told the Communist Party’s political committee on Wednesday evening.

‘This is not only because Prime Minister May is a wooden performer who refuses to meet the public or debate with her opponents’, the party’s head of communications declared, ‘it also reflects a Labour Party campaign which proposes working class policies at the expense of the rich and big business’.

Mr Wright pointed to Labour’s commitment to fund free school meals and education maintenance grants by abolishing tax advantages for private sector schools and by increasing corporation tax.

He also welcomed Labour’s pledges to build a million new homes over the next five Communist Party | 19

years, half of them in the public sector, and to change the ‘power imbalance’ between bad landlords and the rapidly growing number of private rented tenants.

But Mr Wright warned that the prospects of winning a ‘government of a new type’ that would carry through an economic policy to challenge monopoly capitalist power are not yet bright enough.

‘They require a working class that is prepared to fight and is organised to do so’, he argued.

In particular, the labour movement needs to see itself as a force not only fighting for its collective aims within the current economic system, but then – on the basis of the inevitable class contradictions and confrontations – for the transition to a higher mode of production.

Responding to the latest demands of EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, the CP political committee rejected his ‘incontestable’ demands that Britain ‘settle the accounts’ by paying a huge divorce settlement fee in return for none of the assets, while abiding by rulings of the EU Court of Justice during and after negotiations.

Nick Wright said that the EU and many of its member states face a ‘crisis of political institutions’ because they could no longer offer concessions to the working class previously made possible during the long period of post-war reconstruction.

‘Today, very few of the things that millions of people desire and that a left-led government might introduce can be won without challenging ruling class institutions, whether at national level or in the form of the EU, its overbearing Commission, the European Central Bank, the EU Court of Justice or the single European market’, he pointed out.

Political Committee, May 4 2017 Communists urge solidarity against ‘barbarous’ Manchester attack Responding to the terrorist bombing in Manchester, Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths said today (May 23): ‘Britain’s communists extend the hand of solidarity to all the families and friends of the young people cruelly targeted in the barbarous attack at the Manchester Arena.

No cause can justify the deliberate mass murder of ordinary people, whether in Manchester, Paris, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Israel or Yemen.

We salute the selfless efforts of the emergency services: the staff of the eight hospitals who have worked through the night and of the ambulance, fire and police services. Their courage and dedication puts to shame the hypocrisy of politicians who have been busy cutting public sector wages and services for the past seven years.

We echo Mayor Andy Burnham’s unifying and working class response, calling on all parts of the local community to pull together. Last night, Mancunians did just that, opening their family homes to the injured and lost, with cab drivers ferrying concert goers away for free in their taxis.

It’s already clear that various highly publicised programmes to ‘counter terrorism’ are not working. A change of direction is needed with all parts of the community, including trade unions, actively engaged in bringing workers and their families together. Above all what’s required is a government which rebuilds communities, promotes jobs especially for the young, builds houses, funds education and pursues a foreign policy for peace, democratic rights and social progress in the Middle East in 20 | the Communists speak

place of imperialist subversion and sectarian fundamentalism.

In the coming days, Manchester communists will actively support public manifestations of solidarity which seek to unite Mancunians of all nationalities and of all religious faiths and none’.

General Secretary, May 23 2017 Communists urge ‘final push’ for a left-led government The Communist Party has welcomed Labour’s advances in the opinion polls but warns that 18 months of scurrilous attacks on Jeremy Corbyn from the mass media and within his own party have left Labour with a mountain still to climb.

Addressing the CP political committee, Ben Chacko singled out Labour’s election manifesto as a turning point in the campaigN, which has seen the Tory lead slump from more than 20 points to single digit figures.

‘A hung parliament is now more likely and a Labour victory no longer impossible’, the Morning Star editor commented, especially with the mass registration of young voters.

Either result would represent a ‘humiliation’ for Prime Minister Theresa May. In contrast to Tory campaign of self-aggrandisement, childish mantras, personalised abuse and uncosted manifesto policies, Labour’s manifesto pledges to abolish zerohour contracts, boost incomes, tax the rich and big business and renationalise railways, the Royal Mail and utilities are proving popular.

‘It’s testament to the shallowness of decades of neoliberal ideological dominance that public opinion remains steadily in favour of what has been branded on all sides of the Commons chamber as unthinkable, loony left, dinosaur politics’, Mr Chacko pointed out.

He poured particular scorn on Tory and right-wing media charges that Jeremy Corbyn is ‘soft on terrorism’ because he opposes British and US imperialism’s wars abroad.

‘This is deeply hypocritical, considering the evidence that the Manchester bomber was radicalised in the war to overthrow Colonel Gadaffi in Libya, where Britain backed Islamist rebels and appears to have removed control orders so that their supporters in Britain could go to Libya and join them’, the Morning Star editor accused.

But Britain’s Communists warned that Brexit remained a weak plank in Labour’s election platform, even though Tory and LibDem efforts to make it the main election issue were failing.

‘Labour needs to make clear that the question is not primarily about which party leader will be stronger in the exit negotiations – but whose interests they will strongly represent’, Mr Chacko insisted.

‘Will it be the interests of the people through Labour’s policies for repatriating powers to invest in industry and manufacturing, expand public ownership and extend workers’ rights – or the interests of the City of London and big business?’ he asked.

The Communist Party political committee urged party members and supporters to step up their efforts still further in the final week of the election campaign, to prevent a victory for ‘austerity, privatisation and war’ and for the historic election of a left-led Labour government’.

Political Committee, June 1 2017 Communist Party | 21

Trump and the Paris Agreement President Trump’s decision to pull the USA – the world’s largest economy and its second biggest polluter – out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is a retrograde step. Already, 50 of the world’s poorest countries have condemned him, suffering – as many of them are – from the extreme weather conditions caused by global warming.

Trump is backed by the US coal monopolies and there is now the danger that the oil and gas corporations will shift from paying lip service to lower greenhouse gas emissions to embrace Trump’s potentially disastrous policy.

He claims to be protecting and creating jobs by backing carbon fuels – yet more than twice as many people work in the now-threatened US solar (260,000-374,000) and wind power (102,000) industries than in coal (160,000).

The Paris Agreement falls well short of what is needed, with its low targets and voluntarist provisions, but it establishes a universal UN framework and a platform on which to build.

It is now vital that progressive forces around the world support those in the US labour and green movements who are fighting to make Trump and not the planet pay for his potentially disastrous step. Future sanctions should be considered against the world’s biggest rogue state if that step is not reversed.

General Secretary, June 4 2017 The Tories have no mandate, May must resign Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths issued the following statement at 7.50 am today (June 9): ‘Twelve million people have voted for a left-wing Labour manifesto and a majority of electors have rejected austerity policies. The Tories have no mandate for five months of public spending cuts, never mind another five years. In raising Labour’s share of the poll by 10 percentage points to almost match the Tories, enthusing huge numbers of young people, Jeremy Corbyn and his leadership have been vindicated. So, too, has the emphasis placed by the Communist Party on the role of mass struggle and class politics in raising people’s consciousness, confidence and political understanding. This will help bring further advances for Labour in the new election that will be necessary in the very near future, once Theresa May resigns’.

Party Centre, June 9 2017 Labour campaign a ‘qualitative change’ in political situation, say Communists ‘The General Election campaign and its result represent a qualitative change in the campaigning environment in a manner not seen for decades’, Communist Party chair Liz Payne told the party’s executive committee at the weekend.

She praised a ‘massive mobilisation of young and old, workers and the retired, women and men and people from all ethnic backgrounds’ across the three nations of Britain.

‘Labour’s campaign led by Jeremy Corbyn has put class politics back at the heart of political and policy debate in our society’, Ms Payne declared.

But she also urged socialists and communists to keep the achievements in perspective.

22 | the Communists speak

‘Labour’s progressive manifesto was not a programme for the transition to socialism, despite its left-wing policies for massive public sector investment, public ownership and progressive taxation on the rich and big business’.

‘But the party remains committed to NATO and nuclear weapons of mass destruction’, the CP chair added.

Britain’s communists warned that right-wing elements in the Parliamentary Labour Party are regrouping after the rejection of their divisive antics, in order to fight a rearguard action in defence of their neoliberal, pro-EU and pro-Single Market positions.

Therefore the Communist Party executive called for the ‘mass mobilisations and popular and industrial action’ that laid the basis for Corbyn’s leadership election victories and Labour’s General Election advance to continue and escalate.

In particular, it urged support for the People’s Assembly national demonstration on July 1 and for united joint action by unions at national and local levels against public sector pay restraint.

‘It’s now vital to put the maximum pressure on this minority Tory government and its alliance with one of the most reactionary sectarian parties in Europe, namely, the DUP in northern Ireland’, Liz Payne insisted.

The Communist Party executive committee also agreed to: • Congratulate the Morning Star on its ‘splendid coverage’ of the General Election and its support for Labour’s campaign.

• Support the seminar on ‘Britain, the EU and Europe’ organised by the Institute of Employment Rights and the Marx Memorial Library for London on July 1, being sponsored by a range of trade unions and attended by union and workers’ parties’ representatives from across the continent.

• Welcome the proposed visit of Aqel Taqas from the Palestine Peace Council to the TUC congress in September.

• Consider organising a protest at Ukrainian diplomatic buildings in Britain on July 5, when the Ukrainian supreme court hears the final appeal of the Communist Party of the Ukraine against its criminalisation.

Executive Committee, June 19 2017 Irish CP leader warns against ‘reactionary, imperialist’ Tory-DUP alliance ‘The Democratic Unionist Party might prove a stable ally for Britain’s Tory government, but only in the short term’, Communist Party of Ireland general secretary Eugene McCartan predicted on Sunday.

Addressing the Communist Party of Britain’s executive committee, he declared that the DUP priority would be to gain more public money and reduce corporation tax on business profits to serve its own narrow interests in northern Ireland.

‘As long as progressive social policies are not imposed by a British government on the Northern Ireland Assembly, the DUP are not interested in changing such policies in Britain itself’, Mr McCartan reckoned.

‘Instead, they want more money and to maintain free trade across northern and southern Ireland after Britain’s exit from the EU’, he declared.

The Irish CP leader said that the DUP are in a contradictory position, aiming to maintain the division of Ireland while also seeking to locate the economic border Communist Party | 23

between the UK and the EU ‘down the middle of the Irish Sea’ alongside the security border.

He believed that the Stormont power-sharing arrangements would be re-established over the summer between the DUP and Sinn Fein, but with the DUP in an even stronger position than before.

‘The most right-wing and reactionary party in northern Ireland will be backed by the most right-wing and reactionary major party in Britain, directly the product of British imperialism’s history of intervention and domination in Ireland’, he commented, pointing out that the UDA and UVF paramilitaries had backed the DUP in this month’s General Election.

‘But, in addition, the government in southern Ireland will look to reconfigure its relations with the DUP, creating difficulties for Sinn Fein’, he said.

Reaffirming the Communist Party of Ireland’s ‘total opposition’ to EU membership, Mr McCartan argued that the issue was very problematic for Sinn Fein, which changed its position to support EU membership in Britain’s referendum last year.

‘In the north of Ireland, Sinn Fein is enmeshed in institutional politics and their tie-up with EU funding, while in the south it wants to appeal to working class people campaigning against the austerity and privatisation policies promoted by pro-EU Dublin governments, the European Commission and the European Central Bank’, he explained.

Ireland’s communists were engaged in a series of discussion forums with disillusioned Irish republicans, Mr McCartan revealed, arguing for ‘people’s antiimperialist politics’ as the alternative to both Sinn Fein reformism and a return to militarism.

The CPI leader will be addressing Communist Party of Britain public meetings this week in Manchester (Monday), Rhyl (Tuesday), Brighton (Wednesday) and Cardiff (Thursday).

Executive Committee, June 19 2017 Communists slam ‘weak and unstable’ Tory regime The Queen’s Speech and the EU exit negotiations underline the urgent need for a General Election and a change of government, according to Britain’s Communists.

In his report to the Communist Party’s political committee, Robert Griffiths slammed Prime Minister Theresa May’s ‘weak and unstable’ agreement with the right-wing Democratic Unionist Party to prop up her minority Tory regime.

‘Under cover of dropping Tory manifesto pledges to impose a wealth tax on people with dementia and abandon the “triple lock” pension guarantee, the Tory-DUP lash-up has ditched the promised cap on energy tariffs and manifesto commitments to boost NHS spending and local authority house-building’, he charged.

The CP general secretary also attacked May’s renewed commitment to cut Corporation Tax on big business profits from 19 per cent to 17 per cent by 2020.

He pointed out that Britain already has the lowest tax on profits in the G7 and the second lowest in the European Union.

‘Abandoning manifesto policies to curb spending on pensions, social care and school meals while also cutting Corporation Tax means that the Tories will be looking elsewhere to impose austerity on the working class’, Mr Griffiths warned.

He called for a massive turnout for the ‘Not One Day More’ demonstration in London 24 | the Communists speak

this Saturday organised by the People’s Assembly and trades unions.

‘The time is also ripe for a united, joint campaign by unions to cast off the 1 per cent pay cap on public sector workers, especially after the heroism demonstrated recently by those in the fire, health and police services’, the CP leader added.

The Communist Party reaffirmed its opposition to any EU exit deal which maintains Single Market and Customs Union rules that would tie the hands of a future progressive government in Britain.

‘A left-led Labour government must be free alongside progressive administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff to enact trade, investment, public ownership and procurement policies that put the public interest before private profit’, Mr Griffiths insisted.

He said the Tories were seeking an agreement with the EU that would lock Britain into a treaty that leaves big business free to move capital, goods and super-exploited labour around Europe in order to maximise profit.

Britain’s Communists urged support for a demonstration at the Ukrainian Consulate, 78 Kensington Park Park Rd., London, next Wednesday from 12 noon to 2 pm, in solidarity with the Communist Party of the Ukraine (KPU).

On that day, July 5, the KPU is appealing against a state ban imposed on the party by the country’s extreme right-wing regime brought to power three years ago by a US, EU and fascist-backed coup. Criminalisation of the party has been condemned by Amnesty International and a host of national and international bodies around the world.

Political Committee, June 29 2017 Beware Tory EU exit trap, Communists warn The Tory government is preparing to bind workers and a future Labour government with EU market and competition rules after Britain leaves the EU, according to the Communist Party.

‘Big business is putting huge pressure on Prime Minister May and her negotiating team to reach a settlement with the EU that would prevent any form of democratic intervention in the economy through an alternative economic and political strategy’, International Secretary John Foster told the party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (August 2).

He warned that any transitional or post-exit treaty with the EU that accepted existing single market or customs union rules and institutions would outlaw policies to support industry, control capital, regulate trade or use public procurement contracts to promote local employment, trade unionism, upskilling and R&D investment.

Mr Foster pointed to the European Free Trade Association court judgement in the Holship case as an example of how EU competition and ‘right of establishment’ law is used to undermine trade unionism and workers’ terms and conditions. Last year, the EFTA Court ruled that a collective agreement protecting the pay of Norwegian dockworkers was invalid under EU treaty law, despite the views of Norway’s own supreme court.

‘More trade union leaders need to speak out about the dangers that the single European market and its super-exploitation of “posted” workers pose to jobs, living standards, local communities and strategic industries’, the CP international secretary suggested. He welcomed, therefore, the recent decision of Britain’s third biggest union, Communist Party | 25

the GMB, to oppose continued membership of the European single market.

Britain’s communists said it was now urgent to bring down the minority Tory government before it could commit Britain to rejoining EFTA and its European Economic Area with the EU, or accepting any further jurisdiction here of the ‘antitrade union’ EU Court of Justice.

The Communist Party also warned that the Tories and their big business paymasters are seeking trade and investment deals with the USA, Canada and other countries that would enshrine capitalist free market principles, putting corporate profit before the interests of workers and consumers.

On the controversial issue of the so-called free movement of people, Mr Foster accused the EU of hypocrisy and racism.

‘The main concern of the EU has always been to ensure that businesses can employ desperate workers from one part of Europe on terms that undermine pay, conditions and trade unionism in another’, he declared, ‘Free movement has never been extended to people outside “Fortress Europe", most of them non-white, who have been kept out by ever rising barriers’.

The CP political committee called on the British government unilaterally to grant residency rights to foreign nationals living here and to repeal all discriminatory immigration and nationality legislation passed since 1980.

Political Committee, August 4 2017 Communists back democracy against violent subversion in Venezuela The Communist Party of Britain has welcomed the results of last Sunday’s referendum in Venezuela to create a Constituent Assembly under article 347 of that country’s democratically adopted constitution.

The support from more than eight million electors indicates the continuing scale of popular backing for the democratically elected government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Despite the boycott of the referendum by some opposition parties and the orchestrated campaign of street violence, bombings and the assassination of election candidates and supporters, independent observers have verified that 41 per cent of all eligible electors went out to vote.

Britain’s communists condemn the refusal of President Trump and the US administration to recognise the referendum result. Their decision to impose yet more sanctions will inflict further hardship on the people of Venezuela, who are already suffering the grave impact of domestic and external economic sabotage and the collapse of world oil prices.

The Communist Party also condemns the announcements from the president of the EU Parliament, Antonio Tajani, that the parliament would follow the US in refusing to recognise the results and that ‘it is the will of the people of Venezuela to change the regime’.

CP general secretary Robert Griffiths urged people in Britain to lobby their MEPs to repudiate these statements.

‘Mr Tajani, a member of disgraced ex-President Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia outfit, cannot be allowed to pass himself off as a representative of the peoples of Europe to back Donald Trump’s programme of violent regime change in Caracas’, Mr Griffiths declared.

26 | the Communists speak

‘The elected government of Venezuela has made great strides in giving voice to the hitherto excluded and unrepresented, redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor – and it is our duty to defend it’.

Political Committee, August 4 2017 Put workers before ‘free markets’, say Communists ‘Britain’s trade unions must prove their worth to millions of young workers who are in low paid and insecure employment or the future is bleak’, Communist Party trade union organiser Andy Bain declared at the conclusion of the TUC annual conference on Wednesday.

Addressing the party’s Political Committee in Brighton, he welcomed the emphasis on building ‘new model unionism’ in the modern workplace. But he warned that mass recruitment and militancy are not enough.

‘Hand in hand with a bolder, fighting spirit there needs to be a conscious, planned effort to develop workers’ understanding of capitalist economics and state power’, Mr Bain urged.

While more unions were arguing for the need to regulate labour within the framework of collective bargaining, instead of allowing multinational corporations to exploit the free movement of labour, he insisted that the movement of other commodities and capital should also be regulated.

‘A left-led Labour government would find that many of its policies to invest in public sector infrastructure, assist key industries, provide equal rights for all workers, reform public procurement contracts and limit VAT contravene EU Single Market rules’, Mr Bain pointed out.

‘The pro-EU free market fundamentalism promoted by some Labour Party spokespersons and trade union leaders serves the interests of big business, not those of working people’, the former union president added.

Britain’s Communists therefore reaffirmed their support for Lexit: the Left Leave Campaign and welcomed the mass distribution to TUC delegates of its new pamphlet

by Lexit chair and CP general secretary Robert Griffiths.

The success of the party’s fringe meeting on the EU and the warm reception by TUC delegates of its daily bulletin Unity! was noted with satisfaction.

The CP political committee also announced plans to hold a central branch secretaries and cadre school on October 28 in London, to be followed in the evening by a centenary celebration of the Russian Socialist Revolution organised by the Coordinating Committee of Communist Parties domiciled in Britain.

Political Committee, September 14 2017 Repression in Catalonia The Communist Party of Britain condemns the repressive actions taken by the Spanish government to halt the independence referendum in Catalonia. It sends its solidarity to the Communist Party of Spain, the United Left and other progressive forces who gathered over the weekend at the Assembly of Representatives in Zaragoza to assert and defend the rights of the Catalonian people to hold a referendum on their national future. It notes the long standing policy of the Communist Party of Spain to support the recognition of the national rights of the peoples of Spain within a federal structure that Communist Party | 27

can maintain the progressive unity of the working class and its allies against the forces of Spanish monopoly capital represented by the Spanish state. The Communist Party of Spain pledges itself to campaign against any authoritarian, anti-social and centralising solution imposed by the current right-wing government in Spain.

The Communist Party of Britain reiterates the right of all nations to selfdetermination and for this right to be exercised, as Lenin argued, on terms that seek to strengthen, not weaken, the power and unity of the working class and its allies against capitalist state power. The form that this will take must depend on specific circumstances, understanding that today major aspects of capitalist state power are exercised through multinational institutions such as the European Union. In this battle to enhance the strength of the working class and its allies, we must defend our existing democratic institutions, gained through past struggle, and free them from the procapitalist restrictions imposed by the EU. But, as Communists in Britain have long argued, they must be supplemented and strengthened by national parliaments and regional assemblies that can mobilise working people to assert their power over that of big business and the market, to plan and invest in economic development on behalf of the people.

International Secretary, September 25 2017 British and Chinese Communists in ‘fruitful’ talks Strengthening relations between communist parties and celebrating the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth next year were among the topics discussed at a bilateral meeting in London this week between a deputation from the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and officers of the Communist Party of Britain.

Ahead of his party’s 19th congress, CPC deputy director general Zhou Rongguo outlined the key priorities for the coming period. These are to move the focus of economic development from a labour-intensive model to one based on innovation, sustainable ecologically, better coordinated between town and countryside, open to the world and whose benefits are shared equally among all the people of China.

Mr Zhou said that progress had been made over the past period in asserting the rule of law, fighting corruption. prioritising the environment and promoting a harmonious society. A key priority currently, he declared, was to promote peace and economic development internationally and to oppose militarisation. He also warned that the current stance of NATO was not in the interests of the peoples of either the United States or China.

For the Communist Party of Britain, general secretary Robert Griffiths briefed the Chinese delegation on current developments in the trade union and labour movement, on his party’s stance on the EU and the importance assigned to the peace movement.

He welcomed the commitment to work for closer coordination among Communist parties as a force for peace and social justice and to prioritise a deeper understanding of Marxism, especially among young people.

‘We discussed a number of fruitful initiatives to develop international relations further between communist parties, trades unions and the forces of the left’, CPB international secretary John Foster remarked after meeting the CPC delegation, which is also attending the Labour Party conference in Brighton this week.

Party Centre, September 26 2017 28 | the Communists speak

Communists — ‘mass action can drive out Tories’ Britain’s Communists have urged full support for the People’s Assembly events in Manchester this week to protest against the Tory Party conference.

Meeting in the city at the weekend, the Communist Party executive committee said that workers and their families had had enough of cuts, low pay and privatisation.

‘On behalf of the people of Britain, Sunday’s huge demonstration served notice to quit on Prime Minister May and her callous, divided and dishonest minority regime’, CP trade union organiser Andy Bain declared.

He congratulated the many People’s Assembly, trade union, peace movement, Labour Party, Communist Party and other left-wing contingents on the march.

‘We should never forget that it was mass campaigning and concerted industrial action that inspired hundreds of thousands of people to elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party and destroyed the Tory majority at Westminster’, Mr Bain reported.

‘Now yet more extra-parliamentary can drive this weak and unstable May administration from office a long time before 2022 and secure the election of a Labour government’, he added.

But the Communist Party warned that Labour’s plans for a fairer society could come unstuck unless the Labour Party fully respects the electorate’s majority vote to quit the European Union.

‘The Tory right and even UKIP could enjoy a revival if Brexit is sabotaged’, CP international secretary John Foster maintained.

‘Millions of working class people did not vote to leave the EU only to find that a future British government remains bound by its treaties, rules and institutions – all of which promote neoliberal, monetarist and anti-working policies’, Mr Foster insisted.

‘A stronger Communist Party will be essential to support and keep up the pressure on a future social democratic government, against the madness of nuclear weapons and NATO and in favour of left-wing policies, to help put Britain on the road to socialism’, chair Liz Payne added.

The CP executive meeting welcomed plans to celebrate the 1917 Russian socialist revolution in a series of events across Britain over the coming two months, including an international communist evening at the Cypriot Community Centre, Wood Green, on October 28 and a major conference at TUC Congress House, London, on November 4.

Executive Committee, October 2 2017 Communists warn against neoliberal options ‘Big business and the Tory Cabinet may be divided over Britain’s future relationship with the EU – but neither camp offers a way forward that would benefit the workers and peoples of Britain’, Robert Griffiths told the Communist Party’s political committee yesterday (Thursday).

Most financial monopolies in the City and their voices in the Tory, LibDem and Labour parties would like to reverse Brexit or at least keep Britain enmeshed in the neoliberal rules and institutions of the EU single market, he charged.

‘They know that key policies in Labour’s programme – such as public ownership, public investment bonds, state aid for industry, VAT reform, contract compliance and ending the free market in migrant labour – can be blocked by the EU Commission and misnamed Court of Justice’, Mr Griffiths argued.

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But he warned that the alternative proposed by US and British-owned ‘vulture capitalist’ firms in the City of London and their Tory supporters is for a post-Brexit Britain that negotiates its own ‘free trade’ and ‘free movement’ treaties around the world.

‘They fear even the mildest EU regulation of the giant tax-dodging, money laundering and asset-stripping casino that is the City’, the CP leader accused.

Britain’s communists called instead for Labour to offer a clear alternative to any kind of domination by big business market forces.

‘That means Britain leaving the EU and its single market, while retaining access to it on the same terms enjoyed by the US, China and Japan – if not better’, Mr Griffiths insisted, ‘while rejecting any kind of transitional agreement that maintains the sovereignty of EU treaties and institutions’.

‘The transitional arrangements currently proposed by the Tory and Labour leaderships are just a continuation of EU membership by another name, which will be used by some as a breathing space during which Brexit can be sabotaged’, he warned.

The CP political committee expressed its concern that Tory and Labour failure to stand up to the EU and fully implement last year’s referendum decision could revive support for UKIP and the far right of the Tory party.

Political Committee, October 19 2017 Popular sovereignty at stake, say Communists The democratic principle at stake in the European Union struggle is not parliamentary sovereignty but the sovereignty of the people, Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths told the party’s executive committee at the weekend.

He was responding to last week’s ruling by the Court of Appeal that the British government must consult MPs and peers before triggering negotiations to leave the EU. ‘The rights of the Westminster parliament were asserted against the monarchy in the 17th century in order to enforce the interests of the rising capitalist class’, he argued. But sovereignty has since passed to the people, as the result of mass campaigns by the working class and women to secure universal suffrage.

‘And the people decided on June 23 that Britain should leave the European Union’, Mr Griffiths pointed out, accusing an alliance of business people, MPs and establishment judges of seeking to sabotage the exit process by setting terms and conditions on it.

He insisted that the referendum vote reflected a popular desire for elected governments and parliaments in Britain to decide trade, tax and social policies, rather than unreformable EU treaties and unelected EU institutions.

‘Membership of the Single European Market would not satisfy that popular demand’, he asserted, ‘because it would prevent Britain from taking the necessary steps to support strategic industries, radically reform or abolish VAT, nationalise and modernise public utilities and services or take action to stop the super-exploitation of migrant workers’.

The CP leader also poured scorn on the notion that the backlash against the Court of Appeal ruling represented an attack on the ‘independent judiciary’.

‘Britain’s judges are only independent of the working class, not of the ruling class 30 | the Communists speak

and its public school system’, Mr Griffiths remarked. He cited a list of judicial rulings and inquiries over the years that had hamstrung trade unions and kept innocent Irish people in prison, while ‘white-washing the crimes of British imperialism and its corrupt armaments industry from Ireland to Iraq and Saudi Arabia’.

Executive Committee, November 6 2017 Nothing new about capitalist ‘fake news’ say Communists ‘There is nothing new about “fake” news – the capitalist media monopolies have been pumping it out for more than a century’, Steve Johnson told the Communist Party’s political committee on Wednesday evening (November 15).

He cited the infamous example of the ‘Zinoviev Letter’ in 1924, when the Daily Mail and British press reported that the head of the Communist International had sent instructions to Britain’s Communists to engage in violent subversion.

Fabricated by emigre Russians in league with the German and British intelligence services, the forgery helped stop the re-election of a Labour government.

In 1960, John F Kennedy won the US presidential election with a media campaign that attacked a non-existent ‘missile gap’ between US and Soviet nuclear forces.

But now, Mr Johnson warned, the charge of ‘fake news’ is being used by lying rightwing politicians and media monopolies to discredit not only their rivals but also investigative journalism which exposes state secrecy and big business corruption.

‘The label is increasingly being pinned on Wikileaks, the Paradise Papers, TV channels such as RT and the social media generally which dare to challenge imperialist foreign policy and super-rich tax fraud’, the Communist Party’s London district secretary declared.

‘This labelling is the prelude to greater censorship of news and views that don't fit into the framework established by the billionaire media on behalf of monopoly capitalism’, Mr Johnson feared.

Meanwhile, the torrent of ‘fake news’ designed to justify imperialist intervention in Syria, undermine support for Brexit, discredit supporters of the Labour Party leadership and divert attention from the scale of corporate corruption continues unabated.

The Communist Party’s political committee agreed that these developments underlined the value of the Morning Star as ‘the only daily paper which honestly reports news and views that challenge capitalism and imperialism’. The committee looked forward to the launch of the Star’s planned online and rolling news initiatives, urging trade union and left-wing organisations to step up their financial support for the paper.

Britain’s Communists also expressed their growing concerns about new war dangers in the Middle East.

‘In addition to Western-backed, Saudi Arabian-led barbarism in Yemen and the ongoing drive to fragment Syria and Iraq, the US and its Saudi and Israeli allies – with British support – are preparing fresh acts of provocation and aggression against Lebanon and Iran’, the CP international secretary John Foster warned.

The long history of British, French and US imperialism’s intervention in the region to control resources and transport routes had inflicted colossal death and destruction on its peoples, Mr Foster pointed out.

Political Committee, November 16 2017 Communist Party | 31

Communists condemn ‘steady as the economy sinks’ Budget The Communist Party has condemned what it calls Chancellor Philip Hammond’s ‘steady as the economy sinks’ Autumn Budget.

CP general secretary Robert Griffiths said it reflected Tory priorities to ‘fill the boots of private enterprise with public money’ and shore up big business profits.

As real wages, benefits and living standards fall over the next four years and the British economy heads towards recession, he remarked, the Chancellor continues with planned cuts in corporate taxes and does nothing about tax-dodging havens under British jurisdiction around the world.

‘We need the trade unions to launch a coordinated wages offensive to smash the public sector pay cap, raise incomes across every sector and help stave off the impending downturn’, he urged.

Mr Griffiths dismissed Hammond’s plans to pump an extra £15bn into the housing market over the next five years as an ‘anti-solution’ to Britain’s housing crisis.

‘Stamp Duty and Help-to-Buy gimmicks inflate house prices and boost the shares of property and development companies’, he argued, insisting that the only practical option was to lift the cap on local government house-building.

The CP general secretary also warned that the extended squeeze on public spending takes no account of any ‘exorbitant’ EU divorce bill.

‘The Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic and fiscal outlook report confirms that the Chancellor’s austerity figures make no allowance for “any one-off or ongoing EU exit-related payments"’, Mr Griffiths pointed out.

‘Unless we resist EU ransom demands and get rid of this government, there will be further cuts in public sector wages, benefits and services’, he added.

In particular, the CP leader attacked the City of London’s financial sector for Britain’s low levels of investment in productive industry and demanded measures to direct private and public sector capital into manufacturing, construction and energy infrastructure. He demanded that the benefits of more investment, new technology and higher productivity must be used to improve people’s work-life balance and living standards, not to ‘feed the City and bg business fat cats’.

In particular, Mr Griffiths attacked the proposal revealed in OBR documents to sell off the state’s remaining shareholding in the Royal Bank of Scotland at an overall loss to the public purse of £26.2bn.

General Secretary, November 23 2017 Polish Communists on trial Communists in Britain condemn the trial of the Communist Party of Poland for distributing materials that seek to win support for a socialist system of society in their country. We understand that those accused now face long prison sentences if convicted. We ask the government of Poland to note that this prosecution, the result of its own legislation, is a direct violation of the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights on freedoms of thought and expression. We are also asking our own government to condemn this trial and to use its current position on the EU Council of Ministers to demand that the EU Council end its shameful silence on this prosecution and instead defends the principles of the European Court of Human Rights.

International Secretary, November 27 2017 32 | the Communists speak

Communists condemn Brexit Phase One deal The Communist Party of Britain has condemned the Brexit Phase One agreement between the British government and the EU Commission announced today (December 8).

‘This pro-big business, minority Tory regime is loyally carrying out the instructions of its EU Business Advisory Council to tie Britain to the EU single market for the foreseeable future, while paying through the nose for that dubious privilege’, CPB general secretary Robert Griffiths declared.

‘The Irish border question is being used as the pretext for Britain’s continuing subjection to EU rules and institutions in the guise of so-called “regulatory alignment"’, he argued. Mr Griffiths called instead for Britain’s commercial border with the EU to be marked by the Irish Sea rather than submit to an ‘Ulster loyalist veto’.

The CPB general secretary recalled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s warning in a BBC interview on September 24 that EU single market rules would prohibit a future Labour government from implementing its policies on public spending, state aid to industry and public ownership of the railways.

‘The list is even longer than that’, Mr Griffiths claimed, insisting that Labour’s manifesto pledges to raise investment funds through central bank bonds, end the super-exploitation of ‘posted’ workers, radically restructure VAT and reform public procurement contracts would all fall foul of EU treaties and directives.

Maintaining alignment with EU single market rules would also hugely restrict the basis on which a future British government could negotiate trade deals with China, Australia, Canada and other countries.

‘The labour movement in Britain must wake up to the threat posed by EU “regulatory alignment” and any similar transitional arrangements to Labour’s plans to invest in public services, industry and infrastructure and to promote social justice’, the CPB leader urged.

He also attacked the ‘extortionate’ financial divorce settlement outlined in the Phase One agreement.

‘The EU Commission had originally demanded around £100bn, Prime Minister May then flew to Florence and offered £18bn – and now that has doubled to somewhere between £35bn and at least £39bn’, Mr Griffiths pointed out.

‘This will come on top of Britain’s net contribution of £21bn over the next two years and will mean extra public spending cuts unless we elect a left-led Labour government that will end austerity and tax the rich and big business’, he added.

General Secretary, December 8 2017 Communists warn against Tory ‘one nation’ Brexit The labour movement should beware the drive to present continuing alignment with the EU Single Market as a ‘unifying’ post-Brexit policy, Britain’s communists have warned.

Addressing the Communist Party’s political committee on Wednesday evening (December 20), general secretary Robert Griffiths branded it a ‘one nation’ Tory and big business approach that would obstruct the progressive policies of a future Labour government.

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‘EU single market rules enforced by the overbearing EU Commission and the unaccountable European Central Bank would not only prevent Britain from negotiating its own economic relations with other developed and Third World countries’, he warned.

‘They would also restrict or outlaw many of the measures in Labour’s General Election manifesto, including those for state-backed infrastructure investment, aid for industry, VAT reform, fairer public procurement policies, renationalisation of the railways and water supply and a regulated labour market that puts an end to super-exploitation’, Mr Griffiths pointed out.

The CP political committee reiterated its support for a ‘people’s exit’ from the EU, with no submission to EU single market rules, a minimum divorce bill and regulation of the movement of capital and labour rather than a ‘capitalist free market to maximise corporate profit’.

Britain’s communists will approach other left and labour movement forces early in the new year to reinvigorate campaigning for an EU exit settlement which respects popular sovereignty and safeguards the rights and powers of a future Labour government.

The CP political committee also decided to: • Send a message of solidarity to Plymouth DWP workers striking to defend local jobs and services.

• Oppose Tory plans to place the cost of funding additional social care on local authorities and working class council tax payers.

• Warn against the likely ‘catastrophic’ impact of the way in which Universal Credit will be rolled out across Britain.

• Send best wishes to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation as it prepares for the March 2018 presidential elections.

• Endorse plans for the party to hold a Young Workers School on Sunday, May 6.

• Propose that the CP issue a draft updated edition of its programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism, for wider consultation following the party’s executive committee meeting in January.

Political Committee, December 21 2017 Repression in Iran The Communist Party of Britain strongly condemns the mass arrests in Iran, now estimated at over 1,500, and expresses grave concern at the reported torture of detainees. The party’s general secretary Rob Griffiths has lodged an official protest with the UK Representative of the Islamic Republic. The British party sends its solidarity to the Tudeh Party of Iran, the country’s party of working people.

According to reports reaching the British party, the protests that developed during the week before New Year represented a spontaneous upsurge of popular anger against spiralling prices and growing unemployment. Over the past months the prices of some staple foods have more than doubled and youth unemployment reached 28 per cent.

These protests are therefore distinct from those that occurred after the 2009 elections which were confined to the main cities and were primarily political, a protest against perceived electoral fraud. On this occasion the protests have been across all urban centres, involved those most exposed to economic hardship and developed 34 | the Communists speak

slogans that attacked blatant economic injustice and social inequality. The luxuries of the ruling elite, of leading clerics and the Islamic Guards, have been contrasted with the impoverishment of working people.

At the same time the Communist Party of Britain notes the warnings given by the Tudeh party against the hi-jacking of the protests by reactionary elements.

‘It is total hypocrisy for the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia to issue warnings to the Iranian government. These are the countries that have imposed the economic boycotts on Iran which bear direct responsibility for the inflation and unemployment.

They also countries that are currently seeking to impose, by force, a deeply dangerous and reactionary agenda on the Middle East – from Palestine to Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. It is, as the Tudeh Party argues, for the Iranian people themselves to recover their freedom, to redevelop their past heritage of progressive, class-based organisation and to oppose all imperialist intrigues’.

International Secretary, January 8 2018 ‘Don't take eyes off the imperialist wrecking ball’, say Communists The media’s ‘Trump, Trump, Trump’ obsession is attracting attention away from what imperialism is actually doing around the world’, Liz Payne told the Communist Party executive committee last weekend.

The party’s chair said that the major imperialist powers, led by the USA but also including Britain and France, were spreading conflict and terror in their vain efforts to solve a ‘systemic crisis’ of international capitalism by intensified domination, superexploitation and a ‘war economy’.

Reporting back from the recent meeting of the World Peace Council in Hanoi, Ms Payne pointed to the militarisation of the European Union and the build-up of US and Western military forces and bases in eastern Europe, the Baltic states, former Soviet republics, Africa, the Middle East and southern and eastern Asia.

‘As the leading imperialist power, the USA now has an annual military budget of $611bn and rising – more than one-third of the global total, more than the next eight countries combined and almost nine times Russia’s spending on arms’, the CP chair remarked.

‘Sanctions, ideological warfare, plots, coups, military threats and interventions are the tools of imperialist foreign policy from Cuba, Honduras and Venezuela to Ukraine, Syria and Korea’, Ms Payne argued.

She condemned the ‘unhelpful’ declarations of US government support for antiregime protestors in Iran, while expressing the Communist Party of Britain’s long-standing solidarity with working class and progressive forces opposing the reactionary Tehran regime.

The CP executive urged support for the Day of Action called by Britain’s Young Communist League for Saturday, February 10, when ‘No to Fascism! Solidarity with the Communists!’ protests will be held at the Ukraine’s London embassy, Edinburgh consulate and venues in Glasgow and Manchester.

Britain’s Communists also urged the Labour Party to correct a ‘potentially fatal weakness’ in its manifesto by adopting an ‘anti-war, anti-imperialist’ foreign policy instead of one based on NATO, military aggression and nuclear weapons.

In relation to its own programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism, the CP executive Communist Party | 35

received the first draft of an updated edition and declared its intention to hold a series of public events to discuss it in the late spring and early summer.

The party’s trade union organiser, Andy Bain, urged solidarity with striking railway workers opposed to driver-only trains and demanded action against the directors and accountants of bankrupt privateers Carillion, condemning the theft of pension funds and calling for outsourced public services to brought back in-house.

The Communist Party will be participating in the People’s Assembly and Health Campaigns Together demonstrations on February 3 to defend the NHS, unveiling a new dedicated banner and distributing a special issue of its Unity! bulletin.

Executive Committee, January 22 2018 Labour movement must speak up for EU ‘third option’ The labour movement is failing to voice the interests of workers and their families in the Brexit debate, according to Britain’s Communists.

‘Echoing the fears and aspirations of the CBI, the Institute of the Directors and the City of London casino is not the same as speaking up for working class interests’, general secretary Robert Griffiths told the Communist Party’s political committee on Wednesday evening.

He was speaking as Britain and the EU embark upon the second round of negotiations to exit the European Union.

‘Securing access to the European single market need not mean capitulating to the treaties, directives and institutions of the EU, which serve the interests of the capitalist monopolies’, Mr Griffiths argued.

He pointed out that numerous countries around the world trade with the EU without giving up their right to decide their own trade, financial, industrial or immigration policies.

‘Most of British big business wants to keep Britain as closely aligned as possible with the Single Market because its rules for the free movement of capital, goods and labour, together with the right of companies to operate in any country they choose, enables them to maximise profit at the expense of working people’, Mr Griffiths added.

The CP leader warned that EU treaties and directives would be used to impede a future Labour government’s programme to boost infrastructure investment, take energy, water, railways and the Royal Mail back into public ownership, extend state aid to industry, prevent import ‘dumping’, promote regional development and regulate the terms of public sector contracts in favour of trade union recognition, equal opportunities, training and tax compliance.

He highlighted a string of rulings by the European Court of Justice to restrict the rights of elected governments and trade unions to take action to protect imported, outsourced or redundant workers.

But Mr Griffiths also insisted that the alternative to alignment with the EU single market is not ‘the Tory neoliberal wet dream of deregulated markets, cheap and flexible labour and free trade agreements by which companies can take elected governments to special courts’.

Instead, he urged the labour movement to promote a third option beyond the EU and global neoliberalism.

36 | the Communists speak

‘In order to prosper, the workers and peoples of Britain need public investment, public ownership, economic planning, collective bargaining and a fair immigration policy instead of “Fortress Europe” discrimination and the super-exploitation of migrant workers’, he proposed.

Political Committee, February 15 2018 ‘EU destroying social democracy’, claim Communists ‘In Italy as in Germany, France, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands, traditionally strong social-democratic parties have suffered historic defeats in elections’, John Foster told the Communist Party of Britain’s political committee on Wednesday evening.

‘All of them have identified themselves closely with the EU and its disastrous neoliberal orientation in favour of austerity, privatisation and so-called “free market” policies that are destroying public services, the welfare state, collective bargaining, job security and social well-being’, the CP international secretary continued.

‘It would be madness, therefore, for the Labour Party to commit itself to any future arrangements binding Britain to EU single market rules that would prevent a leftled government from pursuing its popular manifesto programme’, Mr Foster insisted.

Britain’s communists welcomed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s recent speech in Coventry, where he warned that his party’s policies to invest in infrastructure, assist industry, reform public procurement contracts, ensure labour standards for all workers and introduce a fair immigration policy were incompatible with EU single market rules.

But the CP political committee warned that a customs union agreement with the EU would almost certainly prevent British governments from making mutually beneficial trade and cooperation agreements with growing and developing economies around the world.

Communist Party trade union organiser Andy Bain urged solidarity with workers in Greece, Portugal and Italy resisting EU-imposed policies of privatisation and cuts in benefits and pensions.

‘In particular, messages of support should go to the CGT and other trade union federations who are striking on March 22 against French government plans to privatise SNCF and break up the railway industry in line with the EU’s Fourth Railway Package’, he proposed.

Britain’s communists insist that ‘the struggle for collective security and the redevelopment of working class solidarity is the key to combating racism and social division’. Therefore the CP is calling for mass turnouts at the ‘March Against Racism’ events in London on March 17 and around Britain to mark UN International Day against Racial Discrimination.

The Communist Party also invited all members and friends to its annual reception the following day, after the annual ceremony at Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery where this year’s orations will be delivered by Cuba’s ambassador Teresita Vicente Sotolongo and John Foster.

Political Committee, March 8 2018 Communist Party | 37

‘Tories trying to switch agenda’, CP insists ‘Backed by much of the mass media, the Tory government is pulling out all the stops to switch the political agenda from Britain’s social crisis to one of Russia aggression and loyalty tests’, John Foster told the Communist Party’s executive committee at the weekend.

Not surprisingly, he remarked, Prime Minister May and her Cabinet colleagues do not want to focus attention on longer NHS waiting lists, school cuts, rent rises, benefit freezes, housing evictions and local council bankruptcies.

Rather, they prefer to whip up ‘nationalist hysteria’ against a foreign enemy in which anyone who questions attacks on Russia or challenges higher British spending on armaments will be accused of treachery.

‘This was the trap set for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party leadership and then supported by right-wing Labour MPs’, Mr Foster accused. But the Labour leader had been right to insist that the British government should provide ‘clear evidence’ for its claims of Russian involvement in the Salisbury attack on a former spy and his daughter.

However, the CP international secretary also warned against getting ‘bogged down’ in baseless speculation about the attack. Instead, he urged the left, trade unions, the Labour Party, the People’s Assembly and other campaigning bodies to shift the political agenda back onto the issues that directly affect the lives of millions of people across Britain.

Britain’s Communists called for mobilisations against cuts and in solidarity with striking college lecturers and railway staff, including a big turnout for the TUC national demonstration in London May 12 for ‘A New Deal for Working People’. The CP executive also wants more Communist Party candidates to contest the English council elections on May 3, opposing cuts and defending public services and jobs.

Mr Foster argued for greater clarity in the labour movement about the role of EUbacked ‘free market’, austerity, privatisation and labour ‘flexibility’ policies in promoting insecurity, xenophobia, racism and the collapse of social-democratic parties across Europe.

The CP executive committee reiterated its opposition to any transitional or final Brexit settlement which inhibits the right of a future government in Britain to invest in public services and infrastructure, assist industry, regulate imports, overhaul public sector procurement policies and protect imported workers against super-exploitation.

Britain’s Communists also resolved to send a message of solidarity to CGT railway workers conducting a series of rolling strikes from April 3 against a break-up of France’s state-owned SNCF rail company in line with the EU Commission’s ‘Fourth Railway Package’.

Executive Committee, March 18 2019 ‘Left must mobilise to stop Syria war’, says CP Britain’s peace movement must step up to stop the government racing into a ‘potentially disastrous’ war in Syria, the Communist Party’s political committee heard on Wednesday night.

Ben Chacko told the committee that despite a lack of evidence to back up claims relating to the alleged chemical weapons attack on Douma, the media were showing 38 | the Communists speak

‘no restraint’ — for example attributing claims of the number of deaths and injuries to the World Health Organisation when the WHO itself said its figures had been provided by rebel groups on the ground.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was right to push for a parliamentary vote, Mr Chacko said, but the outcome of such a vote was far from certain given the number of reckless warmongers on the party’s back benches.

‘But this will provide a breathing space for the anti-war movement to rally against the nightmare possibility of direct military conflict between US and Russian forces’.

Mr Chacko drew comparisons between the rush to judgement on Syria and the increasingly farcical claims around the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

‘It is testament to the total indifference of the mainstream media to investigating the truth that exposing the motives and inconsistencies in government claims has been left largely to social media and blogs like that of former ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, as well as some sharp articles in the Morning Star such as Kenny Coyle’s exposé of the media’s go-to chemical weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who turns out to head up a firm selling gas masks to the MoD’, he said.

Political Committee, April 12 2018 Communists condemn reckless and illegal aggression in Syria The Communist Party of Britain unreservedly condemns the latest act of aggression in Syria by Britain, the USA and France today (April 14).

International law cannot be upheld by breaching the most important articles of the United Nations Charter, which ban unprovoked military attacks by one member state upon another.

As the post-World War Two Nuremberg Tribunal ruled: ‘To initiate a war of aggression is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole’.

Such criminality cannot be erased by a vote in the House of Commons, although MPs should have been given the opportunity beforehand to uphold international law by blocking Prime Minister Theresa May’s reckless escapade. In the light of disastrous interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, she insults us all by claiming that ‘open source information’ and ‘intelligence reports’ somehow justify Britain’s involvement in this latest action.

Britain’s Communists call on MPs and the members of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh National Assembly to condemn this aggression at the earliest opportunity and to demand that no further such action takes place. The use of British bases in the sovereign state of Cyprus, without the agreement of that country’s own parliament, further underlines the extreme irresponsibility of Prime Minister May’s decision.

Yet again, the world’s three main imperialist powers have gone to war having failed in their duplicitous efforts to use the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as a rubber stamp. In attacking sovereign Syria, they are not acting in the name of the ‘international community’, large parts of which do not support this latest military action.

Between them, Britain, the USA and France have bombed or invaded more countries Communist Party | 39

since 1945 than the rest of the world put together.

Once more, these three powers have confirmed their character as rogue states whose strategy is to reassert – by any means necessary – domination over the rich natural resources and valuable transportation routes of the whole greater Middle East region.

The US, French and British air and missile strikes are gravely destabilising. They risk plunging the Middle East into a further escalation of war, with dangerous wider consequences for world peace. They appear to be linked to aggressive plans by the United States, abetted by Israel, to reassert its military control over Syria and Iraq and to use jihadi and other forces from outside Syria – some backed by Saudi and other Arab dictatorships – to re-escalate the war against the Syrian government.

It is no coincidence that this latest Western military assault took place only hours before a fact-finding mission from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was due to arrive in Damascus at the invitation of Syria and Russia to investigate the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma.

As demanded by two Russian Federation resolutions to the UNSC last Tuesday (April 10) – and vetoed by Britain, the USA and France – the OPCW team must be given full support for its work, which would include access not only to Douma, but also to any other sites it deems relevant.

By attacking three sites alleged to form part of a Syrian chemical weapons programme, the British, US and French air and missile strikes have made it more difficult for the OPCW to find and assess evidence for any such programme.

If the three Western governments genuinely had evidence that such sites were engaged in chemical weapons research, production and storage, they should have notified the OPCW without delay – not attempted to destroy that evidence.

The Communist Party of Britain condemns any use of chemical weapons, but stresses that without OPCW inspection there can be no proof of responsibility and that no evidence has been advanced either by President Trump or the British government.

The war-mongering posture of US President Trump as the head of NATO’s most powerful state, and of French President Macron as a champion of EU militarisation, confirms the urgent necessity to leave both components of the NATO-EU alliance.

We need a government of the left that will pursue an independent foreign policy for Britain based on respect for international law, sincere support for the United Nations and solidarity with the world’s exploited and oppressed.

Political Committee, April 14 2018 Korea accord The Communist Party of Britain welcomes the declaration of the two Koreas that they will work to rid the Korean peninsular of nuclear weapons. This declaration marks an important step towards reversing the militarisation of the region. It also provides a major new impetus to the movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons. It is now for the United States and Japan to follow suit, to remove bases, reverse programmes of aggressive re-armament and end the economic blockade of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

International Secretary, April 28 2018 40 | the Communists speak

Massacre in Gaza The massacre in Gaza and the callous killings elsewhere urgently remind us of our duty to secure justice for the Palestinian people. The actions of the governments of Israel and of the United States now directly threaten world peace. Yet the British government continues to allow the sale of arms to the Israeli army and British banks to supply credit. Our country, allied through NATO with the US, is directly complicit in these crimes.

The labour movement in Britain needs to act to: • Strengthen measures for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions • Demand the imposition of sanctions by the British government • Support the call for medical aid to hospitals in Palestine • Insist upon the release of Marwan Barghouti and other political prisoners • Call for an immediate resumption of peace negotiations on the basis of UN resolutions and the creation of a Palestinian state within its pre-1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.

Party Centre, May 17 2018 Communists urge Labour solution to social crisis Britain’s deepening social crisis confirms the urgent need to replace Theresa May’s minority regime with a left-led Labour government, Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths declared at the weekend.

Reporting to his party’s Executive Committee, he slammed Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster and the Tory response. She had stopped short of calling for a ban on combustible cladding, while Housing and Communities secretary James Brokenshire had promised a ‘consultation’ on the Hackitt report followed by unspecified legislation.

‘The is the “British way” when it comes to limiting the reckless, anti-social, profiteering activities of big business: guidance notes, voluntary codes of practice, toothless ombudspersons, light-touch regulation and – when things go horrendously wrong – committees of inquiry, judicial reviews, empty declarations and occasionally a royal commission’, the CP leader commented, ‘In fact, anything except legislative bans and powerful action to enforce them’.

He described the Grenfell scandal as the ‘most dramatic illustration’ of Britain’s housing crisis and ‘grotesque levels of social inequality and injustice’.

Mr Griffiths condemned the sell-off of social housing to private developers, property speculators and ‘giant US multinational corporations such as Blackstone’.

He attacked ‘socially affordable’ housing clauses in private sector housebuilding contracts as a ‘cruel hoax’. Instead of the large-scale revival of the private rental sector, he argued that only a massive programme to build more public sector houses and apartments would ensure ‘decent, affordable and secure homes for all’.

Mr Griffiths also highlighted Britain’s ‘institutionally racist’ immigration system and severe funding and staff shortages in the NHS as two other significant aspects of a wider and deeper social crisis.

The Communist Party executive reaffirmed its support for the election of a left-led Labour government, while warning that only an upsurge in mass, extra-parliamentary campaigning will create the most favourable conditions for victory.

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Communists urged the Labour Party leadership to stand firm against the ‘antiSemitism smear campaign’ and maintain its principled defence of the national and human rights of the Palestinian people.

The CP executive also demanded that the 2016 referendum decision to leave the ‘pro-big business, anti-democratic and imperialist’ EU be honoured in full.

Mr Griffiths accused pro-EU forces of whipping up tensions over the Irish border issue, challenging them with last November’s report from the European Parliament’s constitutional affairs committee. He quoted from ‘Smart Border 2.0’, which says its proposed solution ‘serves both sides of the border with maximum predictability, speed and security and ... is based on international standards and operational best practices from different parts of the world supported by state-of-the-art technology’.

The CP general secretary also condemned the ‘rank hypocrisy’ of SNP, LibDem, Green and Plaid Cymru politicians who are demanding the immediate transfer to Edinburgh and Cardiff of powers repatriated from the EU as a result of Brexit. ‘Yet they want a second referendum to reverse Brexit – which would leave all of those powers permanently in Brussels!’ he pointed out.

Executive Committee, May 20 2018 CP calls for left alternative to Brexit ‘shambles’ ‘The Tory government is a divided shambles over Brexit and would be finished off by a large, solid group of left-wing MPs’, Liz Payne told the Communist Party’s political committee on Wednesday evening.

She was reporting after a visit to the Westminster parliament, where she had taken Palestine Peace and Solidarity Council chair Aqel Taqaz to witness Prime Minister’s question time.

Together with World Peace Council executive member Navid Shomali, they had watched as Tory MPs attacked their government and each other after the SNP parliamentary group had walked out in support of their ejected leader.

‘The tragedy is that so few Labour MPs voice a clear understanding of the imperialist, pro-big business and anti-working character of the EU and the progressive alternatives to Britain’s membership’, Ms Payne commented.

‘Instead, some Labour backbenchers are joining rebel Tories in an effort to block the democratic outcome of the 2016 EU referendum, while many other MPs including most of the Cabinet want a superficial Brexit that would still tie Britain to the neoliberal rules of the EU single market and customs union’, she added.

Ms Payne accused the EU single market and its policies of austerity, privatisation and labour flexibility of promoting uneven development across the continent. ‘One consequence is the resurgence of the far right and its bogus populism based on racism, chauvinism and anti-Muslim scaremongering’, she pointed out.

Britain’s Communists support the policy of Labour’s left-wing leadership for a postBrexit settlement that would maintain access to the EU market – but not at the cost of a future left government’s freedom to raise funds for infrastructure investment, provide state aid to industry, regulate trade and the movement of capital, end compulsory competitive tendering, legislate against the super-exploitation of imported labour and radically reform VAT. As for the SNP walk-out, the Communist Party chair dismissed it as ‘a pre-arranged 42 | the Communists speak

publicity stunt’ that had negated a possible opportunity to debate the devolution to Scotland and Wales of powers being repatriated from the EU. ‘The irony is that all of those powers would have remained in Brussels had Britain voted to stay in the EU as the SNP would have wished’, Ms Payne remarked.

The CP political committee welcomed the outcome of a debate at last weekend’s conference of trades union councils in Manchester, when delegates rejected a motion urging them to organise an anti-Brexit campaign across England and Wales. The committee also received a report from CP treasurer Martin Graham that the party had surpassed the £19,170 target set for its Bolshevik Revolution centenary appeal.

Political Committee, June 14 2018 NATO reminder that left needs to step up battle of ideas — CP A year on from Labour’s ‘extraordinary’ progress at the general election more needs to be done to build a socialist mass movement to sweep Jeremy Corbyn into office, the Communist Party said at the weekend.

The CP executive committee welcomed the marches for a new deal for workers on May 12 and for the NHS’s 70th birthday last Saturday, but cautioned that parliamentary revolts Labour MPs opposed to Mr Corbyn’s leadership had confused the party’s stance on leaving the European Union, potentially alienating working-class voters.

Ill-discipline by MPs also showed the need for a strong extra-parliamentary movement to ensure a Labour government can implement a socialist manifesto.

Though Labour’s commitment to implement the Institute of Employment Rights’s manifesto for labour law was vital, building trade union confidence that workplace struggle could secure victories independently of Labour legislation would also be necessary, the EC declared.

Labour’s continued support for US imperialism through British membership of NATO and nuclear weapons indicated the need to step up the battle of ideas on the left and win backing for an anti-imperialist government, a fight in which the role of the Morning Star and the NGO Liberation would be crucial, the committee heard.

Communists also emphasised the importance of preventing the construction of a third runway at Heathrow at incalculable cost to the environment, stressing the role of public investment in supporting smaller regional airports and for high-speed rail to cut down on unnecessary domestic flights.

Executive Committee, July 2 2018 Tory disarray is the left’s opportunity, Communists claim Addressing the Communist Party’s political committee on Thursday evening, Alex Gordon recalled the words of Bolshevik revolutionary VI Lenin: ‘There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen’.

In just one week, Prime Minister Theresa May had met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, moved against the Eurosceptics in her own party and precipitated what could prove to be a fatal spate of resignations from the Tory Cabinet.

‘May’s so-called “Chequers Plan” to keep Britain half in the EU single market and wholly tied to the EU customs union has fooled nobody, least of all her own MPs and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier’, Mr Gordon declared.

‘Her crude attempt to impose a fraudulent Brexit is almost certainly doomed, even Communist Party | 43

though some Labour MPs rushed to her aid by proposing a coalition government’, he argued.

‘Helped by his fifth column in Britain, Barnier and his cohorts will demand nothing less than an extortionate “divorce” settlement and total subjection to EU neoliberal big business freedoms as the price of any post-Brexit settlement’, Mr Gordon added.

But the former president of the RMT rail union also made clear that the alternative to EU single market domination was not the right-wing Tory perspective for neoliberal free trade deals with the US and other countries.

‘Working people need to break free from the yoke of neoliberalism of every kind’, he insisted. In particular, a left-led Labour government was needed urgently to invest in manufacturing and infrastructure, renationalise the railways and energy utilities, direct private investment, outlaw the super-exploitation of migrant labour and carry out a host of other policies that would contravene EU treaties and directives.

The CP political committee agreed to approach a range of political, labour movement and community organisations to discuss renewing the campaign for a ‘left exit’ from the EU and ‘Fortress Europe’.

‘The people’s vote against EU membership has plunged the Tories and the far right into disarray and crisis – this is the left’s opportunity’, Mr Gordon concluded.

Political Committee, July 13 2018 ‘Operation Stop Corbyn’ cranks up a gear, say Communists ‘Operation Stop Corbyn’ has gone up a gear as the prospect of a left-led Labour government gets nearer, according to Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths.

He told his party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (August 15) that British ruling class circles were determined to prevent the election of a socialist Prime Minister who has a long record of opposing austerity, privatisation, nuclear weapons and imperialist war.

‘Their most valuable allies in “Operation Stop Corbyn” are an organised faction of anti-socialist, pro-EU, pro-NATO Labour MPs who are determined to sabotage Brexit and the election of Jeremy Corbyn to Ten Downing Street’, Mr Griffiths charged.

The Communist Party leader pointed to recent reports in the Times, Guardian and Financial Times indicating that Britain’s Tory government, business leaders and EU officials want a future Corbyn-led government to be constrained by EU single market and customs union rules.

‘They understand better than some trade union leaders and sections of the left that Labour policies to promote industry, invest in infrastructure, renationalise energy and the railways, revive regional development policies, regulate the labour market and reform VAT would cut right across EU treaties, rules, directives and EU Court of Justice rulings’, Mr Griffiths declared.

He said that this explained why British and EU negotiators have moved closer to agreement on exit issues such as City of London access to EU financial markets and ‘backstop’ arrangements to retain Northern Ireland within the framework of the EU single market.

‘Both sides would prefer a bogus big business Brexit rather than a real Brexit that would allow a left-led Labour government freedom to pursue its policies without EU 44 | the Communists speak

obstruction at every turn’, the CP general secretary concluded, ‘although their first choice would be another referendum in the hope that their scare stories and lies might work better the second time around’.

The Communist Party political committee condemned the ‘vile smears’ of antisemitism as another aspect of ‘Operation Stop Corbyn’, noting that Margaret Hodge had been the first Labour MP to step forward as a challenger to Corbyn when the Labour leader called for the EU referendum result to be honoured the day after the poll.

Britain’s Communists also agreed at their meeting in London to: • Welcome Wednesday’s ‘Day of Action’ by rail union RMT against ‘extortionate’ fare rises.

• Congratulate the selection of Communist Party of Brazil member of parliament Manuela d'Avila as vice-presidential candidate alongside Workers’ Party presidential candidate Fernando Haddad if former president Lula is disqualified.

• Organise a central CP school for new and prospective members on October 27 in the light of a 6% rise in membership so far this year.

Political Committee, August 16 2018 Communists greet TUC ‘shift to the left’ The recent TUC conference in Manchester marked a small but significant shift to the left, Communist Party trade union organiser Andy Bain told his party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening.

He welcomed resolutions on the economy, privatisation, precarious and low-paid work, a ‘New Deal’ for workers, public sector pay, social security and universal credit, the Grenfell Towers and Windrush scandals, a national education service, sexual harassment and fracking.

But Mr Bain warned that TUC policies such as those to renationalise the railways, regulate public services contracts and fully protect all workers against superexploitation contravened European Union rules and directives.

‘The TUC composite resolution rightly seeks to protect jobs and workers’ rights in the Brexit process, but fails to recognise any of the potential benefits from leaving the EU and its anti-worker, anti-trade union court rulings’, the former trade union president declared.

‘In particular, there is no recognition of why a Labour government must be free from EU Single Market rules if it is to boost public sector investment through central bank funding, limit competitive tendering, regulate imports, revive regional development policies, reform VAT and end the abuse of migrant workers to undermine employment terms, trade unionism and collective bargaining’, Mr Bain added.

The CP political committee condemned the spin put on the TUC decision to ‘leave on the table’ the question of a second EU referendum, which was subsequently misrepresented as positive, unqualified TUC support for the business-funded, pro-EU ‘People’s Vote’ campaign.

But Britain’s Communists welcomed the emergency motion passed by conference delegates condemning the ‘Nation-State Law’ passed recently by the Israeli parliament. Widely denounced by human rights supporters within and beyond Israel, the new legislation institutionally discriminates against the native Palestinian population in what it proclaims to be ‘the Jewish state’.

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‘It’s vital that bogus and cynical charges of anti-Semitism neither silence legitimate criticism of Israeli state racism and repression, nor undermine the struggle against anti-Semitism where it genuinely exists’, Mr Bain told the CP political committee.

The Communist Party urged mass support for the People’s Assembly demonstration at the Tory Party conference (Birmingham, September 29), the trade union ‘Day of Action’ against precarious work (October 4) and the TUC national demonstration against racism (London, October 20).

The Political Committee also confirmed plans to hold a day school for new and prospective CP members on October 27 in Derby.

Political Committee, September 20 2018 Only socialism can solve global warming crisis, say Communists ‘The real message from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that capitalism has caused the deadly global warming crisis and is incapable of solving it’, John Foster told the Communist Party’s political committee on Wednesday evening.

Pointing out that burning oil and gas accounts for 50 percent of global carbon emissions, he said the big corporations showed no intention of helping reach the Paris Agreement targets to limit global warming to 2°C, let alone 1.5°C. ‘Oil is a hugely profitable business for which the major imperialist states and their allies are prepared to go to war’, Mr Foster pointed out.

The latest IPCC report insists that failure to impose the 1.5°C limit by 2050 will greatly increase the economic damage, famine, disease and refugee crises caused by rising sea levels, droughts and storms. The thousand-plus scientists who composed or reviewed the report are calling for extraordinary transformations in industry, transportation, energy, land use and construction and the widespread application of carbon capture technology.

‘Such an urgent, radical transformation is not possible without large-scale public ownership, investment and planning – which means a revolutionary advance to socialism’, Mr Foster argued.

In particular, he insisted that neoliberal policies – including those enshrined in European Union treaties and directives – precluded the action necessary to combat climate change effectively.

The CP international secretary also set the challenge of global warming in a wider context of growing international economic and military conflict and the threat of a new economic and financial crisis.

‘In Britain, we can best meet these challenges by stepping up local and national campaigning against austerity, racism, xenophobia and war. This will help create the conditions in which to elect a left-led Labour government free from the pro-big business shackles of the EU Single Market and Customs Union’, he proposed.

The CP political committee condemned the imprisonment of three anti-fracking protestors at Preston Crown Court last week as a ‘brutal example of how the state reacts when people dare to defend local communities and the environment against the exploiters and polluters’.

Britain’s Communists also urged a big turn-out for the People’s Assembly’s national demonstration in London on November 17 against fascism and racism.

Political Committee, October 11 2018 46 | the Communists speak

CP warns against ‘growing threats’ to peace and security Communist Party international secretary John Foster warned of the growing threat to world peace, the international economy and the environment at the weekend.

Speaking to the party’s executive committee, he cited US President Trump’s increasingly aggressive attitude towards China and Russia, in keeping with what the US National Security Strategy calls a new era of ‘great power competition’.

‘The history of the 20th century shows how the struggle for imperialist domination leads to war’, Mr Foster pointed out. He was speaking as Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, which bans both powers from producing, possessing and testing cruise missiles.

The CP international secretary also argued that the Western imperialist powers had not given up their attempts to partition Syria, while US sanctions against Iran’s oil exports would further destabilise the Middle East.

‘Alongside these threats to peace and stability, Saudi Arabia’s British-backed genocidal war against Yemen continues as does the open sore of Israel’s brutal oppression of the Palestinian people’, he declared.

Britain’s Communists demanded that Britain’s Tory government halt all arms sales to the ‘criminal and corrupt’ Saudi regime and reaffirmed support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israeli state policy.

Referring to recent IMF reports, Mr Foster claimed that international capitalism faces a ‘gathering crisis’. Economic growth is slowing, the pools of speculative capital are expanding while leveraged loans by secondary banks have surpassed pre-2008 levels.

‘The world is heading towards recession and trade wars between the USA, the EU, the Middle East and China just when the UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change is calling for urgent and coordinated transformational policies to avert global warming catastrophe’, he insisted.

At the CP executive meeting, general secretary Robert Griffiths reported a continuing rise in party recruitment and membership, which is now more than 7% higher than in 2017.

‘A much stronger Communist Party is needed to help secure a “People’s Brexit” and a left-led Labour government that is free to carry out radical policies of public investment, renationalisation, wealth redistribution, sustainable growth and peaceful cooperation with the rest of the world’, he stated.

Executive Committee, October 22 2018 An ‘austerity today, jam tomorrow’ Budget It’s a ‘jam tomorrow’ budget from Chancellor Philip Hammond and is unlikely to fool millions of people who are struggling to get by. They see and experience local services continuing to deteriorate, whether it’s longer waiting times in the NHS, cancelled operations, the closure of facilities for the elderly and young people, school requests for parental donations, the extinguishing of street lights at night or the disappearance of community police officers.

It appears as though the main purpose of the budget was to press-gang MPs and the public into supporting the Tory government’s hoped-for bogus Brexit deal. Hence Communist Party | 47

Hammond’s warning over the weekend that a ‘no deal’ Brexit would mean an emergency replacement budget that would maintain if not intensify austerity.

It’s an old and impotent trick – his predecessor George Osborne threatened just such an emergency budget should the people vote ‘Leave’ in May 2016, although nothing transpired except Osborne’s emergency exit from 11 Downing Street.

Today’s Chancellor is every bit as pro-EU as yesterday's. Together with today’s proEU Prime Minister, Hammond is under orders from big business to keep Britain tied to EU Single Market rules, while pretending to implement the letter and the spirit of the 2016 referendum result.

Their Chequers-based bogus Brexit proposal would maintain the Single Market regime over much of British industry, severely limiting the policies of a left-led Labour government in matters of state aid, public ownership, regional development, the direction of investment and the like.

Bribed by British maintenance payments of £37bn of public money, the EU Commission will probably reach a settlement with the Tory government extending EU membership in all but name, keeping economic control of Northern Ireland and throwing French bankers a morsel of trade from the City of London.

If enough anti-democratic, pro-EU Labour MPs vote to support such a deal – reports in the Financial Times put the number at around 30 so far – then the Theresa May and her government may survive a while longer. The irony, of course, is that these Labour rebels would be voting against Keir Starmer’s ‘six-point test’ that, with their enthusiastic support, was designed to block a real Brexit, rather than frustrate the bogus Brexit on offer from a largely pro-EU Tory Cabinet.

Should there be no deal with the EU, on the other hand, or if one is rejected by the Commons, then May will have to resign and a General Election will almost certainly follow soon afterwards.

That’s when Hammond or his successor will be desperate enough to promise ‘jam today’ as well as ‘jam tomorrow’.

For sure, there was precious little of either in his modest little basket yesterday.

Although Tory Chancellors and Prime Ministers are ready to steal Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell’s clothes – whether on ending austerity, forsaking new PFI schemes or introducing a ‘living wage’ – they have ignored the Shadow Chancellor’s appeal to reform and halt the roll-out of Universal Credit. Hammond’s puny tinkering with future work allowance reforms and a £1bn rescue fund over five years will not end the cuts that are plunging a million more children into poverty.

The extra £20.5bn promised for the NHS over the next five years will merely restore annual real increases of around 4 per cent. This is where they used to be until 2010, after which they were slashed to around 0.9 per cent.

The damage done by nine years of austerity will not be repaired. Even the 4 per cent increases do not keep pace with rising demand, nor even with the annual 5 per cent increase in NHS spending on medicines.

The Institute for Public Policy Research estimates that by 2030 the NHS will need ten times more per year than Hammond’s measly extra rations. Social care will need an additional £10bn a year just to maintain current levels of service. So ‘spread-sheet Phil’ is handing local councils less than one-tenth (£779m) of that annual sum as a sign of his sincere concern for those in greatest need.

48 | the Communists speak

But the recipients can sleep more soundly in their beds knowing that a bigger sum (£1bn) will be spent on nuclear submarine patrols.

The extra inflationary subsidies to house buyers will do nothing to solve a manysided crisis. With more than a million families homeless, the number of government funded ‘affordable’ and social sector homes being built has fallen since 2010 to 28,000 (from 56,000) and 1,200 (from 36,000), respectively. Rent subsidies paid to private landlords are twice the amount of government spending on new social housebuilding.

For millions of ‘Generation Rent’ young people, the prospect of home ownership does not exist. The government has pledged to ensure that 300,000 new houses are built every year, but the numbers have yet to rise to even half of that.

History since 1946 indicates that such a target will never be achieved without a major local authority council housing programme – and Hammond’s £500m addition to the Housing Infrastructure Fund will make very little difference to most councils.

The Chancellor’s parsimony when it comes to meeting a basic human need contrasts with his relative generosity when it comes to road transport. Although absent from yesterday’s speech, he reportedly intends to spend an extra £28bn on improvements to England’s motorways (84 per cent of Britain’s total mileage) – but only £420m to local councils to fill in the potholes now pitting many local roads.

These priorities might suit the road freight lobby, but not most motorists and cyclists.

They certainly don't suit our society’s eco-system, which urgently requires measures to transfer freight to the railways (especially when almost two-thirds of lorries are partly loaded or empty).

Far from heralding an end to austerity, this Autumn Budget retains many of the cuts planned for the next three or four years, especially in local government services. Yet Britain remains one of the wealthiest societies in the world, with one of the lowest rates of tax on corporate profits and a super-rich minority who stash their tax-free dosh in tax havens mostly under British jurisdiction.

Chancellor Hammond’s speech made an eloquent case for the urgent election of a left-led Labour government, free from EU rules to pursue policies for the many not the few.

General Secretary, October 29 2018 Communists attack ‘bogus Budget’ Chancellor ‘Chancellor Hammond presented a bogus budget for a bogus Brexit and a bogus end to austerity’, Robert Griffiths told the Communist Party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (October 31).

‘His budget sought to browbeat and bribe Eurosceptic Tory and pro-EU Labour MPs into supporting the Cabinet’s proposed bogus Brexit deal – or else he would bring in an emergency austerity budget. At the same time, he was indicating to the public that if the Commons votes down any such deal, the Tories would fight an early General Election as a cuddly pro-NHS, anti-austerity party – possibly under his leadership’, Mr Griffiths explained.

‘The key thing to understand about the Chancellor is that he is the chief representative in the Cabinet of the City and big business. His main mission is to keep Britain tied to the pro-market, pro-austerity and anti-socialist rules of the EU Single Market and Customs Union’, the Communist Party general secretary insisted.

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Monday’s budget did not signal an end to austerity. ‘ Apart from a small rise next year, public spending as a proportion of Britain’s GDP is set to continue falling to 37.9 per cent by 2024 – down from 38.5 per cent this year – according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, with no compensation to cover the cuts of the past eight years’, Mr Griffiths pointed out.

Britain’s Communists welcomed plans to launch a ‘People’s Brexit’ campaign of meetings across Britain, beginning with a rally in London on November 22 with economists Grace Blakely and former Greek MP Costas Lapivitsas, RMT general secretary Mick Cash, Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott, trade union officer Paula Barker, John Rees of Counterfire, Robert Griffiths and chair Mary Davis.

The CP Political Committee also pledged support for the People’s Assembly’s new ‘Britain is broken – we can't afford the Tories’ initiative, calling for the reinvigoration of local campaign groups and stronger links with Labour Party socialists and the trade union movement.

International secretary John Foster announced that delegates from the communist and workers’ parties of Ireland, South Africa and Cyprus would be attending the CP of Britain’s 55th congress on November 17-18, along with a number of guests from embassies and domiciled parties here.

He condemned the recent violent attacks on communists in the Ukraine and India and said that solidarity messages were being sent to the Communist Party of Brazil and the Workers Party now under threat after the election of extreme right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.

Political Committee, November 1 2018

50 | the Communists speak

Communist Party | 51

Unity! is the Communist Party’s mass distribution newspaper issued free in print, digital and online versions.

Special editions are produced for big labour movement events, peace, solidarity and People’s Assembly Against Austerity demonstrations .

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The Impact of the Russian Revolution on Britain was first published for the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Robin Page Arnot was a foundation member of the CPGB His book is the most authoritative account of the impact of the Russian Revolution on Britain. £10 €11

Granite and Honey, by Kevin Marsh and Robert Griffiths, is the story of Phil Piratin, East End Communist MP, tenants’ leader and organiser of the anti-fascist movement and outstanding workers’ advocate in parliament 256pp illustrated £14.95

the EU deconstructed With an introduction by John Foster five critical voices from within the EU, from Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, Cyprus and Germany describe the austerity effect of membership of the EU. £2 printed Download free at www.manifestopress.org.uk

The Empire and Ukraine

by Andrew Murray sets the Ukraine crisis in its global and local context, and draws the lessons needed for the anti-war movement as great power conflict returns to Europe and threatens a new cold war or worse. £11.95 (+£1.50 p&p),

State Monopoly Capitalism

by Gretchen Binus, Beate Landefeld and Andreas Wehr, with an introduction by Jonathan White reviews the theory of state monopoly capitalism in the light of recent developments in capitalist society. £4.95 €5

Marx’s Das Kapital and capitalism today 2nd edition

by Robert Griffiths Britain’s communist leader reviews contemporary capitalism in the light of Das Kapital and charts the way to working class political power Illustrated £10

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