Saturday, July 28, 2018

What are our policies?

The 'New Communist Party' (NCP) -- officially the 'New Communist Party of Britain' (NCPB) -- was founded in July 1977 by former members of the 'Commmunist Party of Great Britain' who had come to regard that party as 'revisionist'. The report of the party's 1997 Congress speaks of "the old revisionist Communist Party of Great Britain which we parted company with in 1977". (New Communist Party: Documents of the 11th National Congress; London; 1997; p.26).
 

Thus, the 'New Communist Party' was formed as an anti-revisionist move.
The party's 1997 Congress report speaks of ". . . the revisionist 'British Road to Socialism" which we rejected in 1977. (New Communist Party: Documents of the 11th National Congress; London; 1997; p.26).
 

Since the 1980s, the party has regarded the basis of modern revisionism as having been laid down at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956: "The basis of post-war revisionism was laid down at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)". < (New Communist Party: Documents of the 11th National Congress; London; 1997; p.26).
 

The attack upon Stalin made by Khrushchev at this congress was basically false anti-communist propaganda: "The vicious personal attack on Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev . . . opened the door to Trotskyite ideas which, until then, were confined to small groups drawn from the middle strata. . . . In the international communist movement. . . . it reinforced the tendency towards accepting the social-democratic strategies and attitudes".< (New Communist Party: Documents of the 11th National Congress; London; 1997; p.26).
 

The party holds that after Stalin's death, ". . . revisionist and corrupt elements who had wormed their way into the leadership began by attacking Stalin's record and then moved to attack what had been built during his leadership. They paved the way for hidden traitors to rise to top and lead 'the counter-revolution which destroyed the Soviet Union in 1990". (Andy Brooks: 'Stalin', in: 'New Worker',No. 1,130 (22 December 2000; p. 7). 
 
The party rejects as revisionist deception the concept of a parliamentary road to socialism, as put forward in the CPGB's 'British Road to Socialism': "Unlike the revisionists and ultra-leftists, we spurn the 'parliamentary road' and electoral politics. . . . Working people have never achieved state power through elections. Social-democracy has never led to socialism and revisionism has only led to the destruction of communist parties, counter-revolution and the destruction of socialist states". (New Communist Party: Documents of the 12th National Congress; London; 1997; p.26).
 
The NCP takes its stand on the necessity for the working class to smash the machinery of the capitalist state and establish the political power of the working class, the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. It upholds ". . . the necessity for the working class to smash the capitalist state machine and take power itself, in order to exercise. what he (Lenin-- Ed.) called the dictatorship of the proletariat".
(Eric Trevett: Opening Speech at 12th National Congress of the NCPB, in: 'Documents of the 12th National Congress of the NCPB; p. 9). 

In the field of foreign affairs, the party regards China, Cuba, DPR Korea, Laos and Vietnam as socialist states: "People's China, Democratic Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba continue to advance along the revolutionary path charted by their communist parties, which are applying the principles of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions that exist in their countries." (New Communist Party: Documents of the 12th National Congress; London; 1997; p.15,16).
 
The party regards Scotland and Wales as nations entitled to self-determination: "The New Communist Party . . . has long recognised the rights of the Scottish and Welsh nations to full national self-determination." (New Communist Party: Documents of the 12th National Congress; London; 1997; p.34). 

 The NCP opposes Britain's membership of the European Union: "The New Communist Party has always opposed the European Union. The New Communist Party's opposition is founded on the principle that it is a strategy designed to further strengthen monopoly capitalism in Europe on a supra-national basis". (New Communist Party: Documents of the 11th National Congress; London; 1997; p. 10).
 
The party stands for the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and supports the ". . . struggle for Irish national independence and self-determination. The NCP demands a united sovereign Ireland free from all outside interference. . . . The NCP acknowledges the role of Sinn Fein as the vanguard force in the struggle for national liberation". (New Communist Party: Documents of the 12th National Congress; London; 1997; p.32, p.34).
 
The Party opposed all imperialist aggression against Argentina, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria. It fully supports the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
 
The NCP favours co-operation between parties and organisations which regard themselves as 'Marxist-Leninist' on issues on which they are in agreement: "We have always recognised that there is the possibility of co-operation on certain issues, such as peace, anti-racism or the wages struggle with these parties and others which have sprung from the British communist movement. There is certainly the need to exchange views with all of them on a regular basis. . . . Our own proposals for a communist round table are . . . for a communist liaison committee which would allow for the regular exchanges of information and views between the various communist parties in Britain at a leadership level. It would be a non-voting, non-executive body". (New Communist Party: Documents of the 12th National Congress; London; 1997; p.35).
 
The NCP advises working people to boycott European elections, but, in general, to vote Labour in national and local elections: "We are advocating a boycott of European Elections. We should continue to vote Labour everywhere in general and local elections. . . . In certain circumstances we should consider voting for unofficial candidates".
(Eric Trevett: Opening Speech at 12th National Congress, in: Documents of the 12th National Congress; p. 28). 

The NCP opposes proportional representation:: "Proportional representation . . . is the chosen method of the European ruling class for disarming and splitting working class parties into small factions while encouraging opportunism and patronage at every level. . . . Its elevation now is designed to further weaken the Labour Party and create the conditions for continuous right-wing led coalitions of smaller parties. . . . Working people have nothing to gain from proportional representation Its introduction will lead to greater Liberal Democrat representation at the expense of the Labour Party, while reinforcing the idea amongst the masses of a 'democratic' parliament. It encourages the false hope amongst the revisionists and Trotskyites of the creation of a parliamentary 'left' alternative to Labour. It will certainly increase the likelihood of the entry into Parliament of racist and fascist parties effectively excluded by the current system". (New Communist Party: Documents of the 12th National Congress; London; 1997; p.31).
 
The New Communist Party does not stand candidates in elections and calls on its supporters to vote Labour (New Communist Party: Documents of the 15th National Congress; London; 2006.)

The Party is an affiliate of the Labour Representation Committee.
 
The New Communist Party publishes the NEW WORKER weekly. Despite political differences with the Morning Star, the party regards this daily newspaper as a broad daily newspaper of the left, which should be read and supported in spite of its revisionist political line.
The General Secretary of the NCP is Andy Brooks.

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